I’m not asking for medical advice. I just want to hear other people’s experiences…
My wife had arthroscopic knee surgery (for a torn meniscus) over 3 weeks ago and her knee is still swollen. For those of you who have had this surgery, what was your experience with swelling? How long did it last for you? She’s icing it and doing PT. Did you find anything that helped lessen the swelling?
Thanks,
J.
… two people in the house have had the knee keyhole … I’ve had mine done twice and each time it took about 10 days to go down … but the female contender had a swollen knee for close to 3 weeks … not suggesting it is a male/female thing but more likely connected to how well you heal in general … I’m a quick healer, she’s not … but we are both healthy … do remember it was bloody uncomfortable and painful …
WoAus with the creaky knee
It depends on what exactly was done, the person, and what you mean by ‘swollen’. If the swelling is more three weeks post-surgery than it was the couple days after surgery, I’d contact the surgeon about it. On the other hand if the overall swelling has gone down, but it still swells a little after PT, that’s pretty normal and expected, and might continue for months.
[Of course, as you know, bottom line is the surgeon is the one to ask. I’d expect she’s probably got a follow-up appointment with the surgeon about now anyway. ]
I was fortunate and experienced little to no swelling.
The first time I went to P they were amazed at my function, ad said they basically had nothing to offer me.
Apparently recovering quickly from elective surgery is my superpower!
(Well, that and not reacting to mosquito bites!)
This.
Slight swelling three weeks after a meniscectomy is odd, but probably nothing to worry about. Increasing swelling is sign of an infection.
Generally, though, recovery time/swelling time depends on how much was done, whether there was joint effusion, stuff like that.
Hi there!
I had arthroscopic surgery on my left knee in June 2011 after falling on some ice in January 2011. According to my dr, I tore a tiny amount or meniscus when I fell, and they also discovered that I had tendonitis in the muscle above my kneecap. I’ve had lifelong knee problems, probably inherited from my father, who repetedly tore cartilage & has had several knee surgeries in his lifetime. Anywho, prior to surgery, I had a round of PT & a cortisone shot (which was the worst pain i’ve ever experienced…hurt worse than the initial injury & I couldn’t walk for almost a week afterwards). Nothing helped, so my dr resorted to surgery. I found out by looking @ my PT script that iI had cartilage removed & a synovectomy, which idk why the synovectomy was performed & can’t get an answer from the dr. Since the surgery, I have been on a number of NSAIDs, which have wrecked havoc on my stomach & have done little for me in the way of reducing any sswelling, & PT, which initially helped witha range of motion, & little else. It’s now 5 mos since my surgery, & i’m still swollen & in pain. My dr says the surgery was a success bc my pain is less than prior to surgery, but i’m still in a lot of pain & very frustrated. Any thoughts on this? How abnormal is it that i’m still swollen 5 mos down the road after surgery? I seem to be the only one concerned about the swelling, even though I have a blood clotting disorder (technically, i’m a thrombophiliac). Any thoughts/help would be AMAZING rt now…i’m desperate!
Dear stinaj,
I live in Ireland and had similar problem, no one would help me, apparently all was ok, but i was in pain!! fortunately I heard of a new hospital in Poland believe it or not, where people from all over the world are fixing their knees.
There is one doctor that in famous the most, I have heard he helped a boy who was told elsewhere that with his back injury he will never walk again 
I contacted them, emailed my MRI, scheduled surgery in 2 weeks. Now I am 2 weeks and one day after surgery, you basically walk a bit the next day, (under physio’s supervision) I started to drive a week after, I walk quite a lot!! apparently it is American Rapid Recovery my knee is a tiny bit swollen , therefore I am checking other people’s opinions on this but in general I want to tell everyone about this hospital, that’s how satisfy I am. Especially knowing that in a hospital in Ireland a friend of mine had a surgery five days before I did and she still can’t walk:-(
I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee two weeks ago today. ive been doing PT three times a week have seen my ortho one week ago and im still having a lot of swelling (2-3x’s normal size) most all the time. still having a lot of pain and have been running low grade fever on and off since surgery (temp100.9 at post op appt with ortho)also have been having heat coming from that knee some days more then others have said something to the dr and to PT and they keep saying its normal. I work in the medical field myself and I know that 9 out of 10 times these are signs of infection but not sure on how to get the dr to listen to me. has anyone else had to deal with this? if so what did you do to get the dr to finally listen to you? he has me going back to work in like 2.5 weeks but not sure how he expects that to happen when I still can’t walk without one crutch or cane d/t so much swelling.
