Meniscus Experiences

[Captain Furious]

I got it done Thursday.

View attachment 60337
DIAGNOSIS: Left knee meniscus tear
PROCEDURE PERFORMED: Left knee arthroscopy, meniscectomy - Date: 12/6/2018

Here's hoping it helps my pain or at least doesn't make it worse. Symptoms that brought got me here have been severe pain at night that wakes me up even with Tylenol, Ibuprofen and sleeping with ice packs. I'm also not able to run without two days off between runs. I could live with not running, but need to sleep. It hasn't impacted my skiing much.

I'm not sure how I tore my meniscus. Probably any number of stupid choices I made skiing. I've been sleeping with ice packs on my knee for probably ten years off and on and it's getting worse. Two docs and my PT think surgery should help or is at least worth a try.

Bad timing with the best early ski season in memory here in CO. Oh well, such is life. I needed the time through this fall to train and get back into shape following some other stuff. Good news is training went well, and I went into this with some decent fitness. I traditionally also have a hard time skiing in December because of the holidays and end of year work stuff. That hasn't changed, just that skiing is fantastic as opposed to typically marginal. Once again I'm thankful for the long ski season in Colorado and look forward to great skiing into June!

Extra good news: my knee feels great on day 3. I was told to use crutches as necessary the first couple days, and haven't needed them too much. I'm walking with a close to a normal gate today, just going easy on stairs. No painkillers beyond Tylenol and Ibuprofen. I went to a Chrismas party last night without my crutches, and almost certainly overdid it yesterday but woke up feeling great after icing it all night.

At this point, I have every expectation to ski the first week of January, as my surgeon said I probably could. Follow up appointment this week will hopefully confirm I'm on track for that. At the very least, if the surgery doesn't relieve my pain, it wasn't a huge deal, at least so far. Fingers crossed. Everyone is different, of course!

Good luck and I wish you a speedy recovery! I'm 6 weeks removed from surgery and am still experiencing some achy knee issues . Nothing that will stop me from skiing of course.

I probably got out there a bit too early and should have waited a full 6 weeks. But like CO, New England is experiencing its best early season skiing in quite some time. No regrets...

Bill

 

[tball]

I saw my Doc today eight days post surgery. All is well, come back in two weeks, except that holidays are making it three and a half week.

I'm walking with a normal gate except I'm a little slower on stairs — minimal pain. I had a big day walking today with a bunch of places to be. That got me 12,300 steps without even trying. It's just a little sore tonight, and I've had nothing but Tylenol today that wore off hours ago.

I think icing it overnight is really helping. Each morning it feels better.

I see PT next week and I'm OK to walk, elliptical, and bike. No running for a while. The key indicator for activity: if it hurts or causes swelling don't do it.

The plan is to ski a couple days of easy runs after new years with our kiddos if it's feeling good. That will be four weeks out from surgery. Based on how I feel today and my rate of healing I feel like I'll be fine for that. Hopefully getting after it shortly thereafter. We'll see.

I'm hopeful the surgery fixed the pain I was having after being worried the first couple of days. I felt pain in the same spot that brought me to surgery. I convinced myself I was going to have to live with it. Then I took the bandage off and saw one of the three arthroscopic portals was in that exact spot! It's feeling better every day, thank goodness.

 

[Fuller]

You should be good to go (cautiously) in January. 4 weeks is a pretty conservative rest period for a minor snip and shape job. The bad news is that you may have to give up running in order to preserve your knee long term for skiing and a pain free life. I used to run every day, had a 40 minute 10k and was working my way up to a marathon when things started falling apart. I was really bummed at the time but gradually shifted my enthusiasm to other pursuits. I have folks that tell me I could probably buy some Hoka One Ones and just do treadmill workouts but 30 years of no running just puts that out of reach. I like being pain free and I don't want a 5th meniscectomy.

Good luck and don't push it!

