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Well, here’s something that has put a snag in my efforts to lose weight and get in healthier shape. I dislocated my left knee yesterday.
I had taken my kids to the playground behind my parents’ church. For the first time in months, I had tons of energy because I’d worked out in the morning and was drinking lots of water. But when I put my 3-year-old on this tricycle merry-go-round thing, the handlebar jabbed my left kneecap, knocking it to the side.
It shocked me how much it hurt, and I crumpled to the ground. My older daughter ran to get my purse that had my cell phone in it. Within a few minutes, my mom, dad, and brother were there — and my husband was on his way.
They realized the pain was too intense for them to carry me up the hill to get to the hospital, so they called an ambulance. So, I was lying on this playground for about 30 minutes, about to pass out from the pain and 90+ degree heat. When the EMTs arrived, they had to give me morphine in order to get me moved on to the stretcher. I finally resorted to using breathing techniques I’d used during labor, but I told them this knee injury hurt worse than anything I’ve ever been through.
OK — so this was my first experience riding in an ambulance. It’s certainly not something that was on my agenda for the day. The EMTs kept ice on my knee and kept it as still as possible while they transported me. It was extremely painful again when they moved me from the stretcher to the hospital bed. In fact, one of the hospital staff whispered in my ear, “M’am, this is going to hurt like hell, but it will be quick.” That seemed to help!
Well, I’m home now, with a knee brace and crutches. The x-rays came out good, showing that I wouldn’t need surgery, and a doctor manually rotated my knee cap back into place. Next week, I’ll go to an orthopedic surgeon and probably start some physical therapy.
I feel so discouraged right now, mad at myself, even though this was an accident and couldn’t have been prevented. I’m trying to think positive — and wonder if my experience might be able to help someone else. Even though I won’t be able to exercise like I have been for several weeks, there are still things I CAN do for my health. I can continue to drink my water, eat small, healthy portions of food, and do upper body exercises that still allow me to keep my knee immobilized while it heals.
Of course, I’ve been reading a lot about patellar dislocation. Here are few sites I’ve found helpful:
Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia: Knee Cap Dislocation
Penn Health Knee Cap Dislocation
Self Magazine Knee Forum (includes strengthening exercises)
I’ve got to keep myself upbeat, think lively, and see this as part of my journey of healthy living!
Hi All,
My story is also very similar. Even i dislocated my left knee about an year ago n this happened a few months before my marriage. I was over enthusiastic and joined yoga n gym classes in office in those times. After some months, one day i was doing extra yoga exercises in gym n without instructor, that’s wen i suddenly realised i cudn’t stand anymore. I fell down on the gym and asked an onlooker to call the gym instructor. he came and rubbed my knee n put some spray but it didn’t help. It was very painful but still i managed to somehow get up, change my gym clothes n walk up to the bus stop to catch my office bus home. It was extremely painful but there didnt seem any option and i thought this would get better soon.
I reached home late at night and the knee got swollen over night. Then, next morning i went to the hospital again in pain where the doctor checked it , took X- ray n then told me that it was a knee dislocation and put me in fracture and bed rest for 2 months.
It took long to heal completely n as i had to get back to work, i didn’t completely do the physiotherapy sessions afterwards.
Now, i feel the pain sometimes upon climbing staircases and wearing high heels.
But i also want to get back to my exercise routine again as i have gained weight which i want to lose. i m not sure if i can resume exercise or not again as before as all this while, i had a baby in between too. But i really want to get back in shape :)
Thanks for reading my story and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks.
My 16 year old daughter has had both of her knees dislocate since 2009. Just last sunday it happened again but it went back in before we got to the hospital. She was in sports at school and her ligaments wore down to where she dosen’t have anything keeping her knee in place. She will see an orthopedic next week but for now she’s in an imobilizer on one knee and her brace on the other knee. Poor thing Jennifer can just sit down and that knee cap goes to the left side, it has happened 3 times now and when it happens she just screams and cries so bad that her hands will cramp up and her face gets real red. I hope you get better and my daughter to. Good luck to you and anyone else who has had this horrible experience.
