Brief Medical History Overview
Old torn hamstring injury
I tore my hamstring 6 months ago... strangely, it was not painful at all, just very swollen and I couldn't straighten my leg. I took a course of anti-inflamatories and physio and got the swelling down.
The problem is that in the past month I've began climbing mountains again - a 9 hour to 12 hour day is common with 3000 feet of gain - and the swelling around the knee is returning slightly - much, much less swelling- it's hardly noticable - when I straighten my leg, there's normally a little divot on the outside of the kneecap, but on the injured leg this divot is about half filled with fluid... otherwise the knee looks normal. I also have a small bulge in the inner back of my leg again where the original tear was, so maybe I've retorn is slightly? Even with this, I CAN straighten my leg completely and walk without pain and without a limp. However it gets a bit tight once in a while, so I stretch.
I'm concerned about it, but I can't put off my life forever! And in one week I'm supposed to go on a 47km backpack trip over 4 days. This will not involve the massive elevation gain of my other activities which aggravated the hamstring, but about 12km of walking with a backpack every day?
2 questions:
Since I can walk normal and have no pain, what should I do to get my knee so that it will not swell (or re-tear if that is what has happened) after mountain climbing?
Should I go on this backpack trip?
Parry
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