Torn Cartilage
 

Saw my Dr two week ago for checkup and addressed my knee problems. She referred me to a bone and joint specialist who I'm going to see today. Her prediction is that his diagnosis may be a torn cartilage in my knee. She believes it's in the cartilage between my leg bones and not the part under my knee cap.

Her prediction is that it won't heal since it's been giving me trouble since early this spring when I started riding bike. She suggested that I may end up having arthroscopic surgery to shave off the tear before it creates any bone spurs or other problems.

My questions are this:(I plan to ask the Dr the same questions. Also if you have any suggestions for things I can/should ask him please let me know.)
I've heard from more than one person that you're knee never quite goes back to it's previous flexibility or strength. How likely is that?
Also I do day care in my home and plan to move in the next month. I obviously would postpone surgery until we had completed the move. My question is this - How long are you generally off your feet with this type of surgery? Would it be feasible for me to, say, have the surgery on a Friday and expect to take care of 2-3 kids (one would be a 4 mo old) by the following Monday? or should I give myself more time off?

Any other input would be helpful. How necessary is the possible surgery? I know my Dad had torn cartilage under his kneecap, let it go, and developed some nasty bone spurs that damaged the cartilage even more. I don't want to wait too long if surgery is needed but I also don't want to have surgery if this isn't going to cause me a lot of trouble in the future and the surgery will only weaken my knee.

I had surgery on my knee three years ago (torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament, torn medial meniscus), and by far the "fix" that kept me off my knee for two weeks was the ACL repair. Arthro surgery for torn cartilege should make you "cautious" on your knee for only a couple of days, and it's usually done on an outpatient basis. All you ortho TFPers can weigh in here and support/refute me. Ask those same questions to the specialist. Explain your situation. Ask if there would be an optimal time for the surgery. Who knows, maybe you'll have to wait anyway.

As for the recovery, it really seems hit-and-miss with people. Some people recover fully (like me -- I play competitive ultimate again on the same knee that ultimate messed up), while others have to take it a little easier on the knee. In some circumstances, leaving the tear rather than having it corrected might be prudent, but I'm not hearing that very often from other people.

Let us know how it turns out, eh? Good luck, and take it easy :)

I have had the surgery 2 times, on the same knee. The first time, the doctor, who had performed the surgery 1000s of times, or so he claimed, goofed, and my knee never quite recovered from it. Didn't matter, i went skiing again, had some idiot on a slope he didn't belong on crash into me, and blow my knee again. Same knee. This time I went to a doctor who specialized in Sports Medicine, he was the team doctor for the NY Jets football team. He fixed my knee and corrected the problems left by the original doctor.

Get a second opinion, thoroughly research the doctors and what his background is, and what the success rate is of the surgery for each doctor.

It's minor surgery at your age, you probably won't even be put under anesthetic. You are on crutches for maybe two weeks and then therapy after that for a few weeks, depending... I took nothing more than aspirin for a day or two, but everyone has a differentthreshold of pain. Running after kids 3 days later is going to be tough, you will be slower. but it's not unrealistic.

It helps with the pain, you'll appreciate it especially in rainy damp weather.

yep it could be pretty minor ... seen this op on telly done as keyhole surgery (for a rugby player) ... from my (basic) understanding of anatomy removing cartilege shouldn't make the knee much weaker ... not like tearing a ligment would do anyway

hope it goes well when you get it done :)

My wife had her knee scoped twice. It was a sports specialist that did it and he was great. The first time, she was off her feet for one day, on crutches for a couple then on her own after that. But she was 21 at the time. She did have therapy a few days later for a couple of weeks, and that really helped. A year later, she had to have acl surgery, and was off her feet for a week, and on crutches for a while, with therapy every day for 6 weeks. Hope this info helps.

