well the *&^%$ hit the fan, MRI last week, torn medial meniscus. I will see the doc on Tuesday,he did leave a VM saying that it was torn and he thought surgery could fix it. So I am 56, running since I was 14 and doing long tri’s for 7 years. Have many of you returned from knee surgery and returned to running after? I do have little choice, 80% of the time my knee feels OK but the other 20% it just kills me. I am committed to the fix, I just thought the only way I could place in an IM was to keep on going til’ my 70’s. I am a running addict and hate the thought on not going out and pounding the pavement.
Thanks for any help!
have had both done, and have had my best races after. it’s a piece of cake, water ran 2 days after, cycled indoors the day after. i was very aggresive with rehab, and bounced back fast. promised doc i wouldn’t run for 2 weeks, but was fine after. just do tons of water running before surgery, to go into surgery in great shape…you, and the doc, will be glad you did. good luck, and as long as you have picked a good surgeon, you’ll never look back.
Just be sure the pain is truly coming from your meniscal tear. If you did an MRI on 100 56 year old guys, close to half would have evidance of a meniscal tear. Be sure its not patella pain, or ITB pain. If you dont have any arthritis and the pain is really from your meniscus you should literally be “good as new” 4-6 weeks after he trims out the tear.
At age 26 I severed my ACL, had reconstructive surgery, was running and doing tris a few months later. 11 years later I tore it (ACL) again along with the meniscus. The meniscus tear prevented me from straightening or putting any weight on my leg. Had emergency surgery a week later and was running and doing tris a few months later. Six years have passed, and (knocking on wood) it is still fine.
The recovery was much tougher at 37 than at 26. Good PT is paramount. But as an athlete, you’ll get through it.
No success here. Had the surgey three years ago, may have injured it again in a 10K mud run several weeks ago. It has swollen up again with pain.
I had surgery to repair a torn medial meniscus in December 2004. Some tears are far worse than others. My tear was considered minor, but it was enough to cause pain on the bike and on the run. I was on my bike trainer 2 or 3 days after the surgery and running inside a month. It was day surgery - I was home by noon. I had a great surgeon who specializes in knees and pioneered some techniques for meniscus repair. I completed IMLP in 2005 and 2006 and God willing I’ll finish this year as well. Good Luck!
I had a rather long recovery, but I was not an endurance athlete when I tore my medial meniscus. I had to have about 60% of mine removed at the ripe old age of 19. On long runs now (a few years later) my knee is not what holds me back.
When you go to PT, be sure they understand athletes, and ask them to place an upper limit on how much you can do rather than a lower limit they want you to achieve. That’s the single biggest difference between us and the regular population, and from time to time it throws the therapists for a loop. You don’t want to overdo it, but you can push yourself prety hard.
I tore mine up from a ski racing crash. When they got the scope inside the damage was more extensive than the MRI showed. Before surgery I had been told I would be able to ski again in a week. After surgery I was told I had to be totally non weight bearing on that knee for a month. I was also told I couldn’t run for at least 6 months. At the time it was no big deal as I hated running, except for playing softball. However, faced with what the doctors told me and the fact that I have to live with the knee for the rest of my life, I did everything EXACTLY as I was told. Stayed off the knee for a month, did PT as prescribed, didn’t run at all - but I did bike extensively to rebuild strength. The surgery was in March 2000. In late September 2000 I started running a bit to maintain fitness that I had gained in the recovery process. I had never been a runner, but a few weeks after I started I entered a 5K and found I didn’t suck as bad as I thought - although I’m not fast by any means. That encouraged me to give triathlon a go and I did my first in April 2001. I’ve since done about 30 or so tris ranging from sprint to HIM, hundreds of running races including 6 marathons. No problems at all with the knee.
Everyone is different and your injury could have much less damage than I had. My recommendation is to follow the advice of your doctors. I have heard many stories from people who tried to come back too soon and ended up with ongoing pain and sometimes more surgery. You have the rest of your life on that knee and if it takes 6 months or more of relative inactivity to achieve great results - do it. Hopefully you’ll have minor damage and can be back at it in a few weeks.
