Hey guys!
I fell while walking down the street on Saturday. Stupid, I know. Luckily I was quick enough to drop the bags I was carrying and lean my hands on the floor becase otherwise my face wouldn't look so good today:p Anyways, both my knees hit the floor and they are actually sort of burnt. I have two purple circles with a little bit of raw flesh in the middle (very small spot). It hurts though, especially when I move my knee. But I don't want to put off exercising! I started 2 weeks ago and was already feeling a lot better...
What do you all think? I was thinking walking on the treadmill and doing upper body strenght would be okay until the wound heals. It should take a week. What about pilates minus the moves were your knee flexes? Ballet?
Aaaagh this is killing me!
Please advice
Thanks!!;)

My thought is that if you're in pain, give yourself a rest for a few days until you start to feel better. I was suffering with fibrositis last week in my legs and back. I just started on my treadmill again the past two days, but yesterday I could feel my legs starting to tighten up a little and I had to ice my back afterwards, so I skipped working out today. Only you know your own body, so listen to your instincts!

Hm. I don't see why you would need to put off exercise unless you have injured the knee itself-- meaning below the surface. Do you have limited range of motion that is painful? Or is it just the "scabs" pulling apart (sorry for that gross image) that is painful?

I say whatever you can do without pain is probably ok. If you're walking ok, it's probably just the scrapes that are bothering you-- which, in my opinion, probably shouldn't affect whether or not you exercise....

I don't know, though-- I guess the best advice is to just listen to your body, if it hurts-- limit the movement there for a day or two....

Hope you heal fast!

I agree with Mere. If you can move your legs as usual, and the knee joints don't hurt, then I think it's okay to exercise. If it's the skin and raw wound hurting, I think you stop working out for a few days so that the wound can heal. Otherwise, it'll take a long time to heal if you're constanting moving that area. HTH.

Ballet is going to really pull at your knees so that I would stay away from. If I were you, I would do weights and walking for the next couple days until they clear up.

Thanks for your replies!
I talked to a friend of my mom who's also a plastic surgeon and she told me it's gonna take 6 months for the skin to heal and it's gonna hurt every time I bend the knee, so I might as well get used to it. I'm gonna walk and do upper body exercises for the next few weeks, and I'll try to do Pilates and stop when it hurts. I'll go back to ballet next week if I feel better.
It HAD to happen when I was starting to enjoy exercising, huh.:(

Whattt????? 6 months for the skin to heal????

That sounds a little crazy--- I've skinned my knees many a time, and recently too. It has never taken that long. Are your scrapes incredibly deep or something?

I'm wondering the same as Meredith...I skinned my knees a lot as a kid, and usually it hurt for a week.

Reading this again, I realized it made me sound like I thought you were crazy-- but I really just mean that I'm not quite sure what the dr. was talking about.

Yeah, I though it was a bit crazy too!!
The only other time my skin was open was when I had surgery on my knee to remove a cyst. I had a couple of stitches but was dumb enough to avoid resting for the following few days so the skin isn't flawless now. The point is, it hurt for a couple of days, and after that, it was a weird annoying feeling (because it was just over the joint) but nothing to write home about. What DID happen was, everytime I was in my ballet class and we were stretching and I had to lean that part of the knee on the floor or deeply bend it, it DID bother. So my guess is, it'll be the same as before.
But you know how doctors are... they usually exaggerate to extremes!
I'm definitely going back to ballet next week. It's not like a little pain will stop me.:D
Thanks for your input!!

I think the 6mo thing sounds odd too. I scraped my knees really bad one time (no injuries other than the scrped skin), and my biggest obstacle was bending my knees all the way without opening up the wounds/scabs. Keep them moist (vaseline or similar). My Dr says moist wounds heal with less chance of scarring as well.