anyone here came back from a knee cartilage injury?

The appointment is made but it is a long wait.

Donno. Busted up my knee so bad I couldn't run for 3 months , being poor I never went to the doctor. Finally I said the heck with it and determined to just limp run on it, but to my surprise after 2 weeks of that and then a week off, suddenly it was normal again. Since then I've fallen and smashed it a few times but each time I limp ran on it and it was normal within a couple days to 6 weeks.

Yes. Twice. It's not that big of a deal. Worst case scenario they go in with a scope and smooth over any irregular areas that may cause future issues, then you're good to go in a few weeks. Pool run in the meantime.

Thanks for the hope guys. I had given up already maybe to soon. I will update in 3 - 4 weeks.

small update tried another run without running since last post or even weeks before. I had to stop after 200 meters the pain deep inside my knee was to bad. Walking goes fine. Cycling goes fine. Weights are a hit and miss depending on the exercise i do.

So my knee has gotten worse during strenuous activity (a couple of weeks ago the pain did not start until after 800 meters or so) but improved during walking.

It feels like a deep blue spot but ten times worse. I also have a light ache on my knee that feels different every morning and sometimes my knee hurts when i stand up.

MRI is only 10 days away.

Hopefully this is not the career ending injury.

What was your worst injury? (i am out since near end of februari so far)

If you are a reader of letsrun, but had to move on because you couldn't run anymore what did you do? Put your ambitions in a different sport, a new job? ....

The problem is the waiting lists in hospitals where i live. There where ones where i had to wait until September. If you know the right doctors you might get in faster but unfortunately i don't.

The worst part is knowing that professional sportsman can go under within hours of a same fall. Now i am not even sure the work will cover for the costs since i am going to be diagnosed only now so far out. It will probably be a couple of 1000s on me and the rest health insurance.

random letters:

how long until you could start walking without crutches was it 6 - 8 weeks or more like 3 - 4 months

Also during that period where you allowed to swim or use a regular bike (cycling) at low resistance? Last week i bought myself an e-bike just to get to the freedom of getting out in nice weather after this.

Two hockey knee injuries. Acl and medial lateral. One at 29 other at 37.

Both times had recommendations from two surgeons to repair it surgically. Chose not to do surgery.

First one was worse. Couldn't walk normal for 12 weeks. Started roller blading and light jogging at 4 months. Couldn't run with Amy speed until maybe month 7. Couldn't play hockey for 9 months. Still had flexibility issues at 18 months. Painful.

Second one was running at 3 months and playing hockey st 5.

15 years since the last one and I have no problems with my knees. Wish I could say the same about my left hip and left foot.

Best of luck.

Ikke wrote:

It will probably be a couple of 1000s on me and the rest health insurance.

The prognosis for knee injuries is no better for medical intervention then for just waiting it out and taking good care of your knee. In fact your chances are probably much better by doing your own thing.

Good news,

The MRI results came back,

It showed i had a bruised knee cap. It was completely gray white in the cap but the cartilage and the other things where good on the MRI.

According to the doctor i will be out for another 3 months give or take.

I had a pothole of missing cartilage in the medial part of my knee and had the NeoCart surgery. I was off most of 2015 for both surgeries. It was a long road back but I am now 100 percent and running better than ever. Ran 80 miles last week.

It is much more durable than microfracture. If it wasn't for the surgery I would be done running.

Ikke wrote:

Good news,

The MRI results came back,

It showed i had a bruised knee cap. It was completely gray white in the cap but the cartilage and the other things where good on the MRI.

According to the doctor i will be out for another 3 months give or take.

That is good news. Torn cartilage is not a death sentence for runners, but it has a tendency to cause early arthritis.

I've had a bone bruise as well. It did take 3+ months to completely go away but I was able to run on it before that.

Where do you live btw that you have to wait so long for MRI?

i am on week 10 now tried doing 1 kilometer today but it hurt badly after that. And now my knee still feels unpleasant. So no more running for another bit.

At what time where you able to run pain free?

I live in Belgium. Near the boarder of Holland. Next time i will go to Holland and pay the full sum. Apparently there you can go within a week.

At 28 I had a severe patellar dislocation which left my kneecap stuck on the outside of the knee and the MRI showed the cartilage hanging off the inside of the knee cap like a loose flap.

A combination of braces and months of intensive leg extension exercises was enough to realign the knee cap (as an added bonus my quads got huge) but the cartilage flap was causing painful friction in the knee. The orthopedic surgeon said all he could do was file it down, which my bones would do over time anyway, so I opted for no surgery.

I didn't "come back" from the injury in the sense that it happened playing soccer and I haven't played serious soccer since then. But it got me started on running and 3 years later I was running sub-2:45 marathons. That's the good news. The bad news is that now, almost 15 years later I can't climb a flight of stairs without knee pains and my running is reduced to slow jogging while my main source of exercise is swimming.