Okay, so it's ONLY the meniscus...

Sorry to hear about your knee Circue. Hope you recover and don't lose too much of your motorcycle riding season. My daughter had ACL and meniscus surgery in Dec. The operation went 4 1/2 hours and the main reason was the Doc was trying to save her meniscus. It too a long time to put the stiches in. He showed me pictures of the surgery and told  what he did. The best I can remember of what was said ,( I am not a doctor), is that the meniscus is sort of horseshoe shaped and hers had a partial tear where it looked like it was sliced and a flap was hanging off. Approx 1/2 of this horseshoe shaped piece was like this. He really wanted to save it so there was 7 stitches  that will permanently stay in. His hope is that it will stay together and heal up, only problem he mentions is that the tear was on the side of the meniscus towards the outside of the knee that does not have good or any blood flow. The part that was not damaged has good blood flow. The blood flow helps in the healing process. So far her rehab is going good, although for a 16 year old one of the 1st things she wants to be able to have the ok from the Doc is to wear heels. Girls huh? If your knee is trashed what about a whole knee replacement, is that an option? Good luck with it.

Cirque, I tore my meniscus a few years back (maybe 5 now?) and had a lot of locking and catching. The only treatment I used was lots of cycling. It hasn't bothered me one bit for a couple of years now. All they can do in surgery is take away the bad parts, and it won't grow back, if you can get it to calm down through exercise, I think that beats surgery any day.

I had a bucket handle tear of my medial meniscus and a small but deep tear of my lateral meniscus (along with my 2nd blown ACL).  After seeing the MRI, the Dr gave me the option of waiting on the ACL, but said he needed to fix the bucket handle tear ASAP as each step I took on it could be causing more damage as it was folded over upon itself.  I chose to have the ACL fixed at the same time. 

 

Fast forward almost 11 months and I have skied about a dozen days on it and the knee feels very good- stable, pain-free, no catching/locking and nothing significant in the way of swelling.   At the last two appointments the Dr said the ACL felt great and that he was actually more concerned about the meniscus as he did a lot of work there- he said there was some chance that if something "broke free" and caused locking/catching/serious swelling, that he may have to go back in and clean it up at some point.

 

Best of luck!

I had about 2/3 of the meniscus removed after a triple tear when I was in my early 20's. My knee kept swelling up every few days and it was at times painful.  Eventually had arthroscopic surgery, and after walking with a cane for a few weeks, all was good.  Except I can't really take the impact of running for very long, so no jogging for me.  Bike riding is no problem, inline skating no problem, and best of all, skiing no problem. And I like moguls.

 

My tib-fib spiral fracture last year was a much longer recovery period, but eventually, all good. 

Had mine surgically repaired a few years ago.  Doc said cycling and swimming were the best medicine for it after I finished PT.  It still hurts now and again, but that is most likely from the Arthritis that was in the joint already.  I have been skiing on it quite a few times after the surgery and it hasn't given me any problems.

 

Tom, hope you recover soon.  My ACL reconstruction included repair of the Meniscus for a buckethead tear.  I've got 45 days in on it this season (just passed the 1 year anniversary of the repair).  Get 'er done and do the rehab and, in no time, you'll be right as rain!

 

Mike

 

Cirquerider, have to agree with Goldmember.  Due to some odd 69yrs of wear my right knee bothered me all season.  10 days ago had MRI and then scoped for a torn meniscus.  Some swelling but pain gone.  Walking pretty good now and sure feels better.  Mr. doctor and I ski together occasionally and said he didn't want to lose one of his powder partners.  Exercise and biking may make you feel better temporarily but won't actually fix problem the tear will eventually get worse and then you may be in trouble.  A good diagnotic tech can tell usually how bad the tear is.  I still have cartilege left soe should be ok.  Ignoring it won't make it go away.

 

Years ago I had a scope job after a bicycling injury by a Dr. John Browning who has an office in Tahoe and Sacramento/Roseville.  He did a great job.

 

Get well soon! If you have it trimmed ask to keep it! For soft tissue- it is really firm!

How did your visit go? Are you still gettin the snap?

Heal well Mighty Cirque!

