Meniscus Tear Surgery

indygal76

Hello! My doc thinks I may have tore my meniscus on the outside of my left knee. I will have a knee MRI on Monday. I want to hear your recovery stories if you did require surgery.

DavPul

Generally not a big deal. Mine tore when I destroyed my right knee and all they do for it is basically scrape it clean off so there's no friction. Tiny holes, easy recovery. In the short term your knee should be fine, but waaaaaaaaay down the line you could have effects. '

It's basically like when you put your kids playset together and notice extra screws when you're done. Yeah, the set is sturdy now, but those screws belonged somewhere, eventually something is going to be loose and squeaky.

Brandi235

Had the surgery on my left knee on a Thurs and drove to work on Mon. My doc gave me a cane to use after surgery but some give crutches. I had a prescription for generic vicodin which i was told to take when needed, up to every 4 hrs. But since I'm sort of a coward, I just took it every 4 hours the first 2 days. After that, Tylenol was fine. You have to go slow but you also have to get with the PT asap. I actually had my first visit the day after surgery! My insurance covered 6 wks of PT (12 visits) & that was sufficient. However, it did take about 3 months to feel 100%....I DO NOT AGREE with DavPul that there will be problems later. If your doctor knows how to fix it, then it's fixed. Period.

Azdak

I have had 3 knee surgeries. Two on R knee (1994, 2007), and one on L in 2004. No long-term issues. Actually, by doing the rehab and working the exercises into my routine, my knees ended up much stronger than pre-surgery.

Critical to work on reducing the swelling and getting back range of motion ASAP. That means ice, ice, ice, ice, ice. It also means keeping it wrapped until the swelling is gone (except when exercising). Use an exercise bike to work on range of motion (not to work out) within 2-3 days after surgery (double check w/MD) and start rehab as soon as they'll take you.