How long would you wait before calling the doctor?

I give most minor injuries 5 to 7 days, with rest to see if they get better.  Also gives some time to see if bruising and swelling is going to come or go.  With that said though, the fact that it's bothering you enough to ask the question, I say go see a doctor. 

We have very different opinions about surgery.  I had two docs tell me earlier this year that I'd probably need surgery if I ever wanted to run again.  FWIW- I ran 19 miles on Saturday, and another 10 this morning.

Edited by morey000 2010-11-29 3:48 PM

Yeah, I was thinking about a week but I'm just flipping out a bit. I've been fortunate enough to only have one "real" injury (last winter - irritated meniscus - couldn't run for around 8 weeks) so I think I may just need a big dose of HTFU until the end of the week. Thanks for the response. It's good to hear what other people do when faced with similar situations.

I have life insurance that pays me $100 every time I visit the doctor or emergency room for any type of injury.  I would go right away just to collect.  My co payments even after an x-ray is usually about $15...so that's $85 profit.

The catch being that you have to go to the emergency room or your doctor within 72 hours of the injury.  Of course for something like knee pain, they can't prove when you had the injury...unlike road rash from a crash. 

agree on this.  had a doc look at my arm dislocation a few years back for a whopping 2 mins tops and tell me i needed surgery despite everything i had read about the type of injury online.  second opinion nixed that.  same with the mrs on a sprained ankle.  personally i think the better course of action is to give it a week and then ease back into it and reassess.  had this with a possible stress fracture in top of foot and it ended up not being anything.  if its sharp pain all the time doing your normal stuff, by all means get it checked out.  but if its incurred primarily while exercising, give it some time and see how it goes.

Personally, i'd wait a week or more.

I'd ice often, advil or similar, and don't do things that hurt it.

A lot of these things are going to heal quickly with rest (note not everything, but be smart about it and "most" of the time you should be ok).

If it gets worse/does not get better, by all means give them a call.


I've had countless things like that pop up in the past 5 years, a few days of rest/smarter/reduced training and care and they are fine.

Unless its something serious they are going to tell you the same things that you should already be doing for it.

no exercises that includes your knee and ice it down and if its not better in a week go to the doctor. I wish i had and i would not be physical therapy with my knee right now.

This sounds an awful lot like a medial meniscus injury. The quick inner pain. The twanging feeling, etc. If you dont want to pay for a doctor anytime soon, just rest and ice and see if you can recover. The reason I say that, is that if you go to the doctor, hes going to x-ray, he's going to show you where a portion of your meniscus did in fact come off/chip off/slice off/etc...and he's going to recommend surgery....when in fact, surgery is only ONE OPTION, if rest does not first resolve it.

I think that if most of us had full xrays done of our knees, after a lifetime of sports and running, and so on, we would find anomalies that would have been recommended for surgery if the doctor has been there early on to see the injury....but in many cases, we rest a little, and press on, and the body learns to adapt to the change in cartilage, tendons, etc. So rest first...if problem comes back, and you have some "locking up" going on, it becomes more and more a candidate for xray/surgery.

Just my two cents, as a medial meniscus surgery "survivor" (EIGHT MONTHS ON CRUTCHES....doc said it was routine...when I woke up from surgery it was "a little bit worse than we expected".....hahaha)

DISCLAIMER:  this is not considered professional medical advice; this is just my internet doctoring opinion, having never met you, never examined you, never imaged you. etc.  

give it 1-2 weeks of rest, anti-inflammatories when needed (or if it's always bugging you, try a full 1 week course of twice a day aleve,) ice it ... but make sure to keep it moving.  people with knee twangs and pangs here or there who just stop using their knee regularly end up with stiff knees.

and, like one person mentioned:  a meniscal tear does not always equal surgery.  in fact, if you do some research in the medical/orthopaedic sports literature, you'll see that a good percentage of acute meniscal tears become asymptomatic within 3 months of taking it easy, rehab, anti-inflammatories, etc.  there's still debate out there as to whether a tear increases your arthritis risk over your baseline risk as an athletic person - especially minimally symptomatic tears.  AND a huge percentage of adults over the age of about 45 have asymptomatic meniscal tears.  

TL;DR:  give it some time, rest, ice, nsaids, gentle ROM, etc.

cheers,
your friendly orthopaedic surgeon.  (sorry for the disclaimer above; CYA always necessary on the interwebz.)    

I would probably call and set up an appointment just because some orthos take 2-3 weeks to get in. If things improved I'd cancel.

Depends what type of doctor you want to see and if you have been a patient it may take awhile to get an appointment.

Thanks for the responses, everyone.  It looks like the general consensus is to give it a week, which is what I will do.  Maybe Santa can give me a big helping of patience this Christmas! 

Thanks again. 

I go every two or three YEARS and then only under protest.

That's what I was thinking!