Advice on knee surgery

[azdave]

I will be scheduling my knee surgery tomorrow. Torn meniscus, hard cartilage injury. Polishing, drilling little holes to help the cartilage and fixing the meniscus. Anyone go through this? If so would you do it again? Doc states 6 weeks back to normal activities another couple of weeks after that and I should be back on the ice. Treu?

[kmacatc]

Sounds to me like it might be a little more than 6 weeks. If it was just a straight torn meniscus, 6 weeks would sound about right (maybe even a little conservative). But if they are working on the articular cartilage (hard cartilage), that usually requires a period of non weight bearing (6 weeks or so) depending on what exactly they do. Just make sure you do your PT and take care of your knee and you'll be back on the ice sooner rather than later.

Good luck
Kelly

[alex40]

Ive just had mine done about 3 weeks ago. They repaired my cartilage with key hole surgery and i think its gone fine up to now. Although i wont be able to tell if its worked until i hit the ice again.

I was walking around the day after although it was quite painful/uncomfortable and now im walking around like normal. They gave me a full leg brace to stop me bending my knee more than 90 degrees and ive just about got used to it. I was also told it would be 6 weeks until i could start working out again but i recon it will be quite some time before i can play hockey again because my leg's become very weak and ive lost loads of muscle already. I'd still have it done again though, it was my only option.

hope this helps.

[puckmeethoof]

Depending on the type of meniscus injury and repair, 6 weeks isn't unreasonable. Though with meniscus repairs, if they say nonweight-bearing, they *mean* it. Only certain parts of your meniscus can be repaired/heal, whereas other parts (non vascularized) must be shaved/trimmed off. If it's a REPAIR, they do need you off it for up to 6 weeks. People who have it shaved off are often fine within the week or so.

Buck up little camper -- meniscus might be painful, but it's not severe as far as time goes (or $$, compared to other knee surgeries *cough*)