Soooo…about 6 months ago I injured my knee while running. One misdiagnosis and several sessions of physical therapy later but with no marked improvement, I’ve had an MRI and discovered that–oh goody–I have a torn medial meniscus and have to have surgery for it. Arthroscopic, outpatient, etc.
What have others experienced as a result of this type of surgery? Horror stories? Happy stories? Anything?
My mom just had this surgery last week. Her sister had the same surgery some years ago and fed my mom horror stories of a painful recovery, but then again my mom’s sister is obese, which means her knees were heavily loaded when walking. I called my mom a couple of days after the surgery, and she was happy and fine; she said there was some pain, but she had only taken one pain pill during one night, none during the days, and was even able to get around without the walker she had picked up in anticipation of a miserable recovery.
If you injured it while running, I’ll guess you’re a healthy not-elderly person of approximately normal weight to begin with, so that bodes well for you. Beyond that, I’d expect it’ll depend on how severe the damage was to begin with.
I had this done athroscopically.
They made 3 tiny nicks in my knee, only 2 of them needed a single stitch each, the other was so small it needed nothing.
I had no pain afterwards but when I tried to walk after about 5 hours post op I felt like my knee was going to give way because it was so spongy with the fluid they used to irrigate it. That spongy feeling lasted about 24 hours. No pain at all, no meds needed, stitches out in 7 days.
They took out both medial and lateral menisci as I had a bucket handle tear.
Less pain than having your teeth scaled.
This sure is a far cry from when I had the surgery about 30 years ago (insert obligatory “Young whippernappers” here). Really bad pain for about 5 days, a cast for 6 weeks, but a nifty 12-inch scar to brag about, so it all balanced out.
Had it done to my right knee back in the early 80’s, the early days of arthroscopy. The recovery time was 2-3 weeks if I recall, with lots of physical therapy.
Had the other knee done in 2001 the day before 9-11. I was home and remember walking around making phone calls as events developed the next day. About what Marmite Lover describes. They really improved the techniques over the years and I’m sure it has gotten better in the last 10.
The anesthesia was worse than the knee pain.
Had it a couple of years ago. As ML says, it was extremely uneventful. Can’t even see the scars today. The night of the surgery I went to my BIL’s 50th b-day party. Maybe overdd it a tad as it ached a bit - not too much - the next day. When I went for PT a couple of weeks or so later, they basically said I already had great function and there was nothing they could do for me other than to tell me to keep doing exercises and to not bend it past 90 degrees for a while.
I’m feeling like I got the short end of the meniscus stick. I had surgery to repair both medial and lateral menisci of my left knee in 1992. I was a 19 year old varsity athlete, so definitely in good health. One side was done arthroscopically, but I had maybe a two inch incision for the other side. I was not allowed to put weight on my knee for six weeks after the surgery. This is not a good way to spend the fall quarter of one’s second year of college. As a bonus, it was discovered during surgery that I also completely ruptured my ACL and the surgeon recommended against repairing it to my parents. Why, yes, I am still pretty damn grumpy about that.
Thanks for the replies! Hopefully things will go well.
I think I’m put off by the idea of surgery more than anything since I’ve only ever had my wisdom teeth out. Anesthesia was not too bad then, although I was definitely loopy afterwards.
I’m in a similar boat to PoorYorick, I had a torn ACL and meniscus repaired about 20 years ago. A week in hospital, 6 weeks on crutches, and loads of physical therapy. I’ve got two long scars, 3 small ones, and an airport wand metal detector will beep when it finds the screw.
I had arthroscopic surgery for a torn medial meniscus early last October. The tear was in an area that would not heal so the doctor removed the torn part and cleaned up the edges.
I walked out of the hospital in a heavy wrap without any pain but was stiff and sore the next day.
I did a month of physical therapy two or three times a week to regain strength and range of motion. It was painful but tolerable. At the end of that time I could walk about a mile semi-comfortably and could resume light running about a month later. Improvement was gradual but steady.
Now, about eight months later I’m running almost pain free, with just occasional soreness. I’m almost 60 years old so several other things hurt worse than my knees on a run. I’m planning on racing again in early August.
Work hard at your physical thereapy, and good luck!
This is almost exactly the same experience I had. I tore both after 20 years of running while training for ultra marathons. About a year later, had the other knee done, just as uneventful, except that I got a blood clot in my calf. So, a warning, talk to the doc before surgery to see what you should do if this happens.
Mine was done on a Thursday, and I was taking it easy Fri and Sat when noticed a very bad pain in my calf. i called the doc’s emergency number and he told me to get right to the ER immediately.
The MRI confirmed it and I got some shots of a anticoagulant and a scrip for Coumedin. It went away after a little time. I read about this and found that it was not uncommon, as they put a tourniquet on the leg to keep the knee free of blood while looking around inside, and this sometimes causes a clot.
This was about ten years ago, so things might be safer today, but ask your doc anyway. In any case, after this was taken care of, had no problems at all with either knee post-surgery. Good luck.
I had a buckethandle tear in my meniscus about 5 years ago. Since it was in the vascularized region, my doctor repaired the tear instead of removing it. That meant that I had to be non-weight-bearing for 4 weeks post-surgery. Not being able to bear weight on that leg was, by far, the worst part of the whole deal. It really wears you out and makes every day tasks much more difficult. However, if there isn’t a repair, you should be able to walk out of the recovery room.
Other than that, the surgery was easy. It was scheduled for 8 AM and I was back home in bed by noon. The pain wasn’t too bad, especially if I was diligent about icing my knee. If you do start feeling pain, take a pain pill ASAP. Pain pills prevent pain much more effectively than they chase it.
The first couple of rehab appointments were tough, but after that it was fine. It did take longer than I thought to get back to full range of motion. It was well past six months before I would squat to get something off the floor.
I had the left done 2 years ago and the right 5 years ago. One thing I wish I hadn’t done was have the first surgery in the winter-- it was terrible for those few days on crutches to be worrying about snow and ice. I took a long weekend off work each time, and had two weeks of “tabletop” work after that, no bending down to the floor. I was able to start going on walks after about a week, running after 6 weeks with a slow ramp-up to playing soccer again after 3 months. Probably took a year to feel totally recovered. Some percoset the first few days but then just the occasional NSAID. Was definitely worth it; it’s hard to believe a little fraying of that cartilage could cause such chronic pain.