hyperextending knee

mjcongleton

Today I hyperextended my knee while inline skating.

My question is, when I visit my doctors, in what direction do I need to make them go? I want to do some activities that are at least semi-extreme with the rest of my life.

My history:

1993 (age 19) fell on my bike, hit knee on corner of curb. Tore ACL (not diagnosed until 2004) Saw doctor, was given pain meds and waited for it to "heal"

1995 (age 21) jumped down stairs and landed with a hyperextended knee. Immense pain. Saw doctor. He determined there was no torn cartilage. ACL tear still undiagnosed. Took over 1 year to completely heal from this.

1996-1998 (age 22-24) was a semi extreme inline skater never hyperextended my knee, but could have been due to the knee pads I used, which held my knee at about a 20 degree angle. (the pads were soft so it would be possible to hyperextend, just harder).

1997 or 1998, hyperextended my knee playing football. Saw physical therapist. Did excersized to "realign" my knee cap.

2004 (age 30) Tore my meniscus (in my knee) when I spun around on the ball of my foot.

2004 Surgery to fix my meniscus (via trim cut area and live with what is left) During surgery it was revealed that I had a torn ACL. Doctor chose not to fix it at that time. Discussed afterwards and determined if the torn ACL wasn't giving my a problem, then no need to fix (this is, from what I understand, standard protocol).

2004 to 2014 Every once in a while my knee will "snap" back, causing pain. This is probably do to a momentary hyperextention.

1/5/14 (Today, Age 40) Practicing a hockey type stop in my inline skates on an indoor wooden floor (no knee pads) Knee (probably) snapped back while all my weight was on it (207 pounds). Fell to ground. Got up after about 1.5 -2 minutes, still hurts, will see doctor ASAP.


SO..... I'm hoping somebody who is/was in a similar situation can tell me what they experienced, what they did about it, and if they feel their decision was a good one.

As of now I see 2 options: 1. Have my ACL repaired and go through rehabilitation, or 2. get a brace to wear which will not allow me to hyperextened my knee.

Your experienced will be helpful to me, THANKS.

Kyle47BC

Hi, I've put my knees through a lot; dislocation many sprains, suspected tear. I got to the point where I couldn't walk down stairs and if I ran even 15 feet I wouldn't be able to walk for the rest of the day, I had to quit snowboarding temporarily. I used a blood flow stimulator to speed up the healing process. My knee is soo much better now! I can play sports again, go for fairly long runs. I'm told that the knee doesn't receive very much blood flow and healing can be really slow, I guess I would have got there eventually without the stimulator but its hard to avoid re-aggravating the problem when it takes so long to heal.

Hope you figure it out!