? about torn PCL injury

I hurt my knee pretty bad training recently--tore the PCL in half. My doctor said there really wasn't much to be done about it. I read on the internet there is controversy among doctors over whether surgical repair should be attempted on such an injury. I also have smaller tears in my medial meniscus and MCL.

Doc said he could operate but recommended just taking it easy for 6 weeks. Has anyone had a similar injury and continued to train with no PCL? Is there a significant risk of other knee injuries if I go back to training in 6 weeks with the PCL still unattached? Thanks in advance.

 My friend i also tore my PCL.  I freaked out because i never had a bad knee injury and had heard lots of horror stories.  It took a little time to heal. about 6 weeks.  I train 6 times per week so it killed me to stay off the mat.  I still taught class as soon as I could get my immobilizer thingy off. (about 3 weeks in) 



I was able to start working out and train about 6 weeks after i tore it.  The good news is that it has been good as new ever since!!!!!



Hopefully you have a similar story...let me know if you need any more info.


thanks I would love to hear more

from what I undertsand (and I could be wrong) but I have a COMPLETE PCL tear (rupture) that will not repair itself

I'll never quit training but I am worried about the risk of re-injury if I go back to training with the PCL not intact

I tore both of my PCL's. 2 years between each injury. They healed on their own in about 2 months with rehab. The hard part is getting the confidence to do hard work on it again. The knees will have a little give and might pop and make noise some time but they are just as stable, if not more stable than before the injury. From what I was told its almost impossible to tare the PCL again.

The medial meniscus might need to be scoped depending on how bad it is.

I also partially tore my LCL with one of the PCL injuries, it also healed with scare tissue. Sometimes MCL and LCL do need to be fixed. Again, depends on how bad it is tore.

The worst part about both of the tares was sleeping at night. I woke up many times screaming because I kicked or flinched in my sleep.

Fitch

You didnt have full tears in your pcls did you fitch?
I fully tore my acl, mcl and pcl and ended up having cadavar replacement on my acl and pcl. ACL surgery was a breeze but pcl replacement was the worst experience of my life.

yeah, complete tares in both. if you tore all those at once i can see why you had to have surgery. My left knee was a LCL partial tare, PCL complete tare and a partial tare of the my popatilis(sp?) tendon. My right knee was just a PCL complete tare. The right knee healed much quicker and was less painfull.

I had a full tear of my PCL, 2 Surgeons said the same thing, due to the location of the injury and the acl/lcl were both fine there was nothing to be gained by doing the surgery.

If something else goes it can be fixed then but no benefits to surgery otherwise.

Rehab and time off and everything came back good.

5 years on and I'm rolling as much as I can, I even took 2 years off to be a snowboard guide, everyday, all day, your knees take a pounding, I never had an issue.

I must say I had the same problems as Fitch though, sleeping was a bitch!

Dan

ps I'm in Australia with great Health Insurance and access to great doctors, both surgeons that looked at me work almost exclusively with Pro Athelete so they know what they are talking about. Plus they both talked me out of giving them money, fianicially it wasn't in their interest not to do the surgery, you can make up your own mind about that.

I tore mine about 7 weeks ago. I went to a specialist and am still waiting for a MIR scan to see really how bad it is.
The reconstruction may have to be done however he doesn't recommend it at this time.
The only exercise he recommends at this point is stretching of legs with sports therapist. He else said to use an eclectic muscle stimulator so that it would minimize strength loss.
No grappling at all, not even teaching and no no no cycling.
Best way is rest and watch your diet or youll be a fatty soon.<br /><br />I only hope it will heal at some point. Im a little worried.

Thanks so much guys you've been very informative. Tooler your story was the most encouraging so thanks.

As to how it happened it I was going for a single leg takedown and the guy kind of tried spin out to the side and take my back (standing). I guess it put too much weight on the leg on that side and it crumpled and was bent at a horrible angle. I'm not sure if it went in or out it happened so fast but I heard (and felt) multiple pops. One of the guys watching joked that he had to look away it looked so bad.

Kind of a freak thing I guess. Everything I've read said PCL injuries are much more rare than ACL/MCL.

Sucks because I was training my ass off for NAGA NE and I knew that was over on my way down.

I actually have good insurance and was very surprised (pleasantly) that the doc did not recommend surgery.

Anyway, again thanks for the responses guys.

jlmirage: wow I can't believe after 7 weeks you still can't do anything but stretch that sucks!

I got the impression from my doc I'd be back to normal activities after 6 weeks so I'm hoping for that. He said something like "we'll get you back to competition". I go back for my follow-up August 6.

Right now I'm walking on it much better but there have been many times just turning my leg the wrong way shoots a bolt of agony up my leg and I realize I have a long way to go.

Not being able to grapple or even jog or anything is driving me a little crazy (and depressing the hell out of me).

Hope you get better soon!

ttt

ttt if anyone has any more info