Anyone here ever have arthroscopy on your knee?

[skygazer]

Note to mods - I am NOT looking for medical advice here.

I have a torn meniscus in my left knee that's gotten to the point that it hurts constantly and keeps me from a lot of activity. Also my job aggravates it. I'm wondering if any of you have had arthroscopic surgery, particularly on the knee, and how it went. Length of recovery, how it turned out, etc.

I'm going to do it - I have no other options left. I'm just interested in other people's experiences with this.

[Ravenseye]

1. Twice

First time was a pretty long recovery. I had torn EVERYTHING to shit. ACL, PCL, MCL, they had to remove 80% of my cartilage...It was rough. I had a full length cast on for about 6 months and then heavy physical therapy afterwards. After my leg got better, took maybe a year in toto, it was fine. No pain, I could run, play sports, etc.

Then the second time was after a reinjury. Only the ACL survived that one. They scrapped the PCL and just redid the MCL, removed more cartilage. That time I didn't have a full cast, but I had a sort of restrictive outer brace for months, and then months more of therapy. I had to wear a CRT type brace on my leg for a couple of years afterwards. The pain never went away and even more cartilage broke off and is floating around in there. My knee clicks and it hurts like someone is jabbing the inside of my knee with a knife pretty much 24/7

I've gotten used to it though, so I can pretty much block it out, but it's there dully nagging my brain at all times.

[Redstone]

8. Hey, I know a guy who's 83 years old and had both knees replaced

in the last year and a half.

He's walking without a cane, eight months after the second replacement.

That says the prosthetic knees are getting a hell of a lot better. You might want to look into one, as bad as your knee is beat up.

Redstone

[smirkymonkey]

2. Also twice.

Skiing accidents. The first time I had it done, in high school, it was kind of a new thing and took me a while to recover. The second time, right after college was much easier, less painful and the recovery time was much faster. That was about 15 years ago so I am sure it's much better these days.

I had a torn meniscus and ACL tear, and my knee hurt, kept popping out and the loose meniscus would get stuck in the joint and prevent my knee from going back in properly. Since I have had the surgery, I really haven't had a problem with it - it's still weak, I can't really ski or play tennis, but it doesn't pop out anymore and I can walk for hours with no pain.

Bottom line - it's not really that big a deal, and ultimately it's worth it. Good Luck :)

[sendero]

3. Whatever it is..

...it's a lot better than the old fashioned slice you open and chop away method :)

I've had it done on my shoulder, it was about as good as could be expected.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. Yup

Not a very intrusive surgery at all. I was walking-well,limping anyway-2 days later. The knee I had done is still stronger than the other one.

[Bigmack]

5. Twice....

... in the 1984 and 1991. It just stirred up the crap and did nothing for the bone-on-bone. Then bilateral knee replacement in 1998.

I have a new life with the titanium. I bike about 3500 miles a year, and hike in the desert all winter. Not bad for an old fat guy!

The doc says the xrays look better all the time.

(It hurts like a bitch to do the PT after surgery , but it's good for you.)

[Redstone]

9. Well, that's encouraging news for those of us who may need that.

Just out of curiosity: do you keep your kneecap when they do that replacement, or do they replace that as well? I have a very old Teflon unit, so I wouldn't mind getting it updated; just curious.

Redstone

[Bigmack]

10. Both mine were nearly worn thru...

.. so the doc "built them up". I dunno what he used.... Bondo maybe.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. Usually you keep your kneecap, but the cartilage on the back, which

is the worn out part, is usually cut off and replaced with a teflon type surface. That's the simplest part of the procedure.



This is the usual appearance of the other components:

[Redstone]

6. Beats the hell out of the old open surgery, and is fun to watch.

Yes, I watched one of the three times I had my knee scoped. It was kinda cool.

Recover is NOTHING like what it used to be. One doctor told me that the big problem they have when people get a knee scoped for a small meniscus repair is that it doesn't hurt enough...the people push the knee too far, too fast because there isn't enough pain to get them to slow down.

Listne to the doctors on the recovery schedule, and you'll do fine.

Redstone

[Shine]

7. No advice, here. Just sympathy and hugs....

Poor baby!! I'm sorry you're having to deal with this shit, on top of all the other crap you've got goin' on.

:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

Good luck with everything.

[politicat]

12. Have had one done, and we're saving up to do the other.

I broke both ACLs in just under a year, and have had meniscus tears in the left knee since high school. I had the right one done in July (no meniscus tear, just ACL replacement and a patellar scrape) and it's pretty much back to where it should be. I still have some problems kneeling on it - it's tender across the graft - and if I've had a long day or the weather is shifting, it can be sore, but I can walk 7 miles in under 2 hours and not have it hurt. Unfortunately, our insurance doesn't cover nearly enough of the costs, so I need a couple thou more in the bank before we can do #2.

The left one is another story. It is minus an ACL, an MCL and has the tears, and it's getting more unstable every day. It has not been operated upon, and as frustrating as the recovery from the right one was, I now think I should have had them both done at the same time instead of trying to do them separately.

Currently, the best way for me to make the left one hurt is to do squats or to sit on my haunches - they will both push the left one out of alignment.

I did 2 months of supervised physical therapy, and then switched over to an unsupervised routine of walking, stretching, weights and pilates. I wore a brace on the right leg for 8 weeks, was on crutches for 6 weeks. Doc and I are both happy with how the right one is doing.

The one thing that bothered me is the skin numbness that comes with surgery. I've got a substantial portion of the feeling back, but it still feels weird if my husband strokes my leg and I'm not expecting it. Shaving is kind of weird, too.

I also had arthroscopic surgery done on my left wrist 15 years ago and other than the surgery failed (the tendon repair broke again) it was not horrible.