 

[Jenny]

LOVE my Hokas! Basically been the only shoes I’ve worn for almost a year. Had to buy a wider pair post-surgery, but I think the foot is small enough now to get back into the pre-surgery pair.

 

[EricG]

Hoka one-one’s are awesome. My PT recommended them a few years back and Its only sneaker I buy now. They really seem to hold up well too.

 

[ella_g]

@tball @Fuller @Jenny @EBG18T Not to beat this horse to death in this thread but running can be great for your knees and for knee injury recovery ... Hokas are great but getting a good PT who understands gait analysis / strengthening and setting up a PT & cross training routine can help a lot too.... I get that most people aren't obsessed w/ running and can't live without it but if you even like it a little committing to a PT etc regime for 6 months or so might be worth a shot. I thought I was done w/ running forever around this time last yr, messed up my knee, was barely crosstraining etc and had to commit to 2x a week PT and all that nonsense, turns out it made a huge difference. So don't necessarily give up on running .... get ready to do a ton of really tedious exercises tho

 

[Jenny]

@tball @Fuller @Jenny @EBG18T Not to beat this horse to death in this thread but running can be great for your knees and for knee injury recovery ... Hokas are great but getting a good PT who understands gait analysis / strengthening and setting up a PT & cross training routine can help a lot too.... I get that most people aren't obsessed w/ running and can't live without it but if you even like it a little committing to a PT etc regime for 6 months or so might be worth a shot. I thought I was done w/ running forever around this time last yr, messed up my knee, was barely crosstraining etc and had to commit to 2x a week PT and all that nonsense, turns out it made a huge difference. So don't necessarily give up on running .... get ready to do a ton of really tedious exercises tho

I only run if I’m being chased! My PT recommended them for my plantar fasciitis, then they turned out to be really good for balancing out the boot I had to wear after the ankle injury last spring. And I wore them all during the post-surgical time period, too.

 

[EricG]

I only run if I’m being chased! .

Same here. But the Hoka were much more stable than the last Nike & Adidias I had before.

 

[tball]

Look what I got!

Thanks to everyone for the Hoka recommendations! I'm two weeks out from surgery tomorrow, so no I'm not running yet. And, no I didn't buy running shoes on Internet advice, as spot-on as everyone was here!

I saw my amazing PT Mark Plaatjes yesterday and he recommended them. I've been feeling great, so really didn't think I needed to go, but wanted to be able to tell my surgeon I went. I'm so glad I did as he did his magic and made my knee feel almost like I didn't have surgery. I'm definitely going back.

Mark is not only an amazing PT, but he also opened a new running store in Boulder and was a previous owner of the Boulder Running Company:
http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-...ng-company-cofounder-starting-new-store-solve
http://inmotionrehabilitation.weebly.com/
http://inmotionrunning.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Plaatjes

He's a great guy and has kept me running this long without surgery in just a handful of visits. He said to buy the Hoka's because they'll add cushion that was removed and will hopefully keep me running longer. When Mark says to buy a shoe, you buy it, and they were last year's model on sale for $100 vs. $160!

I asked both my surgeon and Mark about continuing to run after my meniscus surgery with some arthritic debridement. My surgeon is also a runner and recently ran a marathon. I asked specifically if she would run a marathon with my knee. She said it would 100% depend on how it feels. Yes if there was no pain or swelling. If it hurts or swells then cut back until it's goine. She also said there is research that running and other weight-bearing impact activities are good for joints, up to a point.

Mark, had a similar answer, but maybe a bit more conservative. He said to only run three times per week 45 minutes max, slowly working back up to that after I recover from surgery in a few more weeks.

The goal is to keep running as long as I like into old age, and minimizing running makes that more likely. I'm good with running a couple times a week and sticking to 5Ks and sprint tris. I can go long on the bike and also compete at masters swimming if I like. There is plenty to keep me motivated. I'm also going to try to maintain a lower weight year-round to minimize the wear on my body, rather than try to lose it for race season. We'll see, but it's worth a shot!

 

[Jenny]

Enjoy them!