Sometimes, you're just your own worst enemy. Unless you heed the warnings...
Date of Injury: May 15th, 2006
Time of injury: 10:00hrs
Your DOB and age: 23 (at time of injury)
City, State: Richardson, TX
# years practicing Parkour / Freerunning: 0
Hours of training per week.: 16
Other exercise / fitness experience: Endurance running (10k's & 5k's)
Location where injury occurred: Grass lawn & railing at UT Dallas campus
Conditions of location: Fair & mild
What you were doing / trying to do when injury occurred?: Trying some first-time monkey vaults
Where any other people involved?: No
Part of body - description of injury, rating of severity 1-10.: Worn cartilage (menisci) of both knees, severity (5)
Did you see a doctor for diagnosis?: yes
Did you get X-rays or MRI's?: X-ray and MRI
Picture of the injury: I wish
Could you / how could you have avoided the injury?: Could have quit jumping around so darn much!
Date / type / severity of your last injury?: June 1st, 2007, severity (2)
Notes on the experience?: Wore out the cartilage in both knees trying to progress too quickly. Also tried long PK combos and drops before quad muscles were developed for the activity. Within 18 hrs, pain went from typical "workout soreness" to feeling like both knees were bruised raw from the insides. Pain diminished on 3rd day to a sensation of something being stuck inside the knees (ranging from a piece of hair, to thorns). Resumed some outdoor jogging after a month, but not anything involving jumping. X-Rays revealed inflammation of both knees, but MRI didn't show a large loss of cartilage. Underwent a knee-draining procedure to remove excess fluid, then a cortisone injection. Results felt in 4 days. Knee discomfort gradually got less frequent until 1 year after the injury. Felt some soreness after workouts, but nothing "inside" the knee. Made full recovery 1 year, 3 months after injury.
Overall, this was mostly a nuisance injury--save for the first few days where I thought my legs would fall off at the knee. It's not very debilitating like an ankle sprain, but it's a constant nagging pain that really reduces your confidence in the joint. The full recovery time could have been reduced to maybe 6-8 months if I'd actually taken the "R" in "RICE" more seriously. Exploratory arthroscopic knee surgery was an option. And strangely, years of distance running were no barrier for this injury.
