r/MeniscusInjuries

I had my 3 month post op appointment today after, I still can’t fully bend past 100 degrees and having issues getting knee completely straight, along with walking oddly since getting completely off crutches 3 weeks ago. Now my surgeon ordered another MRI due to popping in my knee when walking and a good amount of tenderness. He mentioned we may need to do another surgery to put a few more stitches in.. Any advice or experience is appreciated 😊

I’m 3 weeks post op. I have been walking with a brace on as advised by Dr. Saliman.

I don’t trust this brace at all, I actually kinda hate it. it never feels like it’s doing its job correctly even though I follow the insurrections closely. like it just causes an uneasy feeling.

pain was super good honestly for first 3 weeks, every thing going

smoothly. then I was walking in my house with it on, and then i felt a twinge in my knee, a twitch of sorts, and it’s been 3-4 days now and I can’t go fully straight with it anymore + joint line pain. the pain is pretty low, comparable to 1.5 weeks post surgery but… I don’t know I’m anxious for obvious reasons.

i just don’t know why the brace is recommended, I’d rather just not use it for 6 weeks to be certain, i can’t help but feel it’s a liability

am I overthinking it? is the whole point of the brace to be a failsafe so you can’t use your leg in a way that would hurt it? and it’s just overuse/swelling? I’d there anyway to tell the difference?

im going to ask my PA of course as well

Insurance will most likely refuse an MRI and surgery according to my doctor. Just got referral for PT.

Last Saturday I was doing leg extensions. 3rd set. Already very warmed up. Extremely loud very painful pop in my left knee. Got up sat down. Extreme pain for about 5 minutes. Limped to my car. 30 min later I could walk again but hurt a lot to fully extend my knee and bend it

It’s now Wednesday morning. This morning i did my elliptical (first time since injury) after getting the ok from the doctor. Doctor did an examination yesterday and is almost positive it is a medial meniscus tear. There was no swelling at the time of injury or anytime after. X-rays look good.

If still hurts to fully extend my knee and to fully bend it, feels like there is something inside the knee that is making it not want to fully extend or bend. Pain on the inside of the knee when walking. Feels a lot better to not fully extend my leg when walking.

I have a bodybuilding show in 18 weeks. What are the next steps? Is there any chance i could get back to regular training anytime soon? Thanks guys!

Hi All - i’m mentally broken at this point and was hoping to see if anyone has had a similar experience and can share recovery stories.

In October of last year I experiencing a Bucket Handle Tear, it was so severe I couldn’t straighten my knee and was in 9/10 pain waiting for surgery. Doctor did a full repair without any significant trimming.

Fast forward 7 months later, I can walk up and
down stairs fine, walk 30-40 minutes and can do a few PT exercises without pain. Issue is the walking causes my knee to swell, I can’t squat my
body weight without pain, I can’t do any
single leg weight bearing exercises without pain, can’t jump without excruciating pain.. Basically all of the PT exercises I should be doing to enter the next phase of my strength training I can’t do without pain.

Doctor feels confident the repair didn’t heal properly, so i’m going in for a MRI this week. It’s weird cause I can feel my leg getting stronger but I still can’t do 75% of my PT exercises without pain. I’ve been stuck like this for almost 2 months now.

Anyone experience something similar? I can’t fathom having to get it trimmed now and doing another recovery..

I’m 11 weeks post surgery on a posterior root tear. After being 2 weeks non-weight bearing and 4 weeks at 50% I’ve been doing pt to get some muscle back. I’ve been doing bodyweight lunges with no problems, so yesterday they had me do lunges with 10 lbs dumbbells. While doing that exercise I got really dizzy and almost passed out but felt no pain and actually finished pt after sitting for a minute. At first I thought maybe I was just dehydrated or hot but as the day has gone on my knee has gotten more sore in the posterior then I’ve felt after pt before.
Is there any chance I retore the repair while doing that exercise? Or did I just push too much at pt and am now sore? I didn’t feel any pop, pain, or knee weakness in the moment, but it was strange for me to feel faint.
What are others experiences with this repair and how common is pain after trying something new in pt?

I don’t know the specifics of the type of tear but I had 2 separate tears repaired. I was given full weight bearing, no brace, walk with crutches, 90 degree ROM. Which seems pretty relaxed compared to what I’ve read about meniscus repairs. But I’ve certainly abused it and have walked around without crutches a bit and probably over did stuff like bending and lifting, some twisting. Only 6 days post op, There isn’t any change in pain or swelling, I’m just paranoid that I over did it and wondering if anyone has had a similar experience, apologies for the vagueness lol

26F just got out of my partial meniscectomy. My surgeon said he’d assess once he got in there about doing a repair vs trim. He ended up having to trim 15% due to damage. I also had an ACL meniscus repair in 2022.

