Your experience exercising on no ACL AND a torn Meniscus

bostonwolf

If you expect to be physically active I would go ahead and schedule a time to get it fixed if you can afford it. Every time it goes out or you lose kee stability you risk further damaging the meniscus.

I was a senior in college when I did mine in September. Had the meniscus repaired on fall break and left for my spring break a few days early (which meant 3 midterms in two days, good times) to get the ACL done.

20+ years later and I had a scope a few years ago to fix a meniscus flap but otherwise it's fine. I have to baby it a bit (ice it down after running or lifting etc) but otherwise I can do what I want.

Good luck!

alikonda

Technically, you don't need an ACL to do anything but cutting/twisting movements, so most exercises should be possible, depending on your independent pain level. Everyone is a bit different - some people can barely walk until their surgery.

I completely tore my ACL, blew out my meniscus, and took off the top corner of my tibia while playing Rugby in college. I had reconstructive surgery about 5 months after the injury. Before I went to surgery, I was doing multiple sets of 30 body weight squats without pain. (Take it slowly so you can focus on form -- instability can be terrifying and possibly excruciating!) I was able to go for short jogs, but would get some soreness afterwards, so I generally steered clear of that. What I *did* do a LOT was play multiple hours of DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) every day. (College kid home for the summer...*shrug*) The doctors were incredibly impressed with the muscle tone I had going into the surgery and said that I recovered much faster than others.

Long story short, if you want to do it, go ahead and try it! If it hurts or slips, you'll notice immediately and just stop. Good luck with the surgery! I had a graft from my hamstring but wish I'd gone with the cadaver option!

SPESHALGIFT

I have a torn ACL and Meniscus. My doctor is going to remove the Meniscus on the 19th of this month. Because I use to play sports and have always had certain issues with my knee AND the amount of Arthiritis I have, My doctor believes I am not only in pain because of the Meniscus and because of the recovery time etc I opted to just remove the Meniscus. I am told that the healing time is way shorter and I should be able to resume normal activities within a week. Since my doctor is also the Orthopedic for our local NFL team, and his reviews are off the chart, I am going to trust him on this one. Hopefully the ACL doesnt then give me issues which that is one of the risks. Good Luck

emjaycazz

I have a repaired ACL in left knee and meniscus issues in my right. My surgery was about 10 years ago. I was in physical therapy 2 days after my surgery, and luckily for me my PT was a badass and made me do as much mobility work as I could possibly stand. I would definitely say that if you intend to remain active to go ahead and get the repair done. The recovery period will be difficult but necessary when you put it into perspective.

I do have some lateral mobility issues, but that primarily affects me when I play soccer with my super-active travel soccer 12 year old.

fabienzan

Hi,

I am having a knee reco this week. Injury happened 4 months ago.
I have a complete tear of the ACL and both meniscus tear playing basketball.
oblique longitudinal tear within the periphery of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus extending to the inferior articular surface (26 mm)
Incomplete wrisberg rent tear.
I am ok with the operation but I am worried that they are going to trim the meniscus as this will lead quickly to OA .
My understanding is the type of medial meniscus injury I have is common in ACL tear and I believe it is a medial meniscus root tear.
(Show in the top corner on the MRI)
I am wondering if anyone else had this type of injury and how well they recover from it. I am more after people who did this operation 5 - 15 years ago.
The ACL seems to be easy to fix with good prognosis but as soon as you get an meniscus tear things get much worse

fabienzan

What do you mean. You did not repair your ACL or torn meniscus ?

Azdak

Hi,

I am having a knee reco this week. Injury happened 4 months ago.
I have a complete tear of the ACL and both meniscus tear playing basketball.
oblique longitudinal tear within the periphery of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus extending to the inferior articular surface (26 mm)
Incomplete wrisberg rent tear.
I am ok with the operation but I am worried that they are going to trim the meniscus as this will lead quickly to OA .
My understanding is the type of medial meniscus injury I have is common in ACL tear and I believe it is a medial meniscus root tear.
(Show in the top corner on the MRI)
I am wondering if anyone else had this type of injury and how well they recover from it. I am more after people who did this operation 5 - 15 years ago.
The ACL seems to be easy to fix with good prognosis but as soon as you get an meniscus tear things get much worse

This seemed informative to give you some background information so you can get questions ready for your doctor.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/90661-treatment

losergood2011

this has been great! I am trying to decide to have surgery or not. the Doc I have (sports med ortho for apac 12 univeristy) says I probably won't need surgery even though I blew the ACL, Tore MCL, damaged meniscus medial(he says it may heal) and fractured tib and femur (common with ACL blow out). I did not believe him but I am now 90 days out and well maybe he is right!! I use the brace still and am in weekly PT. I love seeing so many copers! Thank you so much! by the way - I squat, lunge, plyometrics just starting and do my farm chores and riding just fine!! Oh and try for 10K plus on my fitbit Flex :-)

questionfear

I tore my ACL several years ago, and tore the meniscus in the same knee this past summer. Had surgery for the ACL as well as a surgery for the meniscus.

My ACL surgery was about a month and a half post-tear, so I didn't have much of a chance to be too active; I mostly walked, and I recall anything that involved sudden side to side turns led to that awful "things are touching that shouldn't be" feeling in my knee and I HATED that.

Post-surgery, I did my PT and started running. Running on a treadmill still aggravates my knee on and off, but I ran 4 half marathons on my repaired knee with no swelling or issues. I did switch to ultraminimalist shoes after experimenting with what did/did not cause me knee discomfort, but everyone is different with that.

I tore my meniscus over the summer, and that bothered me right up until the surgery. It would hurt if I sat for too long, it would hurt if I didn't sit for long enough, it hurt all the damn time. My PT said I probably could have gotten away with skipping the surgery and doing more extensive PT, but surgery+PT have done well for me. I started lifting heavy weights, and can deadlift 145 and squat 110 (doing stronglifts, so I am still working higher) and my knee is fine.

I did a fair bit of research prior to my ACL surgery, and the overwhelming conclusion at the time seemed to be that if you are going to be fairly active, especially if you're on the young side, and most especially if you're female, you should get the surgery. Supposedly female athletes are a bit more prone to ACL tears, and not getting the surgery upped the chances of developing arthritis in the future, and since I was ~27 when I tore my ACL, it made more sense to suffer for a few months and have a stronger knee for the rest of my life than to constantly worry about babying my knee.