Joe A Shaw PA-C - 10/4/2012

Question
Hello doctor, well I m fifteen and female (love all types of sports). Just yesterday when I was doing my favorite event hurdles when I jump I felt the back of my left thigh snap and my right knee hit the hurdles really hard straight on and I felt pain and it started swelling and when I landed my right knee was already painful and I landed on my left leg and twisted around since the back of my thigh was really painful and I heard a loud pop and my knee gave way and it started swelling almost straight alway and i couldn't walk of the track and my coach help me of and told me to go to the ER but my mum refuse to let me go because she didn't think it was serious enough, my coach was fighting with my mum to take me to the ER but she just carried me home. I have alot of knee sprains when I was little and it have cause me alot of problems like now I have really weak quads, my left leg my calf and thigh is much more smaller than my left and my PT say that it was muscle wasting. I would like to ask what do I do now, how can I manage, should I go to the ER and what injury did I do to my knee. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Jenny,
Not sure by your history if you hurt your knee or hamstring..It sounds like you strained your hamstring muscle..this is usually very painful and person can feel or here a pop sensation..now if your knee is swollen and painful and you heard pop in knee then it may be your ACL a large ligament in your knee..this causes pain,unable to put weight on etc..for this you need an MRI and surgery if the ACL is ruptured..However,for hamstring tears surgery is almost never done..but will take 6-12 weeks to get better and you need to take physical therapy.