Thanks for the info guys. Dr gave me some celebrex with the thinking that it could be a portion of soft tissue that got pinched, has remained inflamed from it, and gets continueally pinched. He described it as - when you bite your cheek it gets a little swollen and then you tend to keep biting it.
His plan is that I take the celebrex to try to take down the inflammation. Then come back in two weeks to check on things. If it's still giving me trouble then he will do an MRI to look at the soft tissues. In that case it's most likely a small cartilage tear.

He's hoping that the celebrex will fix things. For now my activity stays the same. I'm just not suppose to climb stairs while carrying kids or heavy items. I can still bike and other such activities.

After he messed with my knee and rotated it and all my knee is killing me now. Arrgghhh Time for an icepack and some celebrex.

Personally, I would get the MRI regardless. Celebrex is all well and good but it will not resolve the problem (if there is one).

I tore the cartilege that connects to the miniscus and my knee has given me problems ever since. For a while I tried to tough it out with the thinking that my body will adapt (I'm not a big believer in surgery and drugs for every little thing) but I eventually had to go the surgery route when the knee would feel better for months at a time and then some minor shock or motion (sliding off a 3 foot fence i was sitting on to the ground, or getting out of a car) would irritate it causing immense immediate pain and day(s) of soreness.

The MRI may or may not give a definitive answer. In my case the MRI did not pick up the damage but when the surgeon went in he clearly saw the problem. I know others whose MRIs clearly identified it.

FWIW it's been almost 5 years since my surgery and my knee has been relatively trouble free. A couple of months in there where I thought I might have to go back for more surgery but I opted not to since it's not like they can put the cartilege back if they take it out. The more cartilege they remove the weaker the joint is likely to get.

As far as recovery time, I'd give it a week on average. Your mobility will be limited as you'll be on crutches and likely have it bandaged up pretty good. But the time really depends on the person. Right after the surgery my girlfriend drove me to Circuit City and I bought a new tv, loaded it in the car, and unloaded it into the house. Probably not worth the risk in retrospect but I was not going to suffer through a few days stuck in the house watching tv on a 13" tv.

Anyway, good luck and please let us know how it turns out.

I had meniscus cartilage repair done 3 years ago, outside of both knees, arthroscopically. It was/has been great. I'd say after 12 months of working with a trainer 2-3 days per week, I was 95% of perfect.

The only thing I did wrong was wait 2 years too long to go to see a doctor and then wait 2 more years before deciding surgury was a must. My recommendation is go in as soon as you feel there is a problem and get cut.

The only reason I'd say don't do it was if you are planning to be a couch potato for the rest of your life.

Thanks for listening.

if your doctor wants to cut, without doing mri, go find another doctor. i had mine done 3 years ago. i had 30 days rehab. i was released to go back to early. i am a lineman for a power co. for 6 months my knee would swell if i climbed a pole. my doctor told me 12 months to total recovery if i did my rehab, 24 months without. he was on the money almost to the day. the longer you wait to get it fixed the longer it is to recover. the longer you put it off the more muscle loss due to not doing the normal things you would. the first 3 days were very painful, i got out of bed to early.

I'm in the same boat as you - torn medial meniscus; been hurting since April, and it's just never going to get better without surgery. I'm trying to schedule it now for mid to late September.

I was told to expect the following:
Surgery on Wednesday; back to work Monday.
Crutches for the first 24 hours; 70% recovery within six weeks. Physical therapy 2 or 3 times a week for a few weeks.
They <b>will</b> give you anesthetic.
Until you get surgery, you can cause further injury to your knee.
After surgery, you might <i>hurt</i> your knee doing certain things, but you won't <i>injure</i> it.
Because they're removing part of the support pad for your thighbone, you will eventually develop arthritis - how much depends on how much of the meniscus is removed. However, <i>not</i> getting the surgery will cause even more arthritis.

Luckily, I have a lot of faith in my surgeon - he's done about 5 of these surgeries every week for the past 25 years, and was one of the first to do them arthroscopically.

As for the MRI, they can be a good guide - but don't be surprised if, once they're in there, they find more problems than the MRI showed.

Good luck.