I am also 3 months postpartum, however remained pretty fit and did f45 until the week before I delivered. I got back into working out once cleared pp and that’s when my tear occurred.

Any advice, wisdom, timelines for healing?

Hi all. Just found out recently that I did in fact tear my meniscus. To be specific it’s a medial meniscus bucket handle tear, torn during a soccer match. Doc has set me up with surgery next week. I was told it’s likely going to be a sewing back on situation, rather than cutting it out. But can’t know for sure until they are under the microscope. I’m just wondering general recovery timelines of anyone who had the same injury. Thanks! Not sure if it matters but for reference 30 M.

I got a lateral root tear about 3 years ago that was missed on all MRI’s and a previous exploratory scope. I am just now going to get it repaired in about a month. I am a full time personal trainer and my lifetime passion is weightlifting. I have been unable to do any squatting, leg pressing, lunging since the initial injury and am wondering if anyone has had luck post lateral root repair.

Hi all. I injured my knee mid-January while skiing, partial ACL tear and torn MCL. The MRI did not show a meniscus tear, although my dr says there are signs of "cartilege involvement" like a narrowed medial compartment. I have been doing rehab religiously but after 4 months I still am 17 degrees off full leg extension. My Dr says she suspects that I have a small meniscus tear that was missed on the MRI, and also said she really doesn't like a surgical solution and to stick with physio, it will heal. My physio seems skeptical of this approach and has hinted that maybe I need a scope, but the dr hasnt agreed.

When I extend my leg during the physio exercises, it just stops, and in my head it will feel like I have reached the natural end range of the knee's movement. I've often had to check in the mirror to see if I've gained any range but nope, knee will still be bent. I haven't had a lot of pain to speak of throughout this whole process, other than just a few times (over 4 months) when I have moved awkwardly a and had a short-lived shock of searing pain in the inside/back of the knee.

Anyone had an MRI miss a meniscus tear? Does this sound similar to a meniscus tear from your experience?

I’m a division 1 swimmer who’s getting meniscus repair surgery in a couple weeks. I do not have much Reddit experience but this is the only place I think I can find advice. I tore my lateral (white zone??) meniscus from overuse of my breaststroke kick. Since this was over a year ago and I have been training through it, I also now have a cyst in the back of my knee that they’ll need to drain. My pain is not super bad and only really hurts when I’m training and the following days after which causes the locking and what not.

What im here to ask is what some average people would think my recovery would be like. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories on here about needing a lot of medication and not being able to get out of bed and it’s really freaking me out. I’m kind of hoping since I’m young and an athlete the recovery will be easier on my body but I genuinely have no clue what to expect.

How do I use the toilet also.

Anyways the reason for this post is because I intend on coaching a couple weeks after my surgery which will involve me having the stand for a bit but I can take breaks and sit down. I’m hoping that I can still do this.

Thank you if you’ve made it this far and please don’t just tell me what I need to hear, if I’m going to be in excruciating pain I need a heads up.

Hello everyone.
I had meniscus surgery 3 weeks ago. I had a tear that was stitched back together. The doctor has said I can walk at 4 weeks and no PT is needed. But he’s very vague as to what I can do at 4 weeks. What should I expect? What can I actually do besides walking? Can I go up/down stairs? Can I kneel down….etc?

24 M (Lateral: Complex - Horizontal + Oblique Tear in Red-Red and Red-White zone + a loose ACL which was not touched)

Just over 2 years post-op I figured I'll write this here. I had injured myself in 2022 playing football but didn't get a surgery then being fearful. Two years later when the pain became constant the year had progressed to be a complex tear and I finally made my mind up to get the arthroscopy, I kinda regretted not getting the surgery earlier as it was a smaller cleaner tear early on.

I still remember the day of the surgery as of it was yesterday. I remember being reeled into the operation theatre and small talking with the anaesthesiologist before blacking out and waking up with a massive brace on my right leg. Anaesthesia is super weird you feel like you're gone for a few minutes while irl my surgery took about an hour. Was discharged the following day an a walker. The surgeon said part of the year was shredded and trimmed off but he was able to preserve 90% of my meniscus and performed a repair. The days after the surgery were tough I'm a 6 feet 2 inch tall guy and weigh roughly 95 kilos so everything was just tough but I took it one day at a time.

And then a combination of two things happened. I didn't do my towel quad sets properly and my hospital assigned physio was pathetic. I wasn't getting better. In fact fear overcame me to the point that I was not able to walk without a stick until 3 months postop! I was scared of messing the repair up. I remember one night waking up with an ache on the lateral side of my right knee and panicking.

