Knee problem to order
I've been hand-waving a knee problem for a modern-day (well, maybe more like 2000, if that matters) athletic 16/17-year-old boy, enrolled in boarding school in Washington State but with local outside-of-school adult support and parents an hour or two away - i.e., he's not on his own really.
Symptoms to this point have been general knee pain; a feeling of knee instability; and occasional knee collapse if he puts too much of the wrong type of pressure on it.
I'm looking for a diagnosis that
(1) Could possibly be resolved by months of immobility/brace-wearing, plus major PT
(2) Is a good candidate for surgical repair, with a PT-compliant recovery time of 3-5 months (i.e., it's February, I want him able to play HS soccer in the fall - or at least to have this be his motivation). I want the surgery to be the more sensible option; to have it be worth missing some school for.
(3) Has an out-of-school hit of only a few days.
(4) Surgery should require general anesthesia.
I know there are various ligament injuries... I keep on trying to dive in and figure something out, but I get squicked quickly by reading/hearing about things medical in all but the most general of terms (though I don't actually mind dealing with blood/injuries IRL - go figure). If I have a diagnosis, I can deal enough to write the required 100-200 words of actual medical stuff, inside of 5,000 words of teen angst.
Symptoms to this point have been general knee pain; a feeling of knee instability; and occasional knee collapse if he puts too much of the wrong type of pressure on it.
I'm looking for a diagnosis that
(1) Could possibly be resolved by months of immobility/brace-wearing, plus major PT
(2) Is a good candidate for surgical repair, with a PT-compliant recovery time of 3-5 months (i.e., it's February, I want him able to play HS soccer in the fall - or at least to have this be his motivation). I want the surgery to be the more sensible option; to have it be worth missing some school for.
(3) Has an out-of-school hit of only a few days.
(4) Surgery should require general anesthesia.
I know there are various ligament injuries... I keep on trying to dive in and figure something out, but I get squicked quickly by reading/hearing about things medical in all but the most general of terms (though I don't actually mind dealing with blood/injuries IRL - go figure). If I have a diagnosis, I can deal enough to write the required 100-200 words of actual medical stuff, inside of 5,000 words of teen angst.