I dislocated my left knee on December 17, 2008 ( yes i still remember from the horrible pain that still haunts me ) during a basketball practice. I’ll admit that I alwayz played straight up and never bent my knees to get in an athletic position so when i caught a pass, I pivoted on my left foot really hard ( I used to try too hard at basketball, but now I’m better )and I felt my knee go out of place. It totally knocked the breath outta me for a good minute. Afterwards it started to swell really bad and my leg was placed in an immobolizer brace for 3 weeks. It sucked cuz I couldn’t play ball for a while, but my injury wasn’t too critical. I returned to my sport 4 months later and am doing better than ever. Word of advice, be SUPER careful when playing sports like Volleyball, Football & especially basketball because injuries are a possibility for ANYONE. Strengthen your legs and core muscles and get your body in good condition to take on the intensity basketball brings. And also make sure that ur legs are bent when pivoting. You will take alot of pressure off ur ligaments and tissues in ur knee. Other than that, take precautions before playing sports
i dislocated my knee not to long ago (actually i dislocated my knee 12 times). i had patella realignment surgery to fix it. the recovery was a long process but it was worth it. i am bad to doing all my normal activities. after the surgery it took about 4 months to recover but time went fast . i did have to spends 6 weeks on cruches and that was probably the worst part. i am realy glad i did it.
I can empathise with all – It’s happened to me too! Sucks doesn’t it!
My purpose today is to pass on some advice which my doctor and my specialist both said helped somewhat:
If your knee dislocates (to the side – not behind the knee!), put it back in straight away as swelling is quick and can cause more damage and makes it far more painful to put in. When mine happened I was in the middle of nowhere and had no phone reception and no choice but to bang it back in….. yeeouch!
All the best,
Angus
I dislocated my right knee cap yesterday. I don’t even know how it happened I was just standing and the knee cap popped to the side. The pain was excrutiating and it was worse if I moved it so when my mum and dad(I’m only 14) tried to move me to take me to hospital I couldn’t because of the pain so they called an ambulance and when the people got to my house they gave me laughing gas to relax my muscles and help the pain. That helped and so they moved me on to a stretcher and took me to hospital. I then had to wait for the nurse to see me and then ages until the doctor saw me and when he finally did he didn’t even know which exact bone had dislocated so he wanted to x-ray it before he could put it back. The x-ray was horrible, absolute agony when they had to move the knee to get a picture of it. Then later after waiting for the x-ray results and the doctor again he finally came and said he was getting a bone doctor to come and see if he could put my patella back,(This whole time my knee was still dislocated.) Then he said he could either just try and put my knee back or he could aneithitise me. I was already on a lot of pain killers, morphine and gas but it didn’t seem to be helping th pain and he said that if e aneithitised me I’d be in the hospital over night but I wouldn’t feel it when he put it back or I could just let him do it without the drugs and it would be excrutiating but then I could go home. So because I’d already been through so much and really wanted to go home I gritted my teeth and let him put it back without the medicine. Apparantly you could hear my screams all the way down the corridor. And because my knee had been dislocated for about 6 hours altogether it meant that putting it back was that much more painful. I’m so scared its going to happen again..
