Did I tear a ligament?

[EAVL]

Hello Divas!
Wondering if anyone has had an experience similar to mine yesterday. I had just gotten off the lift and was skiing away and hit a patch of ice/dirt I did not see and the inner edge of my right ski caught pulling my lower leg outwards. I felt pain right away on the outside of my knee and top of outside lower leg. I did not feel or hear a pop. It hurt too bad to keep skiing so I got a ride down from ski patrol. No swelling or bruising yet. It just hurts with walking so I am limping. It really hurts when stepping to the side (towards my righ side) like to get in the car and it hurts on the outside of my knee when standing up off the toilet. I work with a great ortho doc and plan to see him this week. I am hoping I just sprained my knee/pulled a muscle in my lower leg. Totally bummed it snowed last night finally and I can’t get out there! I am not a good inured person. Hoping I can at least use my inside time to clean the condo too to bottom and change the beds. I am still icing every few hours. Hopefully, you are all out there having fun on the mountain wherever you are!
Elizabeth

 

[Skier31]

So sorry about what happened. Likely no way to tell the extent of injury right now. Take care of yourself and we will all hope for the best.

 

[santacruz skier]

Oh no... let us know what your ortho has to say. Hope it's minor.

 

[mustski]

I have no knowledge in this area at all, but I want to say that I hope you feel better ASAP

 

[SkiBam]

I can't possibly diagnose what happened to you @EAVL, but I had what sounds like something similar the spring before last. It started when I was run into by a boarder at Whistler. I was standing still and my feet were forced out and I basically fell back. Had a lot of pain and bruising down the front of the lower leg. Iced it, etc., and did manage to ski - carefully.

When I got home I went to the doc who said there was possibly a small fracture on the side of the knee - and told me not to ski. He gave me an x-ray requisition, but said even if there was a fracture there wasn't much to do for it. Anyway, knee felt better so I (yes, despite my advanced age, I can be quite stupid!) went skiing. And managed to fall at the top of the lift as I got off - fell back in the same way as in the first incident. Lots of pain but skied down and got home. Again, lots of bruising and some swelling on the outside of my leg above the knee.

Went to the hospital where they diagnosed a small fracture at the side of the knee, gave me an immobilizer thing for my leg and an ortho appointment for two weeks later. By the time I saw him, the leg was feeling much much better. He said I was very lucky - a small fracture (not serious at all) and no ligament damage. I couldn't do anything that required twisting for two months - things like walking and cycling were ok. Fortunately ski season was over by then, so no undue suffering. No problems at all now, but I do a lot of knee/leg strengthening exercises.

I do hope yours is a similarly minor injury.

 

[santacruz skier]

It started when I was run into by a boarder at Whistler. I was standing still and my feet were forced out and I basically fell back.

That's exactly how I ended up with a avulsion fracture to ACL and torn meniscus last season in Switzerland. (It was a skier not a boarder who got tangled up with me somehow) . I was snowmobiled off the mountain by Swiss Ski Patrol. Let's hope @EAVL has a minor sprain.

 

[newboots]

Best of luck, Elizabeth! We all hope it's minor!

 

[contesstant]

Please consider getting it checked sooner vs. later. If you do have a fracture, you don't want to be walking around on it. I fractured my tibial plateau in 2015, and am really glad I had xrays on the mountain, because it really didn't FEEL all that serious, and I had actually considered skiing on it, but my gut told me not to.

 

[EAVL]

Thank you ladies!! My knee is feeling much better today and the pain is more on the outside of my lower leg with stepping and especially going downstairs and stepping to the side. I have no bruising or swelling at all which is wierd. I am getting more worried about avsulsion fracture or tibial plateau. My friend, an ortho nurse, thinks it sounds like a tibial plateau or fibula fracture. I am still up here in the mountains until tomorrow. I will get scheduled for a Dr appt and X-ray as soon as I get back. Fingers crossed I might have dodged a bullet. My season just got started too!

 

[santacruz skier]

Nothing showed in an X-ray for me. The MRI showed the avulsion fracture and torn meniscus.. I did not have surgery and ACL is healed according to my orthopedist. Good luck.

 

[EAVL]

Good to know santacruz skier. Thank you!!

 

[newboots]

Good news so far! Good luck!

 

[EAVL]

Soonest Dr appt Th morning. Of course he had numerous slots today but I am still in the mountains. Just dropped off the kids to snowboard and it was very hard to see the half empty parking lot and no lift line. When I am not noticing pain I think maybe I should just try an easy run - the bunny hill even. Then I step wrong and logic sets in and I realize I should not do that until I see the Dr. This is the girl who ran the Bolder Boulder years ago with a stress fracture. I didn’t know it was that bad until afterwards but I knew I had some kind of injury. Took some days off leading up to it and it felt better so I took some Ibuprofin and my friend who is a Navy corpsman taped me up and away we went. The next day I couldn’t put weight on it when I got out of bed. Trying not to be like that anymore but it is hard to shush that side of me!! Anyone else have this problem?!?

 

[Skier31]

Please resist the temptation. We do not want you to make it worse.

 

[Kimmyt]

Trying not to be like that anymore but it is hard to shush that side of me!! Anyone else have this problem?!?

Yes, its sometimes hard to tell severity of an injury and I can push too easily through it. I did this recently with a finger injury and ended up sidelining myself for way longer than I probably would have initially had to if I had just listened to the pain and stopped climbing on it. Now I'm in recovery but its set me back a lot and now all my partners are outclimbing me and it's really frustrating. Find a good book to read, read the ski forums, but just rest it until Thursday and then you'll get your answer. Four days off is nothing compared to making your injury worse and having to stay off it another 6+ months.

 

[SkiBam]

Trying not to be like that anymore but it is hard to shush that side of me!! Anyone else have this problem?!?

YES! That's exactly what I did: go skiing when I shouldn't have when I had that knee injury. I was just very very lucky that what I ended up with wasn't a lot worse.

 

[newboots]

So true, so true! If you mess up a simple injury and need surgery, you could lose months, not a few days.

 

[Pequenita]

If it really is a fracture, you *need* to stay off of it right now or risk further injury/need for surgery. It's a delicate balance between making sure the injury stabilizes (right now) vs. putting enough pressure/weight later in the healing process so that the bones can knit.

 

[skibum4ever]

I had a tibia plateau when I was about 50 years old. Skied to bottom but could not bear any weight when I took my skis off. This was in early November.

I skied again 2 1/2 months later, at a point in time when I wasn't even supposed to be fully weight bearing. Did four days at Mammoth then went back to Colorado.

Three days later I broke my ankle in a collision with a snowboarder.

Now I'm 64, and I might (hopefully) make slightly different decisions. @EAVL, please take it easy until you see your Ortho. There's a lot more downside than upside to pushing through the pain until you at least know what you're dealing with.

Hope it's minor.

 

[EAVL]

I resisted temptation ladies! Will see Dr tomorrow and let ya’ll know what he says.