Have had 14 knee surgeries, 7 each knee. Started with Meniscus tear repair and now just clean outs while I await the knee replacement toward the end of the year. All things being equal (meniscus repair), everybody is different. I’ve had a couple that had me back on my feet in no time and a couple that took a couple months to get back where I was prior. I ice them often, did stretching and range of motion exercises and tried to get back on my bike quickly. Pain should be your tell. If swollen with little pain it is healing normally. If swollen with pain especially on range of motion I would get back to the doc and have him take a look. If pain with swelling and redness and heat on the knee, most assuredly get back to the doc for an infection check. I would generally give it 2-3 weeks but if redness and heat appear I am all over the doc like ugly on an ape.
Note: this forum has helped me. I no longer think that I am a crybaby and not imagining the pain.
I regret having OS. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. The pain is worse than before the surgery. There are times that I would rate the pain scale 8-9. Prior to surgery, my knee would flare up making it difficult to walk, stabbing pains and knee didnt want to bend. The flare ups happened approx every 2-3 months. Rest, aleve and cortisone injections usually worked.
My family doctor finally ordered xrays. At this point, I was referred to an ortho surgeon. Mri showed torn meniscus and cyst. At the advice of the surgeon, I had OS surgery to fix the tear. The day after the surgery, I was up and walking per surgeon instruction. The surgeon said that I was doing well and PT was not needed. After a few weeks, the pain was back. Back to the surgeon, he ordered PT. I went 3x’s a week for 3 months. Range of motion improved. But I still have bad pain.
Another trip back to the surgeon. His reply, “your knee is fine. I don’t know what to tell you. I have patients that have total knee replacements and they still complain of pain.” I got the impression that he thinks it is phantom pain.
Sometimes the pain is unbearable. The stabbing pains wake me from sleep. My knee is swelled, has a knot above the knee. I still alternate heat n ice. I am living on Aleve and Vicodin. I cant walk more than 2 blocks without experiencing shooting pains and it wont bend.
I am attempting to find a “Ortho Knee Specialist” for a second opinion. My family doctor has also ordered multiple blood tests for lupus, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia.
I would welcome advice from anyone on additional ideas. thanks
Note: this forum has helped me. I no longer think that I am a crybaby and not imaging the pain.
I regret having OS. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. The pain is worse than before the surgery. There are times that I would rate the pain scale 8-9. Prior to surgery, my knee would flare up making it difficult to walk, had stabbing pains and knee didnt want to bend. The flare ups happened approx every 2-3 months. Rest, aleve and cortisone injections usually worked.
My family doctor finally ordered xrays. At this point, I was referred to an ortho surgeon. Mri showed torn meniscus and cyst. At the advice of the surgeon, I had OS surgery to fix the tear. The day after the surgery, I was up and walking per surgeon instruction. The surgeon said that I was doing well and PT was not needed. After a few weeks, the pain was back. Back to the surgeon, he ordered PT. I went 3x’s a week for 3 months. Range of motion improved. But I still have bad pain.
Another trip back to the surgeon. His reply, “your knee is fine. I don’t know what to tell you. I have patients that have total knee replacements and they still complain of pain.” I got the impression that he thinks it is phantom pain.
Sometimes the pain is unbearable. The stabbing pains wake me from sleep. My knee is swelled, has a knot above the knee. I still alternate heat n ice. I am living on Aleve and Vicodin. I cant walk more than 2 blocks without my knee without shooting pains and it wont bend.
I am attempting to find a “Ortho Knee Specialist” for a second opinion. My family doctor has also ordered multiple blood tests for lupus, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia.
