Torn Meniscus, Not Sure About the Dr...?
I'm curious to see other people's experiences with tearing their meniscus. I've read a bunch of stuff on here and other sites about it, but wanted to know how other people's treatment progressed.
I hit a patch of ice at the apex of my turn in early January, skis washed out and I loaded the tails with my butt basically on my skis, in addition to a bit of a twisting rotation. Felt like someone cracked a walnut inside my knee. Not a pop, but more of a grinding / cracking feeling. It was decently swollen shortly thereafter and lasted for about a week with lots of ice and elevation.
ER said I still had stability in my knee, didn't think it was ACL. This is a nurse, 24 hours after the fall. X-Ray shows no bone damage. Then I went to my general practitioner, who repeated the diagnostic - good overall stability, seems like a meniscus tear. He doesn't want me to get an MRI, which I find odd but he sells me on the idea. This is approx 4 weeks after the accident.
During this time, I can't bend the leg more than about 3 inches off the ground. I don't have enough flexion in my knee to walk up stairs. I can put weight on it and walk, but any bend outside of the 3 inches it allows is excruciating, almost worse than the accident. No clicking / not locked straight.
I'm now 6 weeks out, with no improvement in range of motion. I called the dr. yesterday and basically demanded a handoff to the orthopedist and an MRI. He's making me come back to see him once more to "build a case for the insurance company to cover the MRI". He says any motion that doesn't hurt is okay, but given the lack of an MRI i'm concerned that if it's something else, maybe I'm damaging other things.
Has anyone else been told to wait on the MRI? It just seems strange to me, and I'm not confident he's looking after my best interests. Maybe he is - but I'm curious as to other people's experiences. Also, anyone else tear their meniscus and have this limited of a range of motion / similar symptoms? Everything I read seems to be "hurts when bent past 70-80-90 degrees".
If you are driving to Jay Peak this evening, please drive carefully you bad ass.
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