I dislocated my knee back on March 9. It was a freak accident, all I was doing was finishing my lunch break at work, and was walking to the elevator when all of a sudden, my left leg slipped, slid in front of me, and I fell on top of it into the elevator. I tried to get up, but found I could not, and reached down to touch my leg, and my knee was at a 45 degree angle, twisted inward, toward my other leg. Of course, I was very scared and in a great deal of pain. There was an eye witness who called an ambulance, while I called both my father and my fiance to let them know what had happened. I was taken to the hospital, but given no pain medicine because of the possibility of allergies. I waited on a stretcher for approximately an hour in the ER before anyone came to take x-rays. I had no pain medicine for the x-rays, I’ll never forget the amount of pain I was in during that. I was actually told, when I asked for pain medicine, that they couldn’t wait to do that because there were other patients. Finally, when they tried lifting my unreduced leg to x-ray it, and I screamed, did they consent with the pain medicine. Later, I was anesthetized, and my leg was reduced. Every ligament and tendon was torn, and my peroneal nerve had snapped. Fortunately, I had no problem with blood flow. It was determined that surgery was necessary, however, I developed a UTI and bronchitis, so surgery took place nearly a week after the injury, while I was in the hospital this whole time. Surgery took place the following Saturday, and lasted for around 5-6 hours, and included allografts. I was on Lortab and Dilotted all day on Sunday, and by Tuesday, the hospital had released me. It is now April 8, nearly a month since the accident, I’ve got six large scars on my knee, and am in physical therapy. Because of the peroneal nerve, I cannot move my foot up or to the outside, but do have feeling in it. The doctor has been talking about a possible nerve graft, but from what I’ve read, there is poor prognosis for that. I have been trying to bend the knee more and more often, am using a CPM machine, and try to flex it while at PT, although I find that particularly painful. I find myself frustrated often at the inabilities I have encountered.
Hi Kevin.
Men may comment here too. No worries! :)
Another thing is this. If you are between the ages of 14 and 22, and your knees have dislocated repeatedly, get to an orthapedic surgeon who specializes in knees to determine if you have a chronic problem and need to have your knee(s) realigned. The problem is hereditary, so ask your family if anyone in the family has had it. I had my right knee done when I was 14, and my only regret is that the left knee was not done as well. If you have a chronic problem caused by the structure of your bones, nothing else will really work and you will always be at risk for problems. A brace will not help a knee that goes out because the leg is out of line. Some doctors prescribe them, but in my case, because the bones were off kilter, it was a complete waste of time.
Realignment is major surgery but if you are young it is very, very effective in preventing future problems and you will save yourself a lifetime of pain, fear and physical therapy.
Robin.
Hi Everyone!
I’m not a woman, so please excuse me for being on a women’s website, but I feel like I might be able to offer some insight into an area of which I’ve become very familiar with unfortunately, multiple dislocations on both knees. It started, like many of you, in my teen years. I had my first dislocation at 14. Since then, I’ve had about 5 dislocations on EACH KNEE. That’s about 10 total dislocations. Each one was pretty painful as some of you already know.
After my last dislocation of my left knee sometime in 2000, it didn’t get better after physical therapy like all the other times as I was walking around constantly with a limp. Luckily, I found a great orthopedic surgeon and that specialized in arthroscopic knee surgery. He performed what they call a patella realignment which basically consisted of a lateral release (cutting away tissue from the outside) and a medial reefing (shortening of the tissue from the inside) so that my kneecap would be back in the center of the groove. It was a relatively new arthroscopic procedure; before 2000, they had to do it the old-fashioned way, i.e., cutting the entire knee open.
The first couple of nights after surgery was basically hell. It hurt so much that I wanted to cut that leg off. After 6 months of hard physical therapy, I was back on my feet. I’ve had a few minor knee problems since then, but it hasn’t dislocated since. *KNOCK ON WOOD*
On my right knee, I was playing tennis when it suddenly, without dislocating, just didn’t feel right. It had been all the prior dislocations that caught up with me. I had an arthrosopic lateral release done in 2004 and it’s felt better since then after another stint with physical therapy. So after 10 dislocations and about $10,000 in medical bills, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do most of what I want to do these days.
If there’s any advice I can give anyone that’s suffered a dislocated patella, it’d be TAKE YOUR PHYSICAL THERAPY SERIOUSLY, which includes working out on your own. Today, and everyday for the rest of my life, I have to work hard to protect both my knees, which includes riding the the stationary bike, isometric exercises, resistance work, etc. I hit the gym 3 times a week and work out at home the days I don’t. If you want to lead a somewhat normal life and be active, you have to work to maintain your knees. Treat it like everything else you have to do everyday, like eating and sleeping. Make working out a routine.
If there’s anyone that needs any advice or anything, feel free to email me at scu_law@yahoo.com. I hope my experience has been helpful to someone.
I’m so glad I found this website!!!
Rosie, my story is so similar to yours! I freaked out when I read it.
