Badly sprained knee

Even if he's pretending he's fine, I don't know how he'd manage any of it. Eventually a sprained knee can make your leg feel like dead weight. It can be physically difficult to be able to lift that leg at all if you keep walking and running around like that.

At first, all the extra strain can cause constant sharp, stabbing sensations all around that area, eventually dulling to a constant, ache during movement. Eventually, everything can feel as it's entirely seized up.

So if he keeps this up for little under a week, he's going to have to be forced to confine himself to as little movement as possible however stubborn he is. Because his knee's going to lock up on him anyway.

He might prolong the healing process by about an additional week, so maybe two weeks before at least trying to go back to being as mobile as he used to be.*

I don't know about long term injuries, but I think you could get away with him not having to suffer one, as experiences differ. So yes, he can be lucky enough for it to mostly heal.

*This is just in my own experience. But it's one plausible situation he could be in.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Even mild sprains to the knee take months to heal. I should know. There aren't enough capillaries to bring nutrients to the injured area.

He won't be able to do his full routine, sorry.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

I'd like to add that he's courting a lot of longterm problems, as well.

When I was a kid, I fell backward off a stage (don't ask) and sprained my wrist. I was supposed to not use it for a while, but I had just discovered the internet, and I was young and stupid, so I took lots of advil and typed away as normal. That wrist kept re-spraining and re-spraining until I finally gave up and wore roller blade wrist guards for over a year. It's still weak enough that I have to be careful about not jarring it.

But did I learn my lesson? Nope!

I sprained my ankle in my last year of college. It was the same year I had to produce an entire line of clothing for my senior project, something that meant doing a lot of using sewing machines, walking back and forth to dress dummies, pinning stuff -- I could probably have been careful and always used crutches, but the place I was working was cluttered, and I was sleep deprived and pressed for time and really wanted to get everything done, so I took a lot of advil and powered through it.

It took YEARS for my ankle to heal properly, and then I had problems with my other ankle because of the way I'd been walking funny on it for so long, and I STILL have problems with my knee for the same reason.

Stay off of sprains, kids.

I have to agree that with a severe sprain, he won't be able to put his weight on it so all that walking is out of the question. And it bloody hurts, as I know from experience. And you're looking at permanent damage if it's not treated properly.

You need to go for a less severe injury, like a strained calf muscle. That will be painful but it will heal quicker and won't incapacitate him.

So I checked with the ER nurse with whom I live.

Fortunately for you, "Sprain" can cover an assortment of injuries (or rather an assortment of degrees of injury). If the ligament was torn but neither separated (split into two or more bits) nor detached, a "determined idiot" (I'm quoting her there) could continue to ambulate cautiously. If cautious enough the ligament can heal on its own but it would take a long while. The time frame would depend on the amount of additional damage that any movement might inflict (the modern treatment is immobilization).

So you as author can easily match the degree of injury to the narrative you want to create. Remember: one man's fatal fall off a ladder is another man's minor inconvenience. Just keep in mind any running (even two steps) could (probably would) exacerbate the injury and there would be major swelling even with just the original injury.

Feel free to hit me with any additional questions.

Oh mate... you best start saving up for it now.

I'm probably too late here to be helpful, but I have a similar experience I thought I'd share. I very badly sprained an ankle while hiking once. As a result of necessity (it was very cold, raining, and had just gotten dark and we had no way of getting to help), I ended up having to walk the 5k to the end of the trail.

Was it possible? Yes, but it hurt like hell. It was already twisted so badly and so weakened that I kept turning the stupid thing over and over, which just made it worse each time. Luckily, a guy I was hiking with was super awesome and helped me along and encouraged me. I don't know that I would have made it without him.

That being said, it was awful and I look back on it and am amazed I made it as far as I did. I would suggest that the person in question try to find at least some way to stabilize his knee before trying to go on the extra time. It might even be just wrapping something around it as a brace. I was actually wearing a heavy duty ankle brace on the leg at the time (as I'd been getting over an injury when this happened), and even with the brace my ankle was so unstable that putting pressure on it without turning it every step was nearly impossible. I think he'd almost certainly want to try to give it at least some extra support. Even with the extra support, it's going to be very flimsy and he's going to have some pretty serious issues.

And yes, it will definitely make it take longer to heal. One of the worst things you can do on an injury like this is stay on it because you'll just make the tear worse, in part because of the aforementioned weakness in the joint. It's also going to make the bruising and swelling worse (you should have seen how my foot looked when I finally made it home). If he's done a fair job of making a makeshift brace, and especially if he can fashion some sort of crutch that will support his weight easily, then he might not damage it too much more badly, but there is no way he'd make it a full mile without having at least some increase in injury.

Also, a small detail that you might want to work in is that the worst pain actually comes after he has a chance to sit down. After we finally got to the trail, I had to take a bus and a train to get home. That meant I had a chance to sit and take some of the weight off my ankle. The absolute worst pain of that night was after the train got to where it was supposed to go and I had to stand up again. When you're moving on it right after the injury, it's pretty terrible, but when you have a chance to rest it even for a short time, the swelling increases and the joint gets stiff, and that's the time when putting even the tiniest bit of weight on it is just excruciating.

