MRI says High Grade partial tear....Questions

Hello, Your story is one of great conquest. It is unfortunate that the only response you have gotten is from some type of snake oil salesmen. I would be very interested in hearing how things are going with you. I also have almost fully torn my ACL. Have also a small tear in the Medial Miniscus, this seems to be the thing of most concern to the OS I have seen. I am 5 weeks post injury. Would just like to hear from as many poeple as possible to help me with decision. I am extremly active, Hunting/Fishing/Hiking, But if at all possible would like to avoid surgery (Hoping its possible with extreme PT, but have doubts). Feed back from anyone will be helpful. Good luck to all. Thanks.

Hi All,

I have been reading this forum for the last two week and it has provided me with much information, thank you all for taking the time to post your stories. Here is a little of mine.

I am a 43 year old female, 4 years ago while on a camping trip I injured my right knee, It felt as though it bent "backward" It swelled, turned black and blue, I could not walk on it and anytime I took a step up or my leg "dangled" it felt as though the bottom half of my leg was seperating from the upper half.

Urgent care sent me home with a brace, crutches and anti-inflammatories with a follow up referral to orthopedics.

I arrived for my ortho appointment...the Dr. looked at my knee, moved it around a bit and said, "You would not have knee problems if you would lose weight!" "You just need to go home and take the weight off and your knee will get better." I looked at him and said, "I don't have knee "problems," I have a knee "injury!" He said nothing showed on the x-ray and again said I just needed to lose weight. After I again said it was injured he said that it was possible I could have a partial ACL tear but there would be nothing they could do about it and if I lost weight it would get better.

At this point I did not have the energy to argue as he was right I did need to lose weight I had about 70+ extra pounds on my 5'8" frame. So I went home with my knee in a lot of pain and in a brace not sure what to do next.

Over the next two years the knee slowly got better by the third year it was completely better and then I got serious and spent the next year taking my extra weight off. I started eating right, running, cycling 30-40 miles at a time and lots of out door hiking with 50+ lb packs. I even went back to doing Martial Arts which is something I did competitively in my 20's.

During this year I took off 65 lbs and am now in almost as good of shape as I was in my 20's. Not once with all this activity did the knee give me any problems. However, on April 4th while at a Martial Arts class I executed a spin, jump, front kick in which I am the person I was sparring heard a loud "pop" when my foot it the floor my knee went "backward" again and I fell to the floor in pain holding my knee. I knew right away I had re-injured my old injury.

Surprisingly this time I have very little swelling, and no brusing. In fact an hour or two after the injury I was walking on it with very little pain and I felt I had dodged a bullet. I did wear my old brace just to be sure but then over the course of the next day the knee felt unstable and kept giving out on me just walking down steps.

I got in to see an Ortho and this time he did all kinds of pulling, pushing, tugging etc on my knee and he told me he felt confident I had ruptured my ACL and would need surgery to get the knee stable again if I wanted to continue with the activities I do.

He ordered and MRI and I just got a call today telling me that my MRI results showed I have a high grade partial tear and I have a follow up appointment with my DR. next week.

I would like to hear from anyone else who has had this type of injury and what did you ultimately do to treat it. Also if anyone can clarify what a high grade partial tear is I would appreciate the information.

Also if that "pop" that was heard and felt was not the ACL rupturing (is what the Dr. said it was) what could it have been?

Thanks in advance for your responses. It really would put my mind at ease to hear from others.