Anyone who knows about knee injuries

sounds like something's definitely fucked up. i'd pay a visit to the hospital so that if there's anything seriously wrong with it, you can get proper treatment before things get worse.

planning on it tomorrow if its looking worse, im just praying its not something real serious

meniscus tear. if its not severed you dont need surgery. sometimes your ligaments can pull a piece of bone off, never know. ask for an MRI or CT scan

good advice, whenever i get mri scans is sucks balls, i cant stay still for like a minute

Even if it feels great tomorrow you should still get it checked out.  Doesn't sound like the typical way that ACL MCL gets torn, but you might have partially dislocated it.  Or could have hair line fracture of Tibia Plateau.  Vibes.  Not worth fucking around with.  Get it checked.  

so i'm an athletic trainer and i deal with these kinds of injuries everyday, including rehab, post surgery managment and preventative training. without actually being there to look at the injury, i can only tell you what it sounds like from what you've said. was there almost immediate swelling? like within 10-15 there was significant swelling? does your knee feel unstable when you're walking? if the answer is yes to both of those questions then it may be an acl tear. dont freak as you're reading this, cause not all acl injuries mean surgery and out for 6 months, it may just mean you need to back off on any intense activity for a month or two. if not, then you may be looking at a meniscus injury. if you feel like your knee "clicks" or if it feels like it gets stuck when u bend your knee then this may be the problem. a meniscus tear is not usually that big of a deal, i personally have two torn meniscii and have never had surgery and i ski often.

word of advice... do yourself two favors, first ice it. 20 min on, 20 off, do this few times tonite. it will help with the pain and can reduce some of the swelling. try to elevate your legs while sleeping, this allows gravity to pull the fluids out of the knee... next instead of going to the hospital go to your orthopedist. trust me on this one, the hospital is not the right place to go because they do know the special tests used to differentiate between the specific tissues, they will do an mri and/or xrary and may not find anything, plus since its not an emergency they'll prob make u wait. the only reason for goin to the hospital in your case would be if you lose feeling or lose the ability to use your muscles, which is not something u should worry about. idk you so idk how old u are, but if u are in high school, then go see your school athletic trainer, he'll prob be able to check u out and give u very good idea of whats goin on. good luck with it and pm me if u have any questions, i'll answer to the best of my ability

i gotta correct myself real quick, the hospital does NOT know all the tests to determine the injury, my fault... orthopedists and athletic trainer have years of specialized training in determining signs, symptoms and injury presentation. ER docs, although they are usually awesome, they dont always specialize in a certain discipline, plus they're often in a rush...

The swelling started about 30 minutes after. I was able to ski down and get in the car alright. Driving also did not cause significant pain. it definitely feels unstable but i can still walk. my knee doesnt click. When I walk with my knee straightened i get pain on the inside about 3-4 inches below where the knee cap is.
I was planning on going to a doctor rather than the ER, because as you said they are much more helpful and know what theyre doing.

one more thing, I am not a doctor or anything but feeling around it feels like im pressing on a bone where it hurts, standing it feels like muscles but pressing on where it hurts i am pressing on bone. i know this is useless but worth a try.

thank you so much for your help, as if any of us got hurt i have the question jumping through my mind "when will i ski again?"

Chris wrote a pretty good experience post about ACL injuries. He'd be a good source as he's been through alot with his knees and is headed into surgery in a few weeks. NS name: casual

no problem, happy to help a fellow skier in anyway i can...

ok, after rereading and seeing what you just said, it now sounds like it maybe a tendon strain which would be cause by hyperextension. there is a bony landmark that seems like it is right where you might be pressing below the patella and inside. if it is where i'm thinking then the bony landlark is called the pes anserinus. there are 3 muscles that end in this same spot. again, w/o being there i can only make guesses, but there is definitely good hope for you to ski in the near future. i dont wanna tell too much cause i dont wanna get your hopes up and not to mention idk for sure whats wrong. but no clicking or sticking is a good sign, and the fact that there was not immediate swelling is good too. the ACL has a blood vessel that literally wraps around it, so with an ACL injury there is also injury to this blood vessel which causes the immediate swelling. thats not to say that there's not micro trauma to the ligament...

and btw, you sound pretty intelligent and not like some stupid kid who dosent know his ass from his elbow, but dont forget, if you released from your bindings and heard a pop you may have heard your boot coming outta your binding... just another thought to add

exactly my thoughts. Ive had injuries throughout the years and listen to doctors, my dad is a veterinarian so a lot of my injuries have been diagnosed by him. and btw im 18. I initially thought it was mcl, but the pain is not as direct as if it were torn but as if i had a severe bruise in one spot. I will follow up after i see a doctor. i might drive down the street to my friends whos dad has fixed my broken wrist and collarbone this evening

Anyone who has had a torn or partically torn MCL or ACL, were you able to move around without sever pain? or even make it down the mountain?

I have to agree on this. Also being a ATC, hospitals will at most give you a xray and splint/brace and refer you to a orthopedist.   so check up with your AT at your high school if you have one, and get your self into a orthopedist, more specifically a orthopedist with a specialty in sports medicine.

This is a hard question to answer. i have had athletes tear there ACL and walk around like there is nothing wrong at all. I have a athlete now that is 1 wk post injury and running around with a ACL and Meniscus tear, (not something im endorsing, but she is a pistol, and surgery is 1/12) But I also have had ones that are crippled. It all depends on the  person, their pain tolerance, and the severity of the injury they receive.

ya I see going to the ER for a knee injury assessment as entirely pointless. When I hurt my knee I just made an appointment with a knee doctor right away. you're going yo have to see one eventually and can't ski in the mean time anyways so there's not much to gain from the ER other than waiting for hours and picking up a thousand new strains of viruses and bacteria.

Good luck, I ended up just having a strained mcl and that just requires resting for a while till it stops hurting. Yours sounds entirely different though so I can't help you much.

well fudge, my parents said they will only pay for a doc if its still hurting in a week which hopefully it will not. I went to bed with it feeling ok, i could bend its slowly without significant pain. I woke up its swollen a lot, especially the bumps on the inside, above and below the knee.

Dr. NS isnt the same thing as a real doctor

hahaha most definitely not the same or effective...
im just sitting at home bored, cause i cant be skiing right now :(

WTF your parents won't take you in?  That's not good.  If it is something bad you are making it worse by waiting.  But if you have to wait, keep icing it and take Ibuprofen (aka advil) for the swelling and see if it goes down.  Try to stay off of it and definitely try to get someone to look at it ASAP.  Someone with med experience can at least make an educated guess on the severity of the injury.

If you heard a pop then most likely It's your Acl and its prolly torn.  I just torn my last football season and When it happened that's what i heard.

If it was 3 or 4 inches below knee cap on the inside of your leg, It may be the tendon running from your hamstring around your knee to your shin. The hyper extension may have  pulled it. This is the same tendon they remove for acl reconstruction. Although i believe hyper extension can cause a pcl or acl tear also.

^word son.

they don't remove it entirely, they take a graph out of it. (usually two) stitch them together and that becomes the new ACL graph. its pretty neat to watch them do it during surgery.

kinda same thing happend to me. i hit my knee hard on a rail first day. i waas in pain but skied down fine. took off my boot walked on it for a while then it started swelling up fast. i didnt hear a pop like you did. but it ended up being a fractured knee cap. hope you have a speedy recovery