Torn Meniscus - Surgery Good or Bad Idea?

[yeahman]

Heal up well Harry and get back out on the slopes!

[garyfromterrace]

Good luck with the recovery Harry! My advise to you as a vet of: an acl reconstruct on both; debridement of arthritic bumps on both; 2 "other" scopes on both for miniscus trimming and/or getting rid of floating cartilage, is this - go at physio like you're a pro athlete. Faster recovery, better overall outcome and side bonus is it gets me into the gym and I'll tend to do other shit than just my physio regime.

Get well fast buddy, I still want my "I skied with Harry" fucking T shirt. (edit, meaning of course earned after I ski with you. ....)

[Harry]

Good news at PT today. They had me scheduled for 6 weeks of geriatric therapy based on my age. So focused on life skills like climbing steps, getting dressed, tying shoes, basic real life stuff.

She got me rescheduled onto the Sports Medicine track. Starting Week 3 of 6, I will be working with a different therapist, one who specializes in skiing. I am pumped about that.

[yeahman]

Sweet Harry. You'll crush it.

[Harry]

Everything is going well. Had a slight setback due to swelling, but that’s now minor and I have finished the 3-week regular PT and have now moved onto the 3-week Sports Medicine phase.

Chick is awesome. Has a Doctorate degree and grew up skiing at the same hill SkiJ works at.

I am super motivated and she seems pumped to have a super motivated patient like me. Good combination.

[Harry]

*cross-posted from the Midwest Stoke thread*

Today I made my official return to skiing after knee surgery last month.

I am 7 weeks to the day post surgery (torn meniscus). I have been hitting PT very hard.

Went to Christie Mountain for their $30 Friday lift ticket. They have a very easy Bunny Hill, perfectly smooth and a gentle downslope.

I was not sure what I could do exactly. I wasn’t even sure if I could walk from my car to the lodge with my gear. Could I put on my ski boots? That was a big question on my mind. Or could I even use the rope tow if I got jerked at an angle?

Made it up to the top of the Bunny Hill and I was nervous AF. What if my knee just buckled on my first turn? Fuck. My mind was racing. I pushed off and started my first turn. Huh, it worked. Now turn the other direction. That worked too. Just went real slow turning left and right. All good. Zero pain or discomfort. Grabbed the rope tow for another bunny hill lap. Did several laps with zero problems, so I got on the lift to the summit.

Took the easiest way down. Went very slow and in control. Kept perfect PSIA form. All good. No pain.

Did 7 laps off the summit, slow and in control, perfect form. Gaining confidence.

Went inside the lodge, not because of my knee, but because my hands were freezing. It was -15F and I was wearing work gloves due to the rope tow.

Ate some food and mentally reviewed what I had just done. I was absolutely stunned by my performance. No way did I think I was going to be able to ski today.

Rode the lift back up to the summit. Skied 2 more laps but I could tell my form was deteriorating and my knee muscles were quivering. Called it a day.

What an improvement in my mental health! I am absolutely glowing right now.

[bodywhomper]

Woot!!


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[yeahman]

That's awesome Harry but damn take it easy. PT ain't the same as healing, and healing takes time.

[Harry]

Day Two on skis.

So far my knee is working good. The actual skiing is zero problem. I am staying on fresh corduroy, mostly beginner slopes but I did do several intermediate runs today.

What is a problem is loading and unloading the chair. Mostly on chairs for beginner slopes that have a low chair for little kids. My knees get jammed up when loading, and again while unloading. This is not a problem on the chairs with a normal chair height.

It is only a momentary thing that I wouldn’t even call pain, just discomfort.

[troth]

Just had surgry on my medial meniscus, the hope was to repair it but unfortunatly the meniscus was too damaged so the surgon removed the damaged parts. looks like all I have left is the rim and already have a bit of arthritis that develpoed from the femur cartilage rubbing on the torn meniscus. does anyone have any experance with meniscus transplant? were you able to return to normal activities after?

Im 39, ski, play hockey, soccer, hike/trail run and would like to keep doing those thing without the risk of a knee replacement before Im 50.

[plugboots]

Just had surgry on my medial meniscus, the hope was to repair it but unfortunatly the meniscus was too damaged so the surgon removed the damaged parts. looks like all I have left is the rim and already have a bit of arthritis that develpoed from the femur cartilage rubbing on the torn meniscus. does anyone have any experance with meniscus transplant? were you able to return to normal activities after?

Im 39, ski, play hockey, soccer, hike/trail run and would like to keep doing those thing without the risk of a knee replacement before Im 50.