My story…I was heading out of town for the weekend. It was about 5:30am and I was loading the car. I threw my coat on the passenger seat and my purse on the driver seat. Then I had the bright idea to put a couple of items from my backseat in the trunk since my little sisters were going to ride with me later. As I was crawling backwards out of the backseat I think my knee got caught between the seatbelt and seat. The seatbelt forced the right kneecap out and as I jumped up with shock I bumped it further out of place on the door frame of the car. I fell back on the ground. I couldn’t move. Cell phone was in my purse which was in the car. I screamed for help but of course it is 5:30 am and I was in the middle of my apt parking lot. A neighbor found me in about 20 minutes (he was taking a morning cigarette break). He called the paramedics. The paramedics couldn’t pop it back plus they couldn’t lift me without assistance. At this point I have been on the ground for at least 45 minutes…did I mention it was 20 degrees. Once in the ambulance they tried to get a vein so they could give me morphine. My body was so cold they couldn’t find a vein so they gave me “laughing gas”. When I got to the ER they did everything to warm me up so they could give me the morphine…after more than a hour with my kneecap out of place the doctor finally popped it back. I was so relieved!!! Some of the events are still hazy but I remember the nurses screaming I was so cold and kept asking me questions because they were afraid I might faint from the pain. Also one told me when I have kids it will be easy compared to this pain. I didn’t even care about the morphine I just wanted my knee popped back in place. Before the doc popped it I asked if there were any children nearby…he said “Why?” I told him I was going to curse like a sailor and didn’t want any children around…which I did drop a few bad words.
This was the 5th time my knee has done this but only the 2nd time in my life that it required a knee immobilizer and crutches. I’m on week 6 now…still in the immobilizer and only use the crutches for support on the ice and snow. I’m in PT but during the holidays and bad wintry weather I’ve only been once. I just do the exercises every day twice a day. My knee still feels tight when I bend it and I can only get it to about a 60 degree angle.
Good luck everyone!
Hi Rosie, and Hi Mia – as someone who is (hopefully) at the end stage of their recovery from a knee dislocation, I can definitely sympathise and understand everything you are going thru and everything you have been thru, as you’ll see in some of my posts from above.
It’s now been over three months since I dislocated my knee and I still am not able to do things that I would like to do, such as go for a long walk with my partner, shop till I drop without getting sore feet or sore hips from walking awkwardly or standing unusually, BUT it is a heck of a lot better than it was three months ago, or two months ago even, and I am surprised that I have even gotten over all those initial frightening feelings of panic, paranoia and the like, in terms of worrying if someone touches my knee, knocks my knee or pushes me over, or if I fall down the stairs – my advice (and I do have the been there tee shirt haha) is to take it as it comes, DON’T let anyone push you, anyone – in my opinion – who hasn’t experienced this type of injury isn’t qualified to tell you that you should be improving faster or slower (unless they are a physio, or OT or some professional) because that doesn’t help you, it only hinders your improvement because you’re constantly worried about how you should be going and what people are expecting of you. For instance, it has only been in this past week that I have learnt to go up stairs again, in the past few months I have been going up painfully slowly, one by one with both feet on each step and now I can proudly say that I can, slowly, go up stairs rather normally … I had people telling me that I should have been doing that a long time ago, but no one but me actually knew when and if I was capable, it was up to me to decide and I think that is most important. You have to decide when you are ready to take new steps and challenges and let go of your worries and fears about it happening again, because I’ve decided that if I live my life trying to make sure that this doesn’t happen EVER again, I’ll live some type of half-life, constantly on edge and constantly paranoid and even then, I can’t be guaranteed of a dislocation-free life!
So, take each day as it comes and well done on getting better, and especially Rosie on catching the bus to work and everything!
I hope everyone is well and that your injuries are improving at a positive rate : )
Cheers, Gemma
Hello Rosie. Welcome to Lively Women. I hope you hang around and check out the rest of the site too.
This IS a great thread on knee injuries. Thanks to everyone who keeps sharing their experiences!
