Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…………
The right knee showing the Medial Collateral Ligament joining the thigh bone to the shin bone. The MCL in this diagram is torn, which often happens with a tibial plateau fracture. The fracture is on the opposite side of the knee to the MCL. The MCL is hyper extended as a result of a traumatic force being applied to the outside of the knee. The joint opens beyond the elastic capabilities of the MCL. Like a rubber band, it stretches then breaks. World of pain
Tonight I came home after work and Harris Farm Markets had left a box of groceries at the door of my apartment. Without thinking I used the inside of my right foot to slide the box of groceries through the door. It wasn’t a heavy box – it probably weighed no more than 10 kg – but as soon as I slid the box a shooting pain bit into the inside of my right knee – the broken one. It was my MCL again – the Medial Collateral Ligament. The first thing I remember after I woke up from my skiing accident at Revelstoke in Canada was this burning pain running along the inside of my right knee.
“Oh shit, that hurts,” I remember thinking. I had actually broken the outside of my right knee but it was the inside section that really hurt. This was the MCL. The simple exercise of pushing a light box of groceries across a tiled floor, reminded me of how much pain I was in earlier in the year and temporarily made me forget about my neck.
The MCL is a strong band of connective tissue which attaches bone to bone. It’s situated at the inner or inside aspect of the knee joint and joins the inside of the femur (thigh bone) to the inner aspect of the tibia (shin bone). It appears that it always suffers some sort of strain or injury or tear in a tibial plateau fracture. You can obviously injure it pushing bananas and oranges around your kitchen floor too.
Pushing a weight with the inside edge of my foot, loading up the inside of my broken knee. This is an extremely bad idea unless you particularly like pain or are curious whether your medial collateral ligament is still damaged 8 months after surgery. I’ll save you some time. Yes it’s still damaged and yes it will hurt if you put pressure on it. Have a nice day!
This whole rehabilitation thing is like the movie, Halloween and Freddy Krueger gets up on you when you’re feeling relaxed and says I’m back. After all the gym work and muscle strengthening, the last thing I thought would give me a problem, is the MCL. But I suppose I haven’t put it to the test before..
So nine months after surgery, I’m still not cured, not by a long shot. I don’t know how I could ever hope to ski again when my MCL can’t stand the slight amount of strain caused by pushing a box of groceries with the inside of my foot.
The lesson is: Don’t buy a box of fruit, it’s no good for you. If it had been a packet of biscuits or tin of Milo I wouldn’t have had a problem
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