Dang. I had a bucket handle tear to my left inside meniscus about 30 something years ago. It’s kind of funny to hear this, but some doctors are saying they wouldn’t have taken that chunk away if that happened now, and also my physical therapist is wishing he would’ve seen me back then because he would’ve given me physical therapy exercises that would have helped me to not have bone on bone like I do now.

[troth]

Dang. I had a bucket handle tear to my left inside meniscus about 30 something years ago. It’s kind of funny to hear this, but some doctors are saying they wouldn’t have taken that chunk away if that happened now, and also my physical therapist is wishing he would’ve seen me back then because he would’ve given me physical therapy exercises that would have helped me to not have bone on bone like I do now.

yeah bucket handle tear is what I had as well. I see the physical threapist tomorrow.

[kw_cap]

Harry - how is your knee doing? I had same surgery - partial menisectomy - in mid December. Similar in age. My recovery was really great at first. Skiied in January, like you took it super chill. February snow finally came and I hit it hard. My knee was super angry. Dialed it back, and have actually avoid skiing last few weeks to let the knee finish recovery. I'm almost at 3 months and knee is pretty good, but not pain free and awesome like I hoped and expected. Wondering if I did some damage by going at it too early. Wondering what your story is! Hope it involves skis and gravity

[Harry]

^^ similar.

I’ve been skiing, but just beginner and intermediate groomers. I only last (forty five) minutes to an hour max. I would like to ski more than that but my leg just gets tired.

Been going to the gym everyday. (thirty) minutes on the bike and (thirty) minutes walking on an indoor track. Walking is at the speed I can go without limping. Probably walking (three) mph at the start and only (one) mph by the end. Working on the muscle memory of no pegleg.

(three) days a week I also do weights. My quad muscle was especially pathetic. At week (eight) I tried to do the leg extension machine and I could not even do one rep. Just the resistance of the cable was too much. I am now at week (twelve) and I can do sets of (twenty) on the second weight plate. So clearly I am getting stronger, but I am still pathetically weak. Back when I was a badass I remember doing sets with the entire stack of weights.

I did overdo it yesterday. Went to a ski area with triple the vertical feet plus high speed lifts. Got fucking smoked after an hour and can barely walk now. I think I pulled a muscle.

Edited out numbers because of emoji bombs.

[Harry]

^^ additional info

Apparently I also have something call “arthrofibrosis”, also called frozen knee.

With my surgery in December, that put my PT start right in the middle of Christmas season. Several PT people were on vacation, and the person I was assigned had a health emergency the day of my first PT and their was no back up available. So it ended up being (three point five) weeks from surgery to first PT. In fairness to Mayo Clinic, they identified this as a problem immediately and my surgeon reached out, filled me in on the PT situation, and gave me exercises to do on my own, and offered either ZOOM with therapists at a different Mayo location, or I could have traveled to those other locations. I chose to just do my own exercises, and of course I was lazy and did not push myself like I should have. So I can’t really blame Mayo.

At (three point five) weeks I only had (thirty five) degrees ROM plus my knee felt like it was full of epoxy.

I am now at (one hundred thirty) degrees ROM. If I slack off the bicycle more than (forty eight) hours that epoxy feeling comes right back and my ROM goes down. So that’s why I am on the bike every. single. day.

Surgeon is well aware of this and monitoring my progress. He stresses that it takes a full year year to completely recover, and that it is not uncommon to have setbacks along the way.

Overall I am upbeat. I am glad I got the surgery, I was in a lot of pain. Next season, after all this leg work, I will be the best skier on the mountain.

[Harry]

I did overdo it yesterday. Went to a ski area with triple the vertical feet plus high speed lifts. Got fucking smoked after an hour and can barely walk now. I think I pulled a muscle.

Update: turns out what I thought was a pulled muscle was actually pain from “extensive blood clotting” in my lower leg. Spent most of today in the ER. On heavy duty blood thinners now.

[yeahman]

Update: turns out what I thought was a pulled muscle was actually pain from “extensive blood clotting” in my lower leg. Spent most of today in the ER. On heavy duty blood thinners now.

Holy shit dude. Hope you're okay.

[mcski]

Yikes. Assuming same leg as acl? Hope mayo gets that sorted out stat

[kw_cap]

Hey, thanks for sharing. Sorry about the blood clotting, hope you're on the mend from that. Agree, the bike is key. I'm also spending a lot of time on a trainer, helps with getting that range back but also seems to really help with pumping blood thru the knee and healing. Always feel so much better after a session. Skiing is the worst thing for my knee right now, the impact beats it up, but can't stop, keep testing it, keep learning its not a great idea... Next year we'll all be killing it!

[Harry]

Holy shit dude. Hope you're okay.

More details in the blood clot thread.