Hi
I am so glad I have came across eveyone’s posts here about dislocated knees. Its very reassuring as I too have recently dislocated my knee, five weeks it has been and its the fourth time its happened. This time I took a nasty fall down stairs, dislocating the knee in the process. I tried to relocate it myself but it wouldnt budge and I couldnt move to get help so had no option but to lie on the ground until a neighbour found me about 40 mins later and phoned an ambulance! I too got gas and air and it took the ambulance crew a while before they managed to get it back into place so I could move downstairs with them to the ambulance. Its true the longer the kneecap is out of place, the lengthier the time for healing what with all the ligaments being stretched or torn. I had to wear a brace for first 3 weeks and use elbow crutches (not the easiest to get to grips with) then started physio with exercises to do at home every 2 hours every day with weekly appointments at physiotherapy, now I am wearing a tubigrip for extra support as my knee is still very unstable and I find is giving way when I am walking. Physio says I am going to be visiting her for quite some time. I had an x-ray which showed no breaks, but I have never been offered an MRI scan to assess ligament damage. It is also still very swollen and sore, all of this I cant remember being as bad when I done it before first few times. I also still need to use one of my crutches for walking outdoors, not that I can go too far as my muscles have wasted so much when they were immobilised in the splint, so the physio is helping to strengthen them again, just very slowly. My orthopaedic consultant said I could have an operation, but to try physio route first then if I am not happy then either go to my GP and be referred to his waiting list for an appt or for my physiotherapist to refer me. Dont want this operation unless I really have to so waiting to see how I go. I have been feeling like I am turning into a nervous wreck when out of the safety of my house, I am terrified of slipping or the possibility of anyone knocking into me causing me to fall as I reckon that would be all it takes for my knee to dislocate again. Doesnt help that the weather here has been icy lately, so I have been getting obsessed with weather reports, I dread the snow!! I dont think my family and friends expected me to get as down in the dumps as I have been over the last few weeks as I have either, its all the things you take for granted that you suddenly realise you need help to do, plus I feel everyone around me expected me to be fine in about a week or two like in the case of a simple sprain! I am in a panic about xmas shopping (impossible still as I cant carry anything heavy such as the shopping bags) and am missing out on a lot of parties just now too which is getting me down as the thought of being around tipsy drunken party goers frightens the life out me all in case they bump into me. At least I got work (never thought I would say that!) to keep me occupied during the day, they have been great in letting me go back after five weeks off and do part time hours to get back into the swing of things, its the travelling into work thats the worst as I have to walk a bit to get a bus, so they have been understanding with that.
Anyway I wish everyone good luck with their knee injuries, its great to read everyones experiences and know you are not alone in feeling how you do. Thanks x
Hi All,
A month ago I slipped and fell and dislocated my left knee, fractured my fibila and twisted my ankle. I spent eleven long days in the hospital and have been stuck in this metal brace since. I started physical therapy last week and I am so afraid, my knee hurts like heck when I try to bend it. I am scared, upset, depressed and angry and have looked at the positive to know that I am improving each day but the next day seems to be just as harder.
I am looking for some good advice from someone who has been there done that and have a tee-shirt :)
Hi everyone!
Thank you for all the advice, I really appreciate it. I just thought I’d give an update. Yesterday I saw an orthopedist and they took some x-rays of my knee. After that, he said I don’t need surgery and that my knee was ok enough to take off my immobilizer and lose the crutches :) However, he gave me a soft brace to wear on my knee under my clothes that allows me to bend it. It has this kind of circle “cut out” that fits around my knee cap.
He also told me i have something called “malalignment” in my knees, which may be the reason my knee dislocated again. Its the displacement of certain bones and ligaments, that can cause dislocations in the joints..which of course has made me extremely worried that my other knee might pop out!
Anyways..I’m starting physical therapy next week and I’m really nervous. My knee is really stiff and tight whenever i bend it past a certain point. And going up stairs is really difficult, but I’m sure it’ll get easier with time. I was told that I could take the brace off when I sleep..but I guess I’m a little paranoid that something might happen…. idk what though, lol. Does anyone know how long it took them to stop being paranoid?
I’m really sorry to hear about all you’ve been through with your knee, Gemma. I definitely know what you mean–about worrying about if something went wrong. Today in class I was sitting down, and my knee did a weird pop (kinda like when you crack your knuckles) and I got sooo freaked out. I’m don’t remember being this paranoid the first time I dislocated my knee, so I’m really hoping the paranoia goes away as my knee gets better.
Anyways, feel better. And thanks for listening :)
Naarah, Sorry to hear about your difficulties! I don’t have any advice other than getting the opinions of two doctors and plenty of rest. Make that appointment : )
Gemma, thanks for visiting. I’ve had a few different types of surgeries, but no knee surgery. Maybe someone else will be able to tell you how long it took them to get back to 100%. Everyone’s different though. For me, the doctor’s span of time given was usually right on, within a week or so.
Hi All, Hi Robin (again!) and Hi Naarah,
Just thought I would give you an update on my knee situation, it’s been nearly 10 weeks now and I’m walking again – albeit slowly and with a limp still because of the stiffness. I am still going to physio one to two times a week and that is PAINFUL to say the least, the bending back exercises we do hurt a lot and I’m wondering whether I will ever have full and fluid use of my knee the way I used to? Any information on how long it will take to get back to 100% would be greatly appreciated, I’m thinking another month at least. I still walk up and down stairs one at a time – which takes ages – and I was also wondering how long it took you to start walking up and down the stairs as a normal person would – I think I am more afraid to try in case something goes wrong….. but I guess I’ll have to. It’s been a LONG ten weeks, I missed all of the last half of semester at University and have just finished my exams, so I am hoping that everything goes well there, considering!
I’m sorry to hear about your knee Naarah, I know exactly how you feel – what I found most annoying was the not being able to do anything, and like you – going to the mall, or going to the movies or just hanging out with friends was what I really liked to do and my knee injury really put a dampener on all those things, but only temporarily! I have been to the mall, I went even when I was on crutches (people looked but nevermind them, I tell people what happened sometimes if they look too long) which was ok, but I couldn’t last very long and wasn’t too interested in looking at things I couldn’t try on, haha. But it gets better – as I’m sure you know, having done it once before, just make sure you get to physio and start doing exercises, and you should be on your way!
Anyway, thanks for listening, hope your knee feels better soon.
Ttys, Gemma. : )
Hi all,
I just thought I’d share my story about what happened to my knee. (Sorry if this bores anyone!)
About 3 weeks ago, I dislocated my left knee cap for the 2nd time. It was at my cheerleading competition. The school before us had just finished so my team was warming up. I was practicing all the jumps we did in our routine just to make sure I was ready.
The last jump I did was a right hurdler. This is when you jump so that your right leg is extended to the side, and your left leg is bent and tucked under you, kinda like you’re jumping over hurdles (lol.)
When I landed the jump, my left knee cap popped right out and I immediately grabbed under my thigh and my coach helped my sit down. I was REALLY pissed at first because my team had been in 3rd place and this round was going to determine who went to districts. But then the pain kicked in and it hurt like hell! And of course it seemed like the ambulance took 42 years to come.
After I got to the hospital, my coach told me my mom was on her way. The doctor came in and took a look at my knee and put his hand on it, and started talking to me about how my day had been, so he could distract me. But after a couple of minutes he popped it back in.
So it’s been about 3 weeks now and I’m still in a brace and on crutches, but things will get better. Fall season for cheerleading is over and I’m really bummed because it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to cheer winter season. And sometimes I get really discouraged because I can’t go to all the places I used to go (like the mall–too slow walking!) I still haven’t been in to see an orthopedic because I can NEVER get an appointment at that office. I’m just hoping i don’t need surgery because I’d be completely devastated!
Anyways, sorry if this bored anyone, but if you have any advice I’d really appreciate hearing it :)
Thanks!!
Ow. I know what you went through. It happened to me 4 times already, 2 times one each knee. The first time was the worst by far. I’ve been training my legs, and now if it tries to pop out it goes right back. It still hurts though : (