Am I getting the right treatment? Two partial tears in knee

I injured my knee on December 11th.
The ER put me in full leg immobilizer that I could still slightly bend my knee in since I can't get it straight.

Dec 18th I got an MRI and was told I had Partial tears on BOTH my patellar ligament and the medial patellar retinaculum

Jan 3rd. first avail ortho appointment. Ortho said I had been in the wrong brace, and prescribed a new one. He said I "really needed PT now" but my appointment for PT is Feb 3rd. This is the "earliest" appointment they had available. I was told not to use crutches at all.

I go in to see him again today due to me still have pretty bad pain with his brace.

I have been reading that you should be in PT or have a surgical consult within weeks of the injury...I'm almost at the 2 month mark. My pain, while not as bad as in the beginning is still pretty high up there.... and  I still cannot get my leg straight all the way.  It's hard to find information on having two tears but what I have seen, it seems that I'm basically screwed now. Is the true? Am I going to lose function in the knee due to having to wait so long for PT? Do you think surgery would be an option I need to really look at? Is 2 months a long enough period of time to get scar tissue or ligament shortening?

I'm at a loss now and scared. I'm only 26 and im hobbling around like an old lady.


More on the pain ect.... but not really needed to answer the questions I have, but adding it just in case

Current movement as of today - I don't know any degrees but I can grit my teeth and manually push my leg to where about 4 or 5 inches is below my knee when sitting on a floor.  I can't really get it to go straight not using my hands to push my leg down. I *cannot * to this day fully extend my leg without horrible horrible pain. Bending, I can sit crosslegged with pain so I'd say I can get it to bend pretty well. However, if I were to give you an approximation of movement without any or minimal 1-2 pain, then I'd say I have hardly any movement abilities.

I have a distinct throbbing right on or under (can’t pinpoint) under my kneecap. Plus my whole knee area feels like it's on fire. This is pretty constant but gets HORRIBLE if I accidently straighten my leg the whole way. ( I haven't tried to do it since, but sometimes when unbraced to ice it, I forget and tweek it)

For the Medical patellar retinaculum, I can't find hardly any information on it what so ever.  I do know where it is because im having what I can only describe as sharp searing pain on that side. It's not as horrible as the top part of my knee, but it's got its moments too.

The brace this doctor gave me makes it worse. It has a triangle piece that I put in the side of my kneecap then I wrap the brace around to hold it in place. Usually I can only keep this one on 2 to 3  hours then I switch to the one the chiro gave me. The one he gave me immobilizes the kneecap as well, but by using Velcro and straps across the top. Both braces still hurt me more than no brace at all as long as I don’t straighten my leg out.

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

Well, without knowing the relevant clinical details such as the extent of tear etc or a detailed clinical evaluation it would be difficult to comment specifically on the situation; while surgery may not be required in all cases. Though early physiotherapy is best effective, there is not harm done if it is slightly delayed. I would suggest going ahead with the physiotherapy as prescribed by the orthopedician for a few weeks. If there does not seem any improvement in the following weeks, you may seek a review with your treating orthopedician for a possible change in the management plan.
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!