Looking for possible suggestions/outcomes from people who have dealt with this whether surgery or repair or not. I’m signed up for IM Louisville and am trying to determine my fate this racing season. Long term goal is to be healthy for years to come. Any advice is appreciated.
DETAILS:
Long story short- hurt my knee 2 weeks ago doing a track workout. Felt good after run, later that night knee was pretty stiff. Laid off a little and no real pain, but knee pops and hurts after run like I’ve been on my feet for 12 hours. I can run, but have chose not to- to prevent further damage in case there is a tear.
Saw PT and he thought it was bursitis or a small menisucus tear. Saw sports doc today: his initial diagnosis is a possible lateral meniscus. Took x-ray and am waiting to schedule MRI.
QUESTION:
What type of tear is worth getting the surgery. When is it better to just lay off and try and let body to heal. If I do get a meniscus cut, how long is recovery? Is there anything else that could have similar symptoms and maybe this isn’t a big deal? Any really good sports doctors known for this in Dayton/Cincinatti OH area?
Thanks. Fyi- I’ve searched this in thread history, just looking to get as much information as I can prior to making any decisions about medical procedures.
You will know more after the MRI - if it’s a meniscus tear, how it is treated depends on your symptoms, your age, the location of the tear, etc… If you do end up having a tear which needs arthroscopic removal, that’s a pretty common procedure for most any ortho doc and there are lots in your area that would be able to handle that. I wouldn’t be too picky about what doctor I saw for that. Now for something like an ACL reconstruction I’d want the best doc I could find… But anyway, if you do have a tear and need the torn portion removed that’s a really quick recovery, as long as you don’t have a lot of arthritic changes or anything like that. So, I’d just hang tight and see what the MRI says.
If you do need surgey, here is my two cents. Try and make sure it’s a sports doctor who specializes in knees. I just had mine cut on 4 weeks ago yesterday. It was more involved that what the MRI showed. After a week I was doing PT with VERY EASY spin bike for 15 min. About 2 week out I was up to 30 min. 3 weeks out, I was riding spin bike moderately hard for an hour with 30 min of fast paced walking. Yesterday, 4 weeks after, I swam for an hour, ran on AlterG (anti gravity treadmill) for 30 min, and rode for 90 min. I am back at full on training. I am planning on racing (slower of course and modified run plan) next Sat. in Oceanside for IM Ca 70.3
Another important thing to consider, make sure if you have a choice that the dr. is a preferred provider. My surgey was about $25K and I’m paying about $1K, as opposed to $13K. Good luck.
I had similar symptoms a few years ago - clicking when walking, occasionally locking breifly. Some pain, mostly with stairs, but otherwise managable by just HTFUing. Had an MRI, and the surgeon said its a small meniscus tear, but due to the location there was a fairly good chance that I would only be replacing the minor issues I have now with possible other side effects that are tough to predict. He didnt reccomend surgery, but would clean it out if I wanted it. I decided not to and the worst of the symptoms (pain) has subsided except for when the weather is changing.
The clicking still happens, and it occasionally locks painfully, but I have no problem running or cycling, so I dont really want to do anything to it that I cant predict.
The surgeon told me what “kind” of a tear it was, but I no longer remember it, so sorry I cant be of help there. I just wanted to point out you might be able to live with it just fine without going through the mess of having someone stick crap into you and possibly cause other problems later that are unknown.
I agree to wait until you get the MRI results before you make any major decisions. Standard x-rays usually don’t really show a lot if you have any kind of soft tissue (meniscal/ligament/muscle) damage. If the tear is what’s called a “bucket handle”, then just as the name describes, if the tear is laying flat you won’t have any symptoms but if it isn’t you may have lots of pain/locking. The extent of the tear will determine if and what kind of surgery the Orthopod may want to do: if it’s a small tear usually the surgery is just a debridement/clean up job with very short rehab time; if it’s larger then the surgeon may want to possibly do a meniscal repair which tries to preserve the meniscus, but takes longer to heal and always has the risk of re-tearing in the future. Either way I’d recommend physical therapy with a PT who specializes in sports rehab. Swimming and light cycling are usually pretty early in the rehab. Any kind of running (and especially any “cutting” activities) comes later, depending on which surgery you have. Good luck and happy healing.
Thanks for your posts. I get my MRI on Monday, so hopefully I’ll know something by the end of next week. Really appreciate all the information, it’s nice to get some other active triathletes personal experiences prior to make a decision regarding surgery.
On January 12th of this year I had a small piece of meniscus (lateral) removed as well as some debridement under the kneecap. I was on a stationary bike two days later and cycled daily for four weeks. The tension was light, but the idea was to get blood flow back into the region. I went to Hawaii four weeks after that and began running while I was there. The pain was minimal. I’m back home now and am cycling and running, albeit with some minor pain, but nothing compared to pre-surgery.
It’s different for everybody, but your doc will be your best resource. I also did a lot of web research after my initial diagnosis. The original surgeon who looked at my MRI didn’t believe I needed surgery. I was in pain and had swelling for almost two years at that point. I sent my results to two other surgeons who strongly suggested I have surgery sooner rather than later.
I’ve had three meniscus tears in my left knee. One went with the ACL and so is not relevant here.
The other two were both straight meniscus tears only that I had surgery to remove.
That surgery is really quick - about 25 minutes from asleep to awake.
For both, I walked out of recovery and was running in 8 days. On trainer in 3.
The last one left me with 5-10% of my meniscus. That one was easier to walk out of surgery than in since it tore lengthwise and was under my kneecap.
My doc was surprised that I was able to walk INTO surgery that day.
HOD - some excellent responses here. After you get the MRI, assuming the meniscus is the only positive finding, you’ll want to ask if it’s repairable (desirable) or not. If it is, your season may be shot but twenty years from now you’d be glad you did. And, as pointed out above, the greater experience the surgeon has - if it gets to that - the more likely you are to get optimal treatment. Good luck.
I had meniscus surgery from tear medially June 2010.
I never fully recovered. I’ve seen 7 different docs post surgery, 4 PTs had lots of tests and ended up having more major knee surgery in December. I went from normal cartilage for my age in 2010 to 3 bone on bones spots a year later.
If you need surgery you will be more likely to develop arthritis. Mine was rapid onset.
Another triathlete friend who is a couple years older than I had a scope that took a full year to recover from so she could get back to running. Interesting we are both around 50, both had an easy to fix scope, and both had tough time recovering.
My experience was similar to yours. The surgery was less than thirty minutes and I walked out of the clinic later that night almost pain free. Good to hear you recovered so quickly.
Had a medial meniscus tear, doctor recommended meniscusectomy. Spent about 3 weeks prior to surgery working on ROM in knee and leg strengthening exercises. Post surgery was able to walk without crutches immediately and was back walking/running within about 3 weeks. Even from MRI hard to tell extent of damage. My ortho said he could see a tear, but unsure whether it had to be trimmed or if he could sew back together (which would require a much longer recovery). Didn’t fell 100% normal for almost a year, but didn’t have any limitations on knee. Some pain medially after surgery post runs, but went away quickly. My biggest recommendation is to work on ROM now. Particularly leg slides and leg lifts with weights on ankles. Good luck!