As a physical therapist, I give advice about injuries every day. Now, I’m learning to take my own advice.
I’ve always had injuries throughout my life, especially because of the sports that I’ve played. However, I haven’t had one quite as serious as this most recent one. I was competing in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament when my knee was torqued by my opponent. She pulled me on top of her while my leg was caught in the awkward position, and then I felt a pop. While I felt swelling in the knee immediately after, I kept going. After that round, I talked to the medic and he said it was likely a meniscus tear and LCL tear.
During that moment, I had to make the decision to keep competing (1-2 more rounds) or to stop. The pain was minimal (thanks to the adrenaline of competition), but I could feel the swelling slowly increase. This happened during the first 10 seconds of the very first match, so I did what a lot of PTs would probably advise against: I had the medic tape up my knee and I stepped back on the mat. I ended up winning the next round with an armbar after just 45 seconds.
The next day was the most uncomfortable - the knee was very swollen, stiff, and unable to tolerate any weight through the leg. I had significant symptoms and knew that an MRI would be able to help identify any structural injuries. Due to my HMO insurance plan though, I had to go through all the steps → primary care doctor appointment, X-ray, MRI, sports med appointment, and finally, physical therapy.
While I’m not choosing surgery at this moment, the rehab has been slow but steady. I’ve had many patients ask me about peptides, shockwave/softwave therapy, stem cell treatments, etc. I always encourage patients to do research before trying any of these pricier and invasive treatments, and now I’m in their shoes. Surgery is usually not needed for an LCL tear, but I now find myself considering these other forms of treatment to help speed up the healing process.
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I’ll continue to document and share my experience as a patient instead of therapist, but I also wanted to share my thoughts on certain things PTs say:
“You should’ve stopped when you felt pain”
As a physical therapist, it’s easy to say these things to patients and educate them on their injury. However, for athletes especially, there are so many more things going through their head besides the pain. They think about the competition and opponent, the hard work it took for them to get there, the time and money spent on their sport, etc. While stopping at the first onset of pain may seem like the most reasonable action, it can also be harder to get back up and keep going once you experience a physical setback.
“Just elevate and ice when you get injured or feel pain.”
While elevation and ice can help reduce some inflammation after injury, this can also be unrealistic. Work, school, travel, and other obligations can make it difficult for ice and elevation to be prioritized after an injury. These things can help with the pain and swelling, but patients also need other ways to manage their symptoms based on their daily lives and activities. This can include (but is not limited to) kinesiotaping for swelling, reminders to change positions every 30/60 minutes, and mobility exercises that can be used for pain relief.
“You don’t need those other modalities - you just need physical therapy.”
Over the past 5-10 years, regenerative medicine and orthobiologic clinics have exploded in volume. People are flocking to other solutions for their pain due to a number of reasons - lack of healthcare access, insurance limitations, and difficulty with scheduling timely appointments with doctors. Now more than ever, patients ask me about peptides, shockwave therapy, stem cell treatments, red light/laser therapy, PRP, and other modalities. While PT is extremely beneficial and should be the focus for recovery from injury, these modalities may help patients to speed up the process and improve healing. We always stress that patients need to research these modalities and talk to experts about them before trying. For each, there’s an “ideal” candidate that the tool/technique would work best on. Using different techniques and working with different experts (sports medicine doctor, physical therapist, massage therapist, etc) can help to optimize healing and recovery.
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I’m continuing to learn from this experience and use it to better understand what my patients are going through. Stay tuned for the next update!
Valentine Ngo
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