Leaderboard

I can. It hurts when I wake up and when I sit down for too long. It also becomes unsteady. Kneeling down on it is out of the question. Even sitting with my legs crossed hurts it. I've had minor trouble with my left knee for the last 20 years. I think because of it, my stride has gotten steadily worse. When I hurt it this past time, I was hauling ass into the boards trying to beat another skater to a puck. I lost, and we went head on. I'm not really sure where the knee was in the equation. I couldn't skate on it the rest of the night, which is not like me, even when I get hurt. I tried to hobble on it for a couple shifts about 30 minutes later, to no avail. I had to crawl down the stairs when I got home, and even had a lot of trouble pushing the clutch in on my car. I woke up the next day and it was fine... wtf. Then, a couple months later it started developing worsening symptoms and here we are... Treadmill running for any longer than 5-10 minutes really agitates it. I would not be comfortable sprinting on it, whatsoever. I've found that stretching it daily before icing it 10-20 minutes helps. Keeping it strong and doing light resistance training on it makes the biggest difference. I can't do traditional squats or free weights at my home gym because of this, so I've been going to a local Planet Fitness once or twice a week for leg day. I can do the stair climber and use the lower body machines, being very careful to apply an equal amount of force in both legs, pushing much less weight than normal, and cautiously using proper form. This has taken a lot of the pain and instability away for everyday function. Completely dropping my lower body resistance training and resting made it feel worse than anything. I was very unstable and each step hurt. Stretching and making sure that leg doesn't lose strength seems to help a lot compared to not using it. But, it just gets to a point where you can only do so much to fix it yourself. I've still been playing hockey once or twice a week, but at a much slower and cautious pace. My knee is very loose until it warms up. Once it does, I don't have nearly the speed and agility I used to. Guys who I used to skate circles around can now either keep up, or catch me. When I quit playing for a few weeks it almost felt worse. Inactivity has always amplified my injuries. I heal drastically better just by reducing the frequency and intensity of workouts, until everything is back to normal. Sorry for the narrative. It's kind of consuming me, since I'm a very physically active person. I'm religious with exercising 5-6 times per week. Hockey is a big part of my recreational life. I organize a first responder team that participates in, and hosts charity events. I also hosted weekly pickup games, but all of that has been on hold since the beginning of November. It took me well over a year to fully recover from my rotator cuff repair in 2020, and here we are again. I'm really hoping it's a meniscus tear instead of an ACL. A severe strain/sprain is unlikely, given the month I initially rested it not helping, and the noticeable loss of strength. It would be the miracle I'm hoping for, but the doctor said he thinks it's my ACL. That's what my MyChart after visit info said, as well. They do all of the work for the STL sports teams, including the Cardinals and Blues. They repaired my rotator cuff, which is only about 75% of what is used to be, with frequent pain. I hope they're wrong about the ACL, though.

I had a bad hockey collision a few months ago. I've been nursing my knee since then. Yesterday, I had an appointment with a sports medicine orthopedist. He's pretty sure I tore my ACL. I'll know next week when I go back after my MRI. Fuck.