u/icantdecideugh

I'm in my 9th week of recovery after a posterior horn repair on my medial meniscus and have encountered many setbacks along the way because of the intensity of my rehab program. I'm doing daily PT at a clinic, about 3-4 hours a day, and I feel like they're pushing me too far, too soon. So far I've developed:

- hamstring strain in week 2 that lasted up until weeks 4 or 5

- proximal hamstring tendinopathy starting in week 7 and halting my progress until now

- tendinopathy in multiple tendons on my opposite ankle when I progressed to balance exercises on Bosu ball (I had multiple previous injuries on this ankle and told them to take that into account. I feel like they didn't)

- either patella tendinopathy or IT band syndrome starting this week (week 9). I'm not sure which one and my PT doesn't know either

My progress started with exercises on the mat / bed (with 0 weights and then progressively adding weights), then open kinetic chain exercises using cable machines, then closed chain exercises with weights / resistance bands. I spent about 2 weeks on each level before moving to the next one, but each session added something new (weights/resistance/new exercises). I'm curious how other recovery programs look like so I can compare.

What exercises did you do and how did the progression go for you?

I would've included a picture but for the no knee pictures rule (?).

I'm 9 weeks post medial meniscus repair and my knee started hurting on the lateral side, starting from the side of the patella and going up about 3-5 cm towards the side of the quad. I've been feeling some tendons and/or ligaments rubbing over bone in that area during exercises and bike since early rehab and this week it started hurting. It's also tender to the touch.

I'm doing PT daily and the pain started 3 days ago. My PT gave me hip and glute exercises today to help with it and some isometrics. I feel like it gets more irritated during extension and flexion, which I can't really avoid. It bothers me while walking, standing and sitting/lying down. I'm not sure if it's IT band or something else. I'm pretty sure it's not the lateral meniscus but something to do with a tendon or ligament.

Also, I've been feeling a rubbing sensation in that area ever since the surgery and have had pretty loud creaking up until 2-3 weeks ago when it got a bit less audible, but the sensation of tendons/ligaments rubbing over bone is still there. What could this be?

I've been dealing with a meniscus injury since last year, on top of an ankle sprain (the 4th of 5th on that ankle by that point). While rehabbing the ankle, the meniscus broke because the PT I was seeing at that point didn't listen to my concerns and put too much pressure on my knees during exercises. He also didn't know anything about EDS or hypermobility.

I had meniscus repair surgery in March and have been in rehab for it ever since, but in the past 3 weeks, as exercises got progressively difficult, I started experiencing more issues. First, I developed proximal hamstring tendinopathy, which is to say that the tendons behind the knee going up the leg got overworked and inflamed. I rested for a week, then got back to the exercises and now my ankle, the one I was rehabbing last year, started hurting to the point of not being able to walk properly. My hip flexors also hurt and no amount of rest helps. And my other knee started acting up, overcompensating I think. At this point the meniscus is the least of my worries.

My new PT, again, didn't know anything about EDS but did his best to accommodate for every new pain I got. However, things just keep getting worse and I'm feeling hopeless that I'll ever get some relief. It feels like every issue I've had over the years (sprains, strains, partial tendon tears) piles on top of each other and my body is slowly deteriorating beyond my ability to catch up and reverse the damage. I'm 26 feeling like at least 50.

It doesn't help that no PT I've encountered so far and almost no doctor that's treated me knows what EDS is or what it means for my health and my rehab journey. Most of them ask me how it's spelled. I live in Eastern Europe, where professionals in the medical field aren't trained in dealing with people like me and they all treat issues separately instead of integrating all of them into a holistic rehab plan.

I've been thinking of taking matters into my own hands and rehabbing solo because only I know all the issues I've had that need to be addressed, but I'm no PT and it's gonna take years of learning to figure everything out. Also, I feel like that's unfair. There should be professionals out there to help me, I shouldn't be doing all of this alone.

Anyway, I don't think I'm looking for advice, just a place to rant. Hopefully I'm not the only one going through this.

I've had a meniscus repair of the posterior horn on March 9th and have been doing PT consistently daily ever since. In my 2nd week of recovery my hamstrings started tensing up significantly on the operated leg when keeping it flexed (I was doing exercises on my non-operated leg under PT supervision and my operated one had to be slightly flexed). This issue kept reappearing any time I needed to hold a non-assisted flexion up until the 4th week or so, then it got better as I gained more strength in my leg.

I'm now in my 7th week of recovery and I think I strained my hamstring. I've been progressively loading the leg, just got to 100% last week (week 6) and started doing more complex exercises while standing up, all with PT supervision. 3 days ago I did quite a lot of exercises for my posterior leg, but the pain only started the next day after a very short walk (<2000 steps) and about 20 mins of standing up while cooking and showering. It started as a sharp pain on the medial side of my operated knee when walking, so sharp that it made me stop moving. Then it progressed to sharp pains behind the knee and up to my inner thigh when flexing and extending the knee while walking. The pain is strong when it appears, but goes away immediately and shows up a while later, seemingly at random steps. Yesterday I tried stretching thinking it might help, but I think I overstretched because the pain got worse during walking.

I talked to my PT today during my session and he modified my exercises and told me to take care not to stretch if it feels painful, but it doesn't hurt when stretching which makes me insecure that I might be overdoing it without knowing. The PT also did a TECAR session on my hamstrings today and it felt better after. Now the pain is slightly lower than yesterday, but it still shows up while walking or sitting with my leg extended. I'm trying to get an ortho appointment this week to ask my doctor what I can do about this.

Has anyone else experienced a hamstring strain during recovery and if so, how did you manage it without losing too much of your recovered strength? Did you have to forgo hamstring exercises altogether until it healed?