Knee injury 

I started the year of 2018 healthy and with no aches and pains, apart from old age!

At the end of January I thought I had a pulled muscle in my left knee. I discovered later, when I finally went to my GP, that it was more complicated than that. I knew I had pushed off from the side too hard when turning from swimming laps but didn’t realise how badly I had injured myself.

When I finally went to see my GP on May 3rd 2018 my knee had started to hurt more seriously and wearing a knee brace had not helped. I was referred to a physiotherapist and did think initially that it was helping my knee pain.

My GP sent me for several tests, X-ray and ultrasound initially and then followed by an MRI. The major concern was an ACL tear which fortunately was not the case. The X-ray and ultrasound were done at the same clinic on the same day. During the ultrasound the technician told me that there was no ACL tear or meniscus tear and that it all looked fine. Well, apart from the fact it was not her place to tell me any diagnosis she was actually wrong!

Results

It turned out that my left knee had arthritis (hardly a surprise there), a bakers cyst at the back of the knee, which is a common issue, and a meniscus tear. My GP referred me to an orthopaedic surgeon and advised to keep up the weekly physio. There were weeks where I felt the physio was helping and weeks I felt it was a waste of time.  I did the exercises at home to help strengthen the muscles around the knee to help ease the pain and I feel it did help.

Surgeon visit

My visit to the surgeon was a very positive one and he was satisfied that the knee was stable and although he could feel the meniscus “pop” he did not feel it needed surgery. I was advised by the physio to not use a knee brace because it would weaken the muscles the exercises were designed to strengthen. I used KT tape to tape my knee for extra support as I am on my feet all day at work.