Let me preface this with, yes, I am indeed a moron.
Long story short, I'm up on a roof, wind blows my ladder down, I convince myself I can hop onto the deck railing and then ninja-bounce down to the deck.
I never even hit the fucking railing.  Hello, Deck.
Slight abrasion to my wrist and I seriously thought I broke my tailbone.  The knee didn't even cross my mind for a while.  Now my butt is fine, wrist is no problem, but my knee is shot.
Description of el problemo:  Able to walk so long as knee remains bent.  Extending the leg out or "locking the knee" is excruciating... if I extend it all the way, such as on stairs, the pain sort of "zaps" and my knee just buckles.  Other than that, I can wiggle it around, get up from a chair, and climb stairs just fine, provided that the leg doesn't fully extend.
So what am I looking it... a sprain?  ACL?  Lyme disease?  Leprosy?





I am completely inept when it comes to this sort of thing.  The benefit of not being a jock in school is that I never had to deal with such injuries.
Any ideas?  I'm out of town on business and working every day until July 11th.  Doctor may not be an option.

 

Sounds like a torn meniscus to me. But I'm not a doctor.

Not a doc but you have an injury that needs a doc.
Take some motrin or anaprox, rest it as much as possible and try to see a doc.

Yup.

I have similar symtoms like you OP.

I had an MRI done this past weekend. Dr says it might be tear, dont have results for MRI.

The weird thing about mine is that it bothers me on and off. I will be fine for a certain amount of time and then it will bother me.

I figured all a doc can do is offer me a brace, some meds, and suggest time off.  I can buy a brace, can't do heavy meds, and can't take time off.  





I do not have any time to go to a doc until Sunday.  Is this ER material?  I don't feel like I'd get the right attention there.



 

Yeah, I was hoping for the "don't worry, everything will be fine next week" post.
 

I fucked my knee up over spring break.



It was like yours, except I couldn't get out of bed and it hurt so bad for about 5 days that I woke up every few hours,



straightening it was excruciating.



Its been 3 months now, and I can walk but I still cant fully extend it without pain.



Every once in a while when I'm walking I accidentally straighten it and it feels like its going to go out and hurts.



I hope yours ends up better than mine, they sound similar

Not ER worthy as in life threatening, but you'll need an MRI and possibly orthopedic surgery.





 

Is it swollen up like a balloon (3x normal)? I had that from a motorcycle accident years ago and never went to a doc and have had trouble for 30 years.Believe I tore the cartilage.If you want it to keep bothering you for the next 30 years don't see a doc.

Not good.



 

Sounds like torn meniscus.

 

Slackers....





DIBS on guns, ammo, optics!

Yes it does; I've had both knees operated on.  If you catch it early, recovery isn't too bad.  If you try to suck it up and keep going, you risk doing more damage and making the surgery more complicated and the recovery more difficult.  Ignore it for long enough, and you could end up with problems for the rest of your life.

I also concur with the meniscus.

Mine was injured in high school, aggravated in college and didn't cause problems for years.  Literally years.

But the "edges" of the tear eventually will get caught in the "pivot" of the knee and that will hurt, pop, lock and get inflamed.

As long ago as my injury occurred, I don't have good surgical prospects.   I'm waiting on the surgery on the hope medical advances will go faster than the progression of my knee's degradation process>>>>

Does not sound good. You need to see an orthopedic surgeon and probably need MRI.

ER will do plain x-rays which is only good for diagnosing bone fractures. They will not generally do MRI.

I am a professional but not an orthopaedic surgeon. Go see a orthopod as soon as possible.

Gravity's a bitch sometimes.

Good luck.

Word up.  I tried to get mine taken care of early.  Wasn't able to, and ended up deploying on it and making it 10x worse.  Took another year after I got back to get the surgery, and it was so much worse than it should have been.

Ugh.





I'll try to find an orthopedic guy in the area.





Thanks for the tips.  I guess I'm not walking this one off.