Meniscus Repair Surgery...

bet67

Oh no, don't tell me that. I am having the same surgery 3/3.
They tell me it is a breeze and most people are back to normal a month to six weeks. Did you do your therapy and follow your doctors directions?
Was it really bad when they did the surgery, mine hurts bad and I cannot bend or straighten my knee without severe pain.
I am told therapy is the key to a good recovery.
Betty

cshell4865

I have had 4 meniscal repair ops. They were all a breeze for me, had PT 2 x week, and after about 6 weeks, everything was good. Prior to the ops my knee was very painful and hurt to bend or exercise. Too bad I had to go through it 4x. Good luck to you both.
Peace
Michele

susanbanks

I don't know how old you ladies are, but I am a female 60, and had this surgery done two years ago. I also heard that it heals in a matter of weeks or couple months. I know for me it was about a year before it felt "normal" however, I had immediate relief from the pain the day of the surgery. I think it would depend on your age, and your commitment to therapy.

kneepain

I am 29, had acute on chronic lateral meniscus tear which surgeon opted to repair 4 days ago given location & type of tear and my young age, active lifestyle factored in.

Lots of pain + swelling despite virtually round the clock Percocet and constant elevation(way more than I expected, I wanted to chop my leg off at times on 2nd night!!!), by day 3 requiring less percocet and began Ibuprofen in addition, and started to bend knee a bit, but still couldn't weight bear. Now am able to put some weight on it w/ crutches and requiring less pain meds. Little more comfortable, but still lots of pain and definately not anywhere close to going to work as originally planned after talking w/ people who said they were able to get back to routine after a long weekend.

The rehab for repair is beginning to look much more arduous than standard menisectomy as advertised. I am not sure why this is, maybe someone can shed light on this. Seems like similar surgery, why so much more pain/swelling w/ repair?

Also, different surgeons have different philosophies on rehab. Mine advocates early ROM, protected weight bearing with crutches for 4-6 wks. He also has me in hinged knee brace with 60 deg flexion (hyperextension) x 2 wks followed by 90 degrees of flexion x 2 wks.

I will keep you updated on my progress, good luck to everyone going through this in future.

jennybyc

Not to "one up" anyone, but I've had 14 knee surgeries including 8 scopes and 2 open knee meniscus surgeries. First, there are lots of different types of surgeries on a torn meniscus. Some are simply removed because they are too damaged(bad if you can avoid it...means TKR much sooner). Some are cleaned out and smoothed down. Some are repairs where the 2 pieces of meniscus are sewn back together and allowed to heal(wish they did that when I had mine removed). Sometimes the joint surface and meniscus are just so beaten up they shave the surfaces or even drill small holes into the joint cartilage to encourage new blood vessel and cartilage growth. I had one scope where they went in expecting to take out yet another piece of cartilage only to find a chunk of bone the size of a marble caught in the joint....possibly an osteophyte that broke off.

Lateral and medial meniscus repairs differ a lot as well as the access is very different. My laterals caused a lot of swelling whereas with the medials I was back to work in 2 days.

So it's really hard to compare surgeries. What went easy for one person many be very hard for another. All I can advise you is to do what your ortho tells you and be thankful for the advances in knee surgery. Back in the mid 1960's when I ripped my meniscus in a rock slide, the standing theory was that women COULDN'T tear a meniscus. It was unheard of. It took 2 years to get an ortho to operate and he not only found a torn meniscus, he found a torn ACL and medial collateral ligaments as well. That's how I ended up with bi-lateral TKR's at age 47!

good luck with your recoveries...............Jenny

dkp

I had meniscus surgery about 8 weeks ago and feel I am in worse shape than before the surgery (lots of pain, limited mobility, stiffness, hard to straighten the leg and if I have it bent too long it's hard to get is unbent, still coming down the stairs with two feet on one stair).

I completed all my physical therapy and continue to do exercises at home. I will be returning to the surgeon next week for a follow-up. Are there any specific questions I should be asking him? At the four week check-up, he showed me photos that he took during the surgery and the medial meniscus looked like it was pretty much shredded. He said he shaved off the damaged area.

DW123

I have had 3 surgeries due to torn meniscus, I was up and around after 3 weeks each time. Back to work in 3 months with therapy.

drzmacho

well you get back on your feet by like the 3rd week but you really have to take time and do physical therapy right i would say it takes up 6months so you can play any sport but you wont be 100% til like a yr or so

jerseyboy

I think one of the problems with menicus repair is the length of time it takes for complete recovery. The menicus does not have as much blood flow like say, muscles, therefore it takes longer. I had mine back in 99 and as I recall it took a long time to heal. Of course my doctor failed to order any PT or even tell me to ice it often. Be patient with your healing, it will take some time.

__________________
JerseyBoy
C5-C6 Diskectomy & Fusion 9-15-98
Right Torn Medial Menicus 5-10-99
Right TKR 3-31-10
Left TKR 7-7-10
Left Revision 7-28-14
Right Revision 9-30-14