Tore something in my knee

Sorry for the long post coming up but here's what happened.

While I was doing some jiu jitsu last week, my knee made a loud pop. I was setting up a heel hook on a standing opponent, so my leg was wrapped high around hi leg and rested on his hip, he turned quickly and then me knee just went pop!

There was slight pain when it first happened, but I was still walking relatively fine.

The next day, Friday, it swelled quite a bit and I couldn't walk at all. I could out weight on the foot or extend my knee much. Saturday was pretty similar. I thought for sure that a tendon was torn and I was going to have to have surgery, but there was a lot of relief in pain by Sunday.

Tuesday, I was hobbling around here and there, but I layed around 95% of the time. By Friday I was walking probably 85% pain free and now, I can walk pain free. I cannot squat low though which causes quite a bit of pain... Lousy untied shoes.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure that my lcl is the tendon that got messed up. I really just wanted to see if anyone has gone through something similar and if it'll be okay for me to let it heal without seeing a doctor.

I have experienced this sort of thing with no ill effects, however frankly knees (and backs, particularly lower) are so delicate and vulnerable that they scare the s*** out of me and I don't want to advise you

 

Most memorably I had this in my elbow after a day of muscle ups (maybe 2 years ago-- was just learning them) and then had a figure four slammed on and rolled over by a heavy guy-- audible pop that stopped us both and benched me for training that night, thought it was a nasty thing, but didn't experience any issues with movement. It swelled up over the next day or so, expressed itself similar to tendonitis, and dissipated in about 10 days. I iced it to keep the swelling down and rested it pretty much totally for that period.

 

Best is to get checked of course, to rule out anything more serious, but if it is getting better then anecdotally minor sprains are not such a big issue, as long as you let them heal fully and don't promote a recurring problem.

Since I have broken my knee cap, in my past, and get to deal with occasional knee pops that are similar to when knuckles are cracked. I am going to second getting your knee looked at by a doctor.