Edema and Squats

[billc]

Mark,

6'6" 253 in my 6th week of SS
SQ 185
OP 100
BP 150
DL 265

About 12 days ago I attempted to squat 245 and failed the last rep of the 3rd set. When I failed it I did a 1/2 squat and injured my knee. Last week had an MRI, yesterday the doc told me I had an edema on my lateral tibia.

After the injury and before the diagnosis I quit doing power cleans and dropped my squat to 135. Since then I've started working back up, watching my form. Last night I squatted 185, today my knee is more irritated than 24 hours ago. Is this edema something I should work through, or skip squats and deadlifts for a couple of workouts and let it recover? I'm concerned that if I continue to irritate the tibia the edema may not go away.

[Mark Rippetoe]

"Edema" is not a diagnosis, it is a symptom. "Edema" means swelling, probably a little "water on the knee." Get a better doctor, or better yet, learn to train through these things. There are millions of posts on this board about injuries, and you have not looked at any of them.

[ascb]

Typically when we say edema(I'm a radiologist) we are suggesting bone contusion or microfracure without a discrete fracture line. I'd be be careful and go see an orthopedic surgeon. You don't want it to progress to a true tibial plateau fracture. If it's just "water on the knee" as rip suggested that's a joint effusion and there are a million causes. I'd get a copy of the report.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Typically when we say edema(I'm a radiologist) we are suggesting bone contusion or microfracure without a discrete fracture line.

And now we get a glimpse of how Shit Happens.

[billc]

Mark,

There is one post directly related to edema. The doctor warned me that continuing to squat while on edema could cause it to harden and become permanent. I was hoping you had some experience with training on an edema, and whether this is an appropriate injury to train through.

ascb,

I went to the "knee guy" at an orthopedic practice, he does lots of surgeries. His patient population seemed to be older folks, certainly not weightlifters.

Here are the images in which he pointed out the edema.
http://imgur.com/a/1Movc

[Mark Rippetoe]

Doesn't look to me like a lot of your meniscus is still there. Did he happen to mention this?

[billc]

Did not mention the meniscus specifically. The radiologist reported that I had type 2 and type 3 cartilage in my knee. Type 1 is perfect and type 4 is bone on bone.

Its my understanding that this contrast shows bone, the other contrast shows soft tissue, so what you're seeing may be the effect of the contrast.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I was concerned about the spacing.

[billc]

Here is the knee from anterior to posterior in a different contrast.

http://imgur.com/a/z6g8U

[Mark Rippetoe]

Much better view.