Torn Meniscus

[robert]

My wife just found out that she has a torn left medial meniscus. She will probably have arthroscopic surgery in the next two weeks to remove the torn area. Has anyone out there had the surgery? How was the recovery? We have a friend who had it and his recovery was much slower than what I have been reading online and what the doctor told her. The Dr. said walking without crutches two days post-op. My friend didn't walk at all for three days and had to use crutches after that. He was out of the hills for three months, but the Dr. said that most people are back to full sports activity within 6 weeks. What has been your experience?

 

Thanks.

[CPOly]

I'm sorry to hear that. I did the same thing playing soccer about 7 years ago. I also had arthroscopic surgery to remove the torn area. While in there they drained a little fluid as well and I got to take home some neat pictures. Recovery time for me was fairly quick. I think I was on crutches for a little less than a week. After that it was about another couple of weeks before I was out running around again. Knees are no fun when injured, I'm pretty much done playing competitive soccer because I want to save my knees. I partially tore my MCL about 2 years ago while playing soccer yet again. That was a frustrating injury. My advice would be not to rush recovery time, your body will tell you when it's ready to roll again. Until then take it easy and don't do anything that causes even the slightest pain. Good luck and let me know how things progress.

[mtnear]

I had surgery for torn posterior miniscus in late April. I'm still recovering/rehabing. Surgery was screw down the flap, not snip-snip removal like other miniscus repairs. (removal would have removed too much in my case)

 

I was in extreme pain for 3 days and didn't walk until the 4th (one crutch by the 5th, no crutch by the 6th day). I was in a foam walking brace for 6 weeks - too keep from twisting. Doctor says he will cut me loose completely end of July... meaning total time from surgery day back to climbing is 3 months.

 

I'm 7 weeks out now and I can stationary and road bike, I can walk and do honey-do chores and crap around the house. Can't jump or run but I did build new back stairs and completed a 4-mile round trip hike (with toddler in Kelty pack) Memorial weekend.

 

So yeah you will spend some time out of the saddle and yeah it sucks considering the great weather we've had the past few weeks... but be patient and don't rush it.

[CatManDoo]

I just had the surgery this past April 20. I gimped around without crutches for day 1 and 2....pain and swelling was worst days 3,4 and needed pain pills and crutches. Because I felt no pain day 1 and 2, too much activity on my part probably made the swelling worse days 3,4 so keep her off of her feet even if she feels she can get around !!! Things got progressively better after that and I was out mowing my lawn with a slight limp by 26th. The doc gave me the ok on the 28th to start workin it, so that weekend (2wks post) i was kickin steps up at Alpental for 1/2 mile or so. Got back on rock for the first time May 19th (1 month...although I felt I could have sooner) and last weekend (5 1/2 wks) went up Liberty Bell and had no problem with the approach or the rock. I'm not a patient guy, but think I did good for not too fast or not too slow recovery. The doc said at only 2 days of pain pills needed, I was at the low end of the pain spectrum though and also I had a horizontal tear instead of a vertical tear which is much more common....so probably a lot of variation for folks. Good luck with it all. BTW my doc filmed mine and supplied a copy...cool to see what actually went on !

[rbw1966]

I had arthro surgery on a right medial meniscus tear something like 10 years ago. I never used crutches, never experienced much pain and was back to walking, biking and climbing stairs by day 3. I'm a wuss too--I'll take pain killers for a sore throat. I was back climbing rock within two weeks easy. I was too scared to do any running for a long time but since the surgery I've run a marathon.

 

Listen to your body--if it hurts stop doing it. Enjoy the video.

[robert]

Thanks guys. I figured that she would bounce back pretty quickly, and it looks like that should be the case. I don't think that she is going to watch the video though. The thought makes her sick.

[Dan_Harris]

I had arthro for my medial meniscus about 6 years ago. Surgery on a Thursday and back at work on Monday without crutches. 4 weeks later went backpacking. Alot of bike riding helped everything get back to normal. Good luck

[robert]

I have heard that biking has helped a number of cc.comers recover from knee problems. Thanks for the reminder.

[robert]

She got the MRI results back today and the doctor was right about the Meniscus, but she also torn her ACL. So the full activity after 6 weeks is out the window. It looks like she won't be back on the trail until next spring.

[hasbeen]

Well, six weeks is probably out of the question now... I tore my ACL (completely) in April of last year. I had surgery on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend last year and consider myself just about fully recovered. I was walking without crutches in about a week, bicycling on the road in about three weeks and went on some pretty good hikes by late July. I was skiing with no restrictions by late December and managed to ski pretty hard this spring. I am firmly convinced that one of the keys to recovery is a lot of bicycling (I commute to work by bike) both for quad strength and for range of motion. I did not have any meniscus tear and I understand that the meniscus repair may result in a longer recovery time because the knee often must be immobilized after the surgery for a time. If you want any information about the surgery and about what I went through in recovery, drop me a PM. Hope your wife has a sppedy recovery. Curt