This may be too late, but I too have personal experience.

I tore the medial ligament in my right knee adventure racing. It was a team event, and the teams were mixed. I had to finish for my team to finish. So I kept going. I got back from the portion of the event we were doing (a 2 hour run if I remember correctly), got it strapped up by the event doctor, and kept going (against her advice). I biked for 5 hours, which was ok, did a 1.5hr after dark orienteering section (not ok), a 9km run the next morning (definitely not ok) and then kayaked for 2 hours.

Then I drove 4 hours home. I had to be lifted out of the car.

It took an absolute age to heal. I couldn't go up and down stairs for months (I had to use the service lift in my work, and go up and down the stairs at home sat down or via hopping). I had private physiotherapy on it, but a year later it was still painful to go downhill on.

A couple of years after I did it, I spent a year strengthening it in the gym to a specific sports injury rehab programme. That helped.

But it was probably 6 or 7 years before I could walk downhill without it hurting. I would go on all these long walks (6-7hrs) with friends and the way home off the hills was always agony.

More recently, though, it's massively improved. I now don't get any pain from it at all. So although we're probably 11 or 12 years on from the original injury, I don't have a noticeably 'dodgy' knee. So it can heal.

flapperphilosopher said:

I've done a bunch of googling on this but I still can't seem to find exactly what I need--many thanks for your input!

This is 1927, though that probably has only minor relevance. My character-- a healthy, fit 19 year old-- falls skiing and badly sprains his knee (I suppose this is the sequel to my last post in this section, on cross-country skiing, ha). It's probably on the severe end of a moderate sprain, with a definite ligament tear. Quite a lot of pain. He can walk on it, but barely, and he probably shouldn't. Immediately afterwards he walks about a mile back to the car, completely refusing the help of his brother, though maybe bracing himself a bit with ski poles. He's at home for the weekend so his mom immediately makes him sit and elevate the knee and put ice on it, despite his protests. However, the next day he goes back to school in the city. For various reasons the character feels the need to pretend it's totally fine. He doesn't ice it or elevate it. Despite a severe, very painful limp he does all the walking he usually does--about 2 miles each way to school, around school, up and down stairs (though he's forced to take those one at a time). It's clear to everyone it's a bad injury but he says it's fine, just stiff, I'm being dramatic, etc. He even tries to run in gym class (mandatory at his university at the time), which lasts about 2 paces, and gets the instructor yelling at him (he's not an athlete--he really doesn't know how serious a knee injury can be). All he really does for it is take a lot of aspirin.

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Honestly, I just can't see this happen - I had this very unjury - torn ligament in my knee. Not fun for anyone, least of all me. I could barely take a step. When I first did it I couldn't even stand for about half an hour, there was no way i was walking anywhere. I could, really, really slowly, hobble to the bathroom if necessary, but for the first couple of days that was all. That said, the longer I stayed still, the more painful it was when I tried to move.

Not just that, but putting so much strain on damaged tissue like that i
s likely to cause a lot of longer term problems.

So--questions.

1. All this walking around on it isn't good, is it? Is he going to make the injury worse? How? I don't really want him to end up with a permanent limp, and I don't think surgery would be an option at the time, but prolonged recovery time and/or lingering effects are fine, if probable. Is there a point where he really needs to start being more contentious to prevent permanent disability? Or can he just be lucky enough for it to eventually heal fine despite his idiocy?

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In my own experience, he's not walking more than 20 yards at any one time, and that will be SORE to do.

2. Considering 1., how long is he likely to be in pain? (at rest? walking? stairs/kneeling?). How long is he likely to be limping?

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I couldn't do stairs for weeks - just too sore. I was in pain for about a month, with some lingering twinges for maybe two after that. There was no was I was kneeling - I'd never have been able to get up again. Walking was excruitating, and crutches didn't help much because I was taking all the weight in my other leg and, being crap on crutches, I ended up putting a lot of strain on my hip and that caused more pain.

Rest was fine so long as I stayed completely still.

3. If anyone around has sprained their own knee--what does it felike (afterwards--we aren't in his POV when it happens)? Sharp, aching, stabbing, throbbing? Any other details?

Many many many thanks!

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When I did it I honestly thought I had broken my leg. It was that painful. Initially it was a sharp pain that didn't dull for weeks.

I've had a skiing knee injury with severely strained ligaments without a tear, and a also a knee injury with a torn medial collateral and torn posterior cruciate (PCL).

Both were very painful.

With the torn ligaments, I could not have walked or skied. I could only hop (which I did, in an attempt to pick up my 400 lb motorcycle and move it out of the street). I then went to the hospital and ended up with a brace on my knee for several weeks. The medial collateral has fully healed, but the PCL never heals. I have no lingering pain or limp several years later.

For the severe strain with no tear, I was able to ski down the rest of the hill, favoring my uninjured leg, and then limp to my car to drive back to my condo. I think I took the bus to the hospital (this was like 30 years ago), and they put a brace on it. When I ended up going to a specialist, they took me off the brace right away and put me through PT to get it stronger.

Edit - Stairs are easy if you only use the other leg to lift on each step