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!