Medial meniscal tear

[MinnieMountain]

Has anyone had one? What did you do to help support your knee whilst waiting for the operation?

I saw a private physiotherapist yesterday. He said it’s almost certainly that but obviously needs to be confirmed by a MRI.

I have, years ago. I think
i just took painkillers when pain was flaring. I had to wait for op as I got pregnant but good news is that it worked!!
I had physio which did nothing, obviously, as it needed to be mended 🙄

DH has just had his mri results showing meniscus tears - now waiting to see the surgeon but at the ripe old age of 59 there’s a lot of muttering about “at your age” to see if it’s fixable, or will ever repair itself.

I wore a Velcro knee brace to help stabilise it. The first time, they operated fairly quickly. The second time they made me wait 12 weeks before adding me to the waiting list, then told me it was not a priority.

I’ve now spoken to a GP who has started the referral process. Have also been warned I’m not a priority. Ho hum.

I'm here reading up on this.. 😩 I've had an initial consultation today with a knee specialist through my private healthcare. Something gave way in mid May.. I hobbled about, rested my knee, see the GP and got fobbed off with painkillers and a long wait for physio. Anyway it became quite painful to sleep so I demanded the doctor did a referral so I could go the private healthcare route. That kicked in pretty quickly fortunately and today I've been told it's likely to be a meniscus tear given my symptoms-MRI scheduled for next week. I've convinced myself it's bad 🫣 I do good with pain but this is not going away and I've struggled doing basic things for months. Is this normal with this sort of injury? I can't sit for long as my knee literally seizes up and I have to slowly stand up wincing. Never really experienced anything like this.. anyone..?

I tore mine about 12 years ago.

It was quite painful for the first week after the accident. I went to A&E and he did the click test and referred me for an MRI. It was about 6 weeks for the MRI then the surgery was about 3 months later. To be honest I carried on walking and cycling.

I made a point of telling the surgeon I was very active. Was early 30s at the time. When they went in it was a pretty nasty tear and they neatened the edges and sutured it back together rather. I had to wear a leg brace for six weeks and do a shed load of physio. Recovery was a nightmare because I was so irritable from being so immobile. I've had lung surgery and that was a doddle to recover from in comparison.

My knees are fine now. Sometimes it tickles when I've been a bit sedentary and then do something active and I'm careful with deep squats, but I lift heavy weights etc. so it's all good.

I was very nervous about weight bearing after and probably held onto the crutches for longer than I needed to.

That's a long time. Mine was quite a nasty tear. I limited myself to walking and cycling as they weren't twisting motions and didn't seem to hurt. No idea what I was meant to do!

You might want to see a sports massage person. When I was doing the whole recovery I regularly went to see one and get them to work on the muscles along the leg. Agony but worth it.

I felt like the other muscles were compensating and it was all getting tense and twisted. That definitely helped. The knee I injured was also more dominant stronger leg so that may have played a part in the muscle pain too.

Oh Lordy 🥴 that sounds quite an ordeal.! I've always been quite active so this has really been an issue for me. I'd have hoped resting it and being careful would have helped it heal but it's not working. I'm preparing myself mentally for surgery.. I've been told to walk in the swimming pool but nothing else until they know more. I'm walking but no where near as much as I would normally and sitting still for too long isn't something I can do often and my knee completely seizes up. I have teen boys - both active and I'm now also a single parent so down time will be tricky. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, much appreciated. I hope you've made a good recovery.

Oh swimming pool walking sounds good. I remember doing that as part of the physio. Good luck.

If you have surgery they will give you all the aftercare. You really won't be able to do much for the first couple of weeks. I went home and tried to sweep 1my flat on one leg and put myself in agony. Don't do that! Good chance to delegate housework to the teens! I can't remember how long until I could weight bear but the brace had to be locked I think for a while then I could gradually introduce 45 degree rotation etc. God I was glad to get that brace off!

There isn't much blood flow to the cartilage so it's a very slow heal. If they can clip it back together IMHO that is preferable to cutting lots of cartilage out as I think it reduces the chance of arthritis I.e. bone rubbing on bone, later on in life.

My only advice is to be religious with any physio as it will allow you to get back to normal long term. I had a bad physio to start and complained under PALS and got a much better one.

I'll start training them to do more around the house 🥴 I've had a terrible. Nights sleep with the pain so somewhat to happen.

Yes no problems with it now. I run etc. Physio after starts with just lifting the leg, all the way back to balancing on one leg to propreception and running in circles etc., multiple times a day for weeks.

Have you tried ibuprofen gel on the knee?

Yes, no difference really. 🫤 the GP gave me all manner of tablets - quite strong stuff according to my friend.. I felt absolutely awful and had to take myself to bed mid morning so I've not attempted anