Knee update... torn meniscus!

[nini]

woo hooo... I'll get to have a surgery... :-(

[Kolesar]

1. Patella cartilage?

[nini]

5. yep

hurts like a SOB :P

[billybob537]

2. Don't forget the perkasets!

[nini]

8. vicodin was given to me..

it definitely helps but I'm trying not to take too many.. good ol motrin is what I try and stick to.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Ow! I'm sorry!

Knee injuries are the worst.
Ask for Vicodin.

[nini]

6. already have it.. it's a miracle drug

:D

[liberal_in_GA]

4. I've had two knee surgeries...

and they're not fun, needless to say. Are they replacing your meniscus? Or just extracting the damaged parts?

Best of luck to you....

[nini]

7. cleaning up the torn part.

thanks! I'm not looking forward to this but what can I do? I sure don't want to hurt everytime I walk.

[liberal_in_GA]

10. you're doing the right thing

by having the operation ASAP. I let a torn ACL go for eight years, and the delay ended up damaging my meniscus permanently. The resulting nightmare was two ACL reconstructions and a full meniscus transplant (they had to screw in cadaver cartilage). I have mild arthritis already and I'm only 31. If you let it go, it will only be worse in the long run. A month off your feet, some physical therapy, and you'll be good as new.

And have fun with the drugs while you can! ;-)

[nini]

13. Welcome to DU!

8 YEARS of ACL pain?!?!? how'd you do it? oowwwieeee good to hear you're doing ok now.

[liberal_in_GA]

19. thanks for the welcome!

I am loving it here. Especially living in Georgia, where there's fundie-fests everywhere you turn.

I got used to the pain... it only really hurt when it rained, or when I got drunk and fell off a bar or something (I ignored the injury through the last two years of high school and all through college). Now I can do pretty much anything except for run and jump. Just keep your muscles strong and you shouldn't have too many problems in the future.

I don't know the details about your job, of course, but good luck with that, too.

[GOPisEvil]

9. Oh crap...does this mean...about the job?

:-(

[nini]

11. for now at least

:-( Good thing is they won't take me off the list if I can make the first contract they offer, so at least I will still have the chance later. Good thing is it happened now I guess.. :cry:

[GOPisEvil]

16. Well, that's good that the opportunity isn't totally lost.

Plus, who wants to be in the Caribbean NOW? :D

[nini]

17. LOL.. no kidding!

I do get seasick too in rough seas.. so I'd be dying over there now. :puke:

leave it to you to put the good spin on this!! :hug:

[Pale Blue Dot]

12. Sorry to hear this, nini.

That really sucks. At least you're getting it fixed, though. That's the important thing.

You know where to find me if you ever need a shoulder to cry on. :hug:

[nini]

14. Thanks!

trying not to fall into pity party mode here :-) I'm ok with this, it's just annoying having to deal with all of it and it delaying my dream job... I know it can always be worse so I will survive.

how're you? :hug:



I thought you were moving today?

[tkulesa]

15. Good luck

and fast recovery.

I hope you come out of this with a full recover and no complications.

[nini]

18. thanks..

I appreciate the good vibes!

[eyesroll]

20. So...for rehabilitation...

Will nurses need to knead Nini's knee?

:evilgrin:

Sorry, couldn't resist. Hope your recovery goes smoothly -- you should feel better soon.

[nini]

21. thanks

nini probably will need kneading :P

[pagerbear]

22. Comes from being a knee-jerk liberal, eh?

[nini]

23. LOL.. Hell YEAH!!

:D

[frylock]

24. you'll be fine..

I've had my knee scoped twice; torn medial menisc (x2), also twanged my ACL. It's the physical therapy that sucks!! :hi:

[nini]

25. Yea.. I'm looking forward to the PT like getting my eyes poked out

:P

good to hear from you... :hi:

[Kolesar]

26. I had patella cartilage damage & recovered nicely

I was pumping iron for weeks while preparing for a backpack trip. On the fourth day of a heavily-laden backpack trip, I had serious knee pain in both knees. I had overstressed them with all the weight lifting before the trip.

The problem was damaged cartilage. It took me going to a second orthopedic doctor and lots of web surfing to figure this all out, but I recovered without surgery.

There is a fundamental orthopedic problem that the outer quadriceps muscles are stronger than the inner quads and cause the patella to "track" to the outside. Forces are concentrated on small areas of the joint and it causes pain and damage.

The therapy is a "balanced" quad strengthening program and stretching the quads to get the forces in balance. It was many weeks before I could descend stairs without pain and many months until the pain faded significantly. Winter cold six months after the injury made my knees hurt. By the next winter, I had no such pain after winter cold. I did lots of XC skiing.

I occasionally get twinges of pain in my left knee on account of this three year old injury. I do go backpacking now without pain. I use hiking poles for downhill control.

Cycling is not a problem, either. By the advice I have read, cycling is actually good for bad knees because it is perfect for the quads. Just don't mash up a hill in too high of a gear at a slow cadence.

Researchers did controlled evaluations of knee surgery and determined that "placebo surgery" was as effective as cartilage repair. You could probably google up that story.

Good luck. I am sure your experience will be somehow different since we all have different physiology, but I hope this helps!

[nini]

27. was yours meniscus?

sounds interesting to be able to recover without surgery - which I prefer of course.

I work with a guy that's going through the same thing I am and he's going to PT before his surgery.. I am riding a bike but keep the resistance down re the doctor.

Anyway, thanks for the input.. I appreciate it!

[Kolesar]

28. I think so.

It has been three years, so I am trying to recall the terminology.

My knees made lots of clicking and popping and grinding sounds back then. My cartilege damage was the thick pad on the back of the patella. I think that is called the meniscus. My doctor diagnosed this with x-rays. He was pretty confident in his diagnosis, so he did not proceed with CT scans (which are barely better than xrays), or arthroscopic examination.

He said if he was going to do arthroscopic viewing, he might as well get in there and just repair the damage (!). He advised a wait and see approach, and it worked.

[nini]

29. If he saw in xrays in may not have been the same thing

I think an MRI is the only way to see in there. Regardless.. I think you're right on the strengthening of muscles to keep the knee aligned correctly etc.. I have arthritis in my ankles so I know I walk off a bit.

I saw your PM.. I'll let you know after next weeks visits what I found out.

thanks again!

Gina

[Kolesar]

30. You can learn a lot on the internet

Google subjects like "anterior knee pain" and "patella", etc and you will find message boards and good material such as therapy guides from real clinics by real medical professionals.

I think time is your friend here. I had a wrist sprain that took seven months to fade away once.

[Kolesar]

31. exercise to strengthen inner quads (vastus medialis obliquus)..

...to "track" patella more medially. From memory:

Wall Slides:
Stand with your back to the wall, feet about a shoulder width apart, heels 10 inches from the wall. Slowly slide down the wall until you feel the tension in your quads. Don't slide all the way down to perpendicular, that is not necessary. In about ten seconds you will feel your quads straining under the load. Try to hold thirty seconds or more. Do three sets, every day. Stand and wait a minute or more between sets. In time, you can get up to one minute.

Cycling:
Try to spin at a fast cadence, don't mash the pedals in too high of a gear.

Adductor and Abductor machines:
If you have a weight room, use those machines that isolate the inner and outer thigh muscles.

"Enhanced" Wall Slides:
Put a soccer ball, a nerf ball or a block of foam between your knees. Squeeze it with your knees then do the aforementioned wall slides. I think this exercise is the best for this purpose.

There are other exercises such as lying leg lifts and using elastic bands that I may have done in rehab. Tie a knot in the elastic, tuck it under a door, close the door, put your ankle in the loop and pull inward with your leg. Do sets of ten or fifteen.

You could probably google these up from somewhere in the ether.