Subluxation or Dislocation?
Hi! I wanted to come on here and see if anyone might be able to help me. Obviously this is going to also be a question for my orthopedist but I wanted to see if anyone on here might know. I (22 f) have subluxated my kneecaps since I was 8. On my left knee i've only had it happen twice but on my right knee its been 15+ times. This last week I fully dislocated my right knee by slipping and I had to pop it back in myself (not fun).
The only other time I've remotely experienced something like this is when I was 12. I was climbing something at the playground and I took one wrong step up and my knee completely buckled and popped and I fell off. It felt like it was hanging on by a string and the swelling was ridiculous. I honestly don't remember what my knee looked like or if I felt an additional pop for the kneecap to go back into place or not. I genuinely would not look at my knee because it hurt so bad then. I went to the ER and they said I sprained it, then went to an orthopedist for the first time and from what I remember I think he said I'd most likely subluxated it. Until this point I had never gone to the doctors about my knees so I had no idea what was going on with them. I was told I have high kneecaps and the groove that the patella sits in is quite flat. I had to do physical therapy and was on crutches for weeks.
Since then i've subluxated them multiple times but never as bad as that one time until now. I'm usually back on my feet the next day with brace support and then out of the brace the next few days.
Because of last week's dislocation i'm actually wondering if the one I had when I was 12 was actually a full dislocation rather than a subluxation. Is it possible for a dislocation to happen but to pop back into place relatively quickly?
TL;DR:
I fully dislocated my knee last week and now I wonder if a subluxation I had when I was 12 was actually a full dislocation.