Triathlon - knee injury+triathlon

so i'm about to do my first sprint tri in march and I have a knee injury which is most likely a torn acl (not the first time this has happened). Is there anybody out there with a knee injury bad enough to have to wear a brace? if so do you swim with it, or do you put it on after the swim? I have a custom brace that is pretty time consuming to put on and even after that I still have to adjust it at least once after i start moving. Any info on this would be help full even if you have a good brand of brace to suggest.

I have a messed up knee as well, I train with a brace, but I'm planning on racing with out....however....it sounds like you probably need to have it on, so I'd just plan on putting it on after the swim, unless you seriously feel comfortable swimming with it??? If your goal is to finish then don't worry about the time. With that being said, are you going to have your knee repaired? That's a pretty serious injury to be running/biking/swimming on!! Good luck, sorry I can't be of too much help!

dude first you have some balls to keep on going on a torn acl! i give you props for that. i would say if they knee is giving out you should brace it. Did your MRI confirm a completely ruptured ligament? or is a partial tear? On a partial tear i would recommend some rest to let it heal! good luck!

so i'm about to do my first sprint tri in march and I have a knee injury which is most likely a torn acl (not the first time this has happened). Is there anybody out there with a knee injury bad enough to have to wear a brace? if so do you swim with it, or do you put it on after the swim? I have a custom brace that is pretty time consuming to put on and even after that I still have to adjust it at least once after i start moving. Any info on this would be help full even if you have a good brand of brace to suggest.

I hurt my knee playing soccer and had to quit. I thought I could start doing triathlons because it's just straight running rather than pivoting, but my knee kept getting worse. I finally tried something called prolotherapy. I would google the term if I were you. Basically, after a few months, me knee is about 99% perfect (maybe closer to 95%). It's sounds wild but is true. The total cost for you will be anywhere from $1000 to $2000, depending on the doctor you find. It's not surgery. It's injections which cause natural swelling, which results in new cartilage. There's a lot of skeptics out there, but it worked for me. And I tried a whole lot of things first. I know a whole lot of triathletes use prolotherapy so there's gotta be something to it. It's at least worth looking into.

dude first you have some balls to keep on going on a torn acl! i give you props for that. i would say if they knee is giving out you should brace it. Did your MRI confirm a completely ruptured ligament? or is a partial tear? On a partial tear i would recommend some rest to let it heal! good luck!

Hey Serge. I'd also recommend you look into prolotherapy. I did the knee brace things myself trying to continue playing soccer, but it was all down hill. From what they tell me, prolo is a pretty universal fix.

Here's a video on the subject from the doctor I went to. Prolo video (http://jointrehab.com/)

so i'm about to do my first sprint tri in march and I have a knee injury which is most likely a torn acl (not the first time this has happened). Is there anybody out there with a knee injury bad enough to have to wear a brace? if so do you swim with it, or do you put it on after the swim? I have a custom brace that is pretty time consuming to put on and even after that I still have to adjust it at least once after i start moving. Any info on this would be help full even if you have a good brand of brace to suggest.

Yeah I would look into calamarian's suggestion of trying out prolotherapy. But make sure its from a doctor who is an experienced orthopaedist (correct spelling). But thats the cheap method. When I say cheap though I don't mean bad as it works a lot of the time. From my studies on the subject it works by having a subject injected with a special glucose solution that induces inflammation (as opposed to steriods that is anti-inflammatory). The inflammation forces or speeds up the healing process and is known to repair cartilage and other soft tissue. Some bone might also be healed but I would have to research more. The down side is that it can be painful at first (obviously because of the induced inflammation). But healing to some types of injuries can indeed be speeded up.

However, for more serious injuries prolotherapy might not be suitable. Another more expensive treatment that is non-surgical but may be more promising is called PRP or platelet-rich plasma therapy. This uses a similar technique to prolotherapy but the injection consists of the patients own refined platelets found in their blood. Read this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sports/17blood.html?_r=2&ref=health

I myself am looking into a way more expensive but totally new technique of injecting a patient's own stem cells into the injury area that is supposed to be a very hardcore effective radical procedure.
I'm not sure which treatment option is for me but all I care about is being able to run long distances this summer.

Please people, leave feedback here or in my thread.

so i'm about to do my first sprint tri in march and I have a knee injury which is most likely a torn acl (not the first time this has happened). Is there anybody out there with a knee injury bad enough to have to wear a brace? if so do you swim with it, or do you put it on after the swim? I have a custom brace that is pretty time consuming to put on and even after that I still have to adjust it at least once after i start moving. Any info on this would be help full even if you have a good brand of brace to suggest.

A torn acl is serious. How do you know for certain? If it's a tear, you don't want to run until it heals and healing should be under supervised medical care. Swimming is normally fine without a brace

I got a pretty screwed up knee when i do a tri i just where the brace during the run/bike otherwise you will get it soaked in the water and it will really irritate your skin and maybe even cause a rash. But if your knee bothers you swimming your probably doing something wrong, I would not wear it swimming, make it apart of you transition.

I wear dual braces running...put them on in t2 dont wear them swimming or biking....however..I would definitely get your Dr's input...

the reason I am even getting in to tri's is because I cant play hockey anymore because of the knee. I have not had a MRI do to the fact I roll without health insurance but I know it is torn do to how loose it is compared to the other and I have been through this before which ended in a complete reconstruction. it doesnt bother me running as much as it does in everyday life. I actually played a year of football without any acl so I know its possible( probably not smart ). prolotherapy seems very interesting I'm surprised I have never heard about it, I am definitely going to be checking that out some more. thanks! oh and my goal is to beat my roommate hes 140 and im 210 lol. I have better times in swimming and biking but he dominates me in the run, its gonna be close and could come down to transition times which is why I hate the brace.

on a side note:
i just want to say I am truly surprised in the pleasure I am getting from training for this. I grew up with football, hockey and wrestling and could of never guessed how much fun training for a tri could be.

the reason I am even getting in to tri's is because I cant play hockey anymore because of the knee. I have not had a MRI do to the fact I roll without health insurance but I know it is torn do to how loose it is compared to the other and I have been through this before which ended in a complete reconstruction. it doesnt bother me running as much as it does in everyday life. I actually played a year of football without any acl so I know its possible( probably not smart ). prolotherapy seems very interesting I'm surprised I have never heard about it, I am definitely going to be checking that out some more. thanks! oh and my goal is to beat my roommate hes 140 and im 210 lol. I have better times in swimming and biking but he dominates me in the run, its gonna be close and could come down to transition times which is why I hate the brace.

on a side note:
i just want to say I am truly surprised in the pleasure I am getting from training for this. I grew up with football, hockey and wrestling and could of never guessed how much fun training for a tri could be.

Well, with prolotherapy since its relatively new most insurance companies don't cover it yet. So, If you wouldn't mind, when you eventually pursue the treatment would you please post here how the treatment went?
Also, I would like anyone else here (especially the pro triathletes) who've had the prolotherapy done or PRP or stem cell injections done how the treatments went?
I REALLLLLLLLY would like to be able to run this summer so any feedback on this subject of regenerative injection therapies will be constructive.

Gawd you people are lazy!