Dislocated knee!!

Last week I dislocated my knee cap in an ill-advised 'It's a Knockout' style competition. Have a knee support and crutches and an appointment with a physio and fracture clinic and can't put any weight on it at all at the moment. Looks like running is going to be out of the question for a whole. Has anyone else injured themselves in this way? What is the realistic recovery time for an injury like this? Is there anything I can do to speed up the recovery period?

Hi Vicky,
Sorry to hear about your injury, sounds painful.
Recovery is very variable with this injury and it depends on whether anything else was injured at the time. Have you had an X-ray or scan?
In my experience if it's a simple dislocation of an otherwise healthy knee people can return to running but it can take time. It'll probably be around 3 to 6 month I'm afraid. Your Physio should be able to give you more guidance of prognosis and what to do when you see them, for the mo I would just wait and see, best not to start exercises and things until you've been examined.
Good luck
Tom

I dislocated my knee doing judo many years ago when i was about 15 years old.  I seem to remember through the blur of "why is my knee cap round there" and "owww that hurts", a physio who just happened to be watching grabbed my kneecap and re-positioned it correctly.  I was x-rayed and strapped with elastic/crepe bandages which i was meant to keep on for 10 weeks and TOTAL REST.  Being the active type, and living close to a beach and it being summer, I used to limp or beg a lift to the beach 'to watch the sea', but in reality I removed the bandages and went swimming gently in the sea from about 3 weeks afterwards.  I then strapped up my knee again and went home.... my mum guessed what I had been doing as my suntan extended the full length of my leg, instead of having a white patch in the middle.  However, I did recover, I did continue with judo/ karate and took up running later in life and have had no problems.  There is a future for you! 

Thanks guys. Glad to hear that others have suffered the same injury and managed to heal and get back to running. Think it is gonna be a long rehab process before I can get back to pounding the pavements but looking forward to being stronger than ever