I had a scope for a tear last October. I was on trainer 2 days later and swimming 3 days later. I started running ~5 weeks later. I ran a half mary in feb and placed well. I finished CDA yesterday. Good Luck. Oh also the surgery is really easy in and out quick. Pain is minimal.
I am about 2 months post surgery on a minor tear in the meniscus. It took me about 6 days before I could make revolutions on the bike trainer comfortably. There was extensive swelling that still remains very slightly. Everyones recovery process is unique from what I have garnered. The extent of the injury is a factor (of course) but the skill of your surgeon is key as well. I was told by my P.T. that the surgeon I saw is excellent and a lot of that due to his training years at a clinic that dealt primarily with professional athletes.
I have not started running again yet but I can push a bit on my bike trainer and swimming is just fine. People who swim several days after surgery are probably violating their doctors orders due to the fact that they have fresh sutures in their knee which are susceptible to infection.
I have not pushed very hard yet because I am not on a mission to race more than to respect my knee and build proper strength before subjecting my knee to running. Or I am lazy?
i had around 25% of my meniscus removed when i had my acl replaced.
rehab was way longer than others’ and not relevant to this conversation. i will say that in the 20 months since the surgery, i haven’t found myself missing that cartilage. but that doesn’t mean i won’t be missing it later.
-charles
I had mine trimmed (25%) in Jan. I could make a complete revolution on the trainer after 5 days. I ran after 4 weeks. I still have slight pain and swelling from time to time and am up to about 25 miles/week right now. I spent the better part of the first four months of rehab on my swimming and biking fitness. They are at an all time high. Run fitness is getting there…
The surgery is a piece of cake. In and out…very little pain…I walked out of the hospital. I had a TON of swelling and immediate loss of quad strength. It was hard to do single leg lifts the day of surgery. I would plan on taking 2-3 days off your feet.
Had mine done for my 56th birthday (last year). So far it has been great. It had been problematic for at least twenty years, but I just faked it. I gradually got worse, until last year when I couldn’t run two days in a row and couldn’t run more than eight miles, if I rested up for 10 days. It also began affecting my cycling. This year I’ve had several 50-mile weeks and although there’s still some rust, I can run better than I’ve run in years. I have a few unsettling symptoms, due to the fact that some tissue is missing, but I’m happy with the results I’ve had in the first eight months.
Had surgery for my torn medial meniscus last May when I was 56. Was able to bike and swim within days and run within 5 weeks. Did my first tri within 2 months. So far no pain.
As far as “success stories,” I am a faster biker and swimmer than I was before the surgery and I have won my age group in each of the running races and the one duathlon (yesterday) I have done since the surgery. Was also 2nd and 4th in my AG in the two tris I have done since then.
Best of luck.
Had mine done back in '03.
I am infinitely better now, all my best athletic achievements have come since then, since now my formerly “bad” knee is now the “good” one.
(my other knee will eventually need to be scoped too, but I’m working around it until it can’t be worked around any longer. So far, so good)
I walked out of the recovery room w/o even needing the crutches they gave me, and within 2 weeks I was able to run on grass and go hiking. I started biking on the trainer even sooner.
I trained semi-hard right up until a day or 2 before the surgery, so my fitness wouldn’t lag during the recovery (and since the Ortho doc told me I couldn’t really do any more damage anyway, so have at it).
As with all things, YMMV.
I had surgery to repair a torn medial meniscus exactly 2 weeks ago (June 11th) When the doc scoped the knee, found that I had a degenerative tear in the lateral meniscus as well. Developed an infection as soon as the bandage came off, but overall, feeling great. 2 days post-op, the knee was very swollen and very painful, but the swelling went down as the infection started to relieve.
I was spinning on the trainer 1 week post op (with the docs permission) and felt great. I am now spinning 30 minutes 2x a day along with rehab and feel very strong.
I have been swimming every other day with no issues. I was told that I need to let the knee heal 28 days before I start to run and will definitely follow the docs instructions
Get the surgery, you have been suffering to long as I did.
Good luck and keep us posted.