Advice on new project

[Tom C]

Well I am a little worried.. I just started a rehab project on a new rental that I picked up this month and the other day I was fixing the plumbing. This was a total mess. The homes been empty for almost 2 years and all of the water lines are steel. When I turned on the main, all of the dried dirt insides the lines clogged every shut off valve in the house. Which meant that I had to replace all of the shut off's and faucets.

So while I was running up and down the stairs from the upstairs bathroom to the basement turning the water on and off, priming each line, I must have twisted my knee and tore some ligaments, because it has hurt since last Saturday morning and swelled up yesterday, after I worked on my knees the night before, oh and it hurts like hell. I've tried to ignore it and continue working on the house, which I think has made it worse.

I can't afford any down time on this house. We are going on a weekend long vacation next month and that will only prolong this rehab. Not sure what to do at this point. There is not enough money in the budget to sub the work out and if I go to the DR, I am afraid of what he is going to say. I would like to at least work through the pain and get this done and worry about the consequences later, but I don't know enough about knee injuries to understand what kind of damage I could cause.

My wife is a nurse, so of course I can't trust her opinion.. :) I need some diehard rehabbers advice as to what you would do in this situation?

BTW: I think it is a MCL tear due to the location of the swelling.