As I just barely had started to walk normally fate hit hard again and I caught a stomach infection and a fever which lasted for 3 weeks. That inflammation caused Reiter's which affected my right leg the most probably because it was my weakest set of joints. Horrible period in my life tbh. But that caused something sinister... I was slowly and slowly developing health anxiety. As an avid ChatGPTer I started googling every single symptom in the months following my recovery. I bought a CD reader to connect it to my laptop to view my MRI images. I went to the Lab near me and asked for all random tests done. Every single organ, every week. This lasted for three months. I am now aware a lot of these symptoms were exacerbated if not directly caused by intense anxiety and the fear of something wrong happening. Now 10 months post-op I was aimless and fearing everything. I had unnecessary and partial knowledge of health and biology lmao.

As random as it may sound one day I snapped... I switched physios to a much more expensive sport physio centre which later became my S&C centre. That was honestly a blessing. I became more diligent. I was focused on making my comeback. I wanted to comeback stronger. I also had a few more personal wins on the side... Was gaining strength and proper form and slowly the symptoms started to fade. I felt like I was being normal again. 5 months after starting physio I went to another country solo and extensively travelled for about 2 weeks in which I hiked and walked a lot. I started to run soon after that. Trained better. More focused.

And exactly 22 months post-op, 12 months after starting with the new physio I completed my first ever Half-marathon in a decent time as well. I beat it... I beat my anxiety and made it my bitch. Without meds, without therapy... I gained control of my myself and shifted focus to my goals.

So my 2 cents for anyone struggling:

1. Patience and optimism are everything. This is going to be long so buckle up.
2. Don't force it. Everyone has different timelines.
3. Be gentle with your strength and conditioning but be consistent.
4. Regardless of this the risk of re-injury remains especially in the first few months so don't overdo it, but like I said consistency beats everything.
5. Have a good S&C coach / physio. Someone who understands who you are, what your expectations are and what outcomes you want.
6. You are much more than this stupid knee injury. Don't skip on life. Go out sit on the grass, meet friends, go to work. BE SOCIAL. (Not being social during my initial recovery made me get anxious, I was on WFH)

I feel great now btw. I run, I lift and I swim. Can squat 110 Kgs, Hip Thrust 80 Kgs, do RDLs, Lateral stepdowns, Curls, Nordics etc as my strength and conditioning plan myself at the gym now and I LOVE LEG DAYS.

LET'S GO!

I'd love to hear your success stories or to help anyone in my DMs. Feel free to drop a text.

I'll go first.
I am 37 .
Felt a sharp stabbing pain during a 10K race last April on the 8th km but I continued running. Got a PB but the knee swelled up afterwards.
Got it repaired in October.
My theory is that I had torn it because I was playing tennis, doing CrossFit, and running quite a bit from February to April prior to the 10K race.

Hi everyone. I am a 33 yo male and about three years ago I had a partial medial meniscectomy. I was hoping to hear from younger people who’ve had the procedure and how you’re feeling years later.
My initial rehab went about as well as it could have. Had trouble with fluid retention, but did PT for around three months and gradually returned to daily life, light running, and the gym when I could. Over time, though, I started noticing weakness in the joint. I didn’t think too much of it at first because I assumed it would just take time to feel “normal” again.
A few months ago, I began noticing significant atrophy in my operated leg, along with increasing clicking in the knee. Since then, I’ve realized I’ve also developed a leg-length discrepancy from compensation patterns and gait changes. I was prescribed another round of PT to address the muscle imbalances that have developed.
Honestly, I’ve been having a hard time coming to terms with this new normal and have been spiraling a bit about my long-term mobility and the possibility that a total knee replacement could eventually be in my future. I also feel somewhat deceived by my surgeon. The procedure was presented as relatively quick and straightforward, and I don’t think I fully understood the long-term realities and potential consequences that could come with it.
At this point, I’m trying to figure out the best next step for recovery, but I’ve almost felt paralyzed making decisions because the first procedure led to so many outcomes I wasn’t expecting. I’d really appreciate hearing any long-term partial meniscectomy success stories, especially from younger people, and how you’re doing years later.

Right now, it feels like one path leads toward OA and chronic pain, while the other could involve more corrective surgery. Any thoughts, experiences, or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone!
I’m a 27 year old female and had medial meniscus repair surgery for a bucket-handle tear last July (with loose ACL graft adjustment). This week, it tore again while I was stretching in the gym. My surgeon walked me through my options of going the repair route again or going with a partial meniscectomy. I am dreading the prospect of going through that recovery again and running the risk of potentially tearing it again and needing a meniscectomy anyways down the line. On the other hand, I’m stressed about long-term outcomes and developing OA if I get the partial meniscectomy now. I don’t know if it’s irresponsible of me to want the shorter recovery, but I’ve heard that subsequent surgeries have higher failure rates.

I also had ACL reconstruction and a minor meniscus repair on the same knee when I was 16, so this will be my third operation.

Any insights, advice, or people’s experiences would be really appreciated!! Thank you in advance ❤️