JF

Cirque,

 

I had a slight ACL tear, not complete but a tear, and meniscus tear around 1988.  With the meniscus tear my range of motion was from about 30 to 90 degrees.  I could not straighten my leg.  (I fell off a table ... don't ask.   It was really dumb.)  Anyway, surgery (which I watched on TV with as my surgeon narrated what he was doing), recovery, and therapy (where I hit my therapist) got things working again.  I ski anywhere from 50 to 70 days a year and teach.

 

So, get a good doctor, find out exactly whats wrong, get it fixed, and follow all the instructions they give you.

 

Heal fast and well.

 

I'm picturing the Great Santini in Spain.

Tom, patience, exercise patience.

I've had just a minor ACL tear  (Or so the CAT scan says) and a general knee structire inflammation..

Well it's still healing... I haven't taken on ski gym but I am skating (inline, teaching season has begun again, albeit I'm just acting as an assistant) swimming and walking.

To stand up from a sitting position (like after a long drive with the car, or long hours at the  desk) is still sometimes "strange"...

But it has improved. I went straight to a good phisio therapist and got instructed what and how to work it out...

Now it's all in the "hands" of time and patience...

 I missed this thread. Do the work and get well, Cirque. Trade the motorcycle in for a bicycle. I'd like to say it is less dangerous but I'm missing the head of my radius in my left arm due to a bicycle wreck while the worst injury I suffered on my motorcycle was a hairline fracture of the same elbow and some minor road rash. 

 

I hope you don't blame your run of bad luck on me.

 

I was going to say.......You know he means Bicycle, not Motorcycle, right? 

 

 

I missed this thread too.  Sorry Cirque, heal well.

Here's the expert advice of one of my favorite ski instructors..........

That thing that you did to hurt yourself.........don't do that!

If you want to read about meniscus surgery types, check this out. Also pretty detailed general info about meniscus injuries and treatment. http://thesteadmanclinic.com/meniscus/treat.asp KNEEGuru.com has a section for meniscus. But takes a bit of time to find relevant threads. Hope there is a relatively simple fix for you. I'll be seeing my OS again in a week about my knee. Doing PT exercises (neuromuscular for balance, strength for hamstrings and quads) since losing an ACL a couple months ago. MCL strain seems to be healed. No pain from the meniscus tear in the red-red zone, so hopefully it's healing steadily. P.S. no idea why RETURN for blank lines won't show up.

How's it healing Cirque? 

At your age (ahem, no offense ;-) I'm there too) they won't likely try to repair it, so trimming the bad part out is easy. My 17-yr-old son just had meniscus surgery 2 weeks ago ... he was injured in gym class back in May. (At least you were skiing! that's much cooler than gym)  The doctor did repair his, because of the location of the tear and his young age. He also did a little PRP in there to stimulate the healing process, as well as a little microfracture of intercondylar notch, for the same reason. No weight bearing for 6 weeks, while the repair hopefully holds. THat's the hard part.

 

When they take it out, it's just a few weeks before you can start doing stuff again. Weight bearing is immediate. I had my right meniscus trimmed when I was about 30, and was back playing tennis matches in 5 weeks. 

 

Good luck! Get it fixed so you'll be all better for ski season. 

Came across another website with good general info.  An ortho clinic in San Francisco.  This webpage includes diagrams of all the common types of meniscus tears.  After seeing them, I understand why my vertical tear is one of the types that is most likely to heal on it's own.  Although I'm helping it along by taking a Chinese medicine.  Bucket tears are nasty!

 

http://www.stoneclinic.com/meniscus-tear

 

Also has a video and a little text, including:

"Once thought of as a needless remnant of tissue in the knee joint, the torn meniscus was frequently removed by surgery. Over the past several years, it has become clear that the meniscus plays a crucial role in joint stability, lubrication, and force transmission. Under a weightbearing load, the meniscus maintains the balanced position of the femur on the tibia and distributes the compressive forces by increasing the surface contact area thereby decreasing the average stress two to three times. The surface stress becomes smaller, the load bearing area wider, the compliance higher, and the stiffness of the joint lower with the menisci in place. Additionally, the menisci interact with the joint fluid to produce a coefficient of friction that is five times as slick as ice-on-ice."

 

It seems like the thinking about the importance of even a partial meniscus is changing.  Just as I found with ACL injuries, medical knowledge learned in the last 5-10 years is clearly changing how some orthopods and physiotherapists deal with common knee problems.