Anyone here torn an ACL before? What were your symptoms?

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
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Jan 2, 2006
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I have a doctor's appointment on Monday but just wanted to get some ideas of if my knee injury includes a torn ACL or not.

I twisted it skiing. I heard two pops (no snap), couldn't put weight on the knee immediately after, and while making my way down the mountain I twisted it again with another two pops. From then on it felt ok in the normal up-down direction of knee movement, but it hurt with any kind of twisting force.

It has been a week and I still get pain when I twist the knee, which makes me think it's an injured meniscus. The MCL and LCL don't have any pain.

I'm walking ok, but I've heard from a couple of people that you can still walk on a completely torn ACL... as in an ACL that has fully snapped.

I can go up stairs but down stairs is a bit more challenging due to having to extend my leg straight and put weight on it.

When I fully extend my knee straight it doesn't lock up, but I feel weakness when it's fully extended. I feel like if I were running full-speed and I fully straightened the knee to stop, my knee would collapse and bend in the opposite direction.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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I tore my ACL in 2003. Shredded that fucker. Hurt like a mofo when it happened, knee swelled up so much I developed a large “Baker’s cyst” behind the knee. Ortho looked at the MRI and said, “would ya look at that! I’ve seen plenty of baker’s cysts over the years, never one that big.” (I basically had a softball in the back of my knee)

I finished the work day, and just “favored” the damaged knee. Continued to work for the next 3 months, only time I missed was for doctor’s appointments.

I had considerable damage to the medial meniscus as well, and that caused most of the pain in my knee. There were several flaps in it that had to be removed during the ACL graft and meniscectomy.

Theee’s no way to diagnose your injury over the internet. It COULD be a torn ligament, it COULD be a torn meniscus, it COULD be both...or it COULD just be a strain. See a doctor. He’ll probably send you for an X-ray MRI.