I would welcome advice from anyone on additional ideas. thanks
Your story is exactly like mine. This is how I ended up on this sight, looking for the answer to how long will this pain and swelling last. It has been a month since they repaired a torn meniscus, still in pain, knee is still very swollen. My Ortho doc did not prescribed any PT, and researching the web, talking to our PT department at work, and the nursing staff at work this is very unusual. Every time I have seen my ortho doc he spends about 2 minutes. I think he is just a cookie cutter type of doctor that does not look at case to case. On top of that it is against their policy to prescribe any narcotic type of pain relief. The only thing he has ever prescribed is some kind of oil to rub on the knee, and when I got to the pharmacy, they say that is not covered by my insurance and the cost was $350. Told them they can go ahead and keep that. On top of all that this doctor charges my insurance $375 just for an office visit and 200 for xrays they already know they can not see the meniscus tear, thus why I had to get an MRI and wait over a month in pain before they even decided I needed surgery. Just really fed up with the medical system, and I work in the industry. No human compassion or empathy,.
Lots of my softball buddies have had this surgery. Recovery times all over the place. I’ve seen it six months. I got lucky, I guess, at less than two weeks.
I had a torn meniscus flap cut out almost 4 weeks ago. It was done on a Wednesday and I was back at work Monday. The only reason I needed crutches Monday was to keep my balance because the knee felt unstable. I got rid of the crutches 2 days later.
I did not go to any PT. I have a desk job but I do a lot of walking at work plus to get to my office I have to climb a flight of 24 stairs. I do this probably around 8 times a day.
The only pain I have now is an ache (2 or 3 on a pain scale of 10) that will go away if I get up and walk a little. The bigger problem is trying to sleep. In the 3 plus weeks since surgery, I have only slept through the night uninterrupted by knee pain maybe 4 or 5 times. I’ve tried on my back, on my side, knee elevated, knee not elevated, knee in brace, knee not in brace, on medication before bed, no medication before bed…etc… and nothing makes a bit of difference. The good news is, most of those nights have happened just in the past week.
My range of motion is already greater than it was before I went into surgery although I still have a large, swollen knot above my knee. It’s not hot and its not red so I assume it’ll just work itself away eventually. Constant icing and ibuprofen have done nothing to reduce the swelling in that one spot.
I had orthoscopic surgery done two weeks ago for a tear in my meniscus and ACL. Two weeks later I still need a walker for balance I can walk a little without it but I’m still a little wobbly.what concerns me is that I have a hematoma bruise about 4 inches from my knee that itches it did hurt but now it doesn’t and my whole leg is swollen to the ankle. Has anyone else experienced this.
Thanks for your time
Chilly
I had it done five weeks ago. Most (not all) of the swelling is gone, still hurts more than I’d like. had a follow-up with the doc last week, and I think he’s a little disappointed with my progress. I have another appointment in six (now five) weeks, where we will see how it is.
I had arthroscopic surgery a couple of years ago. My doctor didn’t find anything that he could fix, but he did find that I have no cartilage left (which is why it hurt) and that I had bone spurs and bits of stuff that were causing the locking and “giving out”.
He cleaned things out and basically send, you need a new knee, but you’re 42. You need to suck it up for the next ten years or so. Fifteen, if you can manage it.
I was up and around with no problems within a few days, and even back to wearing high heels in a week or so. Hey, the knee is already fucked up…
I did have swelling for about six weeks. Nothing major, but the knee that had the surgery was fatter than my other knee. It was February. I was wearing pants anyway.
To the folks who are having ongoing pain post-surgery: get a second opinion. If your pain is high, try a pain management clinic. I get steroid injections into my knee every 3-4 months as needed. You can also get injections of fluid supplementation to help cushion the knee joint.
I had arthroscopic surgery in the right knee, way back in 1980(!), and again in 1990. There’s basically no cartilage left; it’s bone-against-bone. I’m definitely a candidate for knee replacement. I don’t recall a huge amount of swelling; just pain that lasted about a week or two.
In the 1980 surgery, I was the first person to have it in that particular hospital. At that time, the patient had to stay in the hospital overnight. The MRI was in a separate building that wasn’t finished. No heat. Things were very different by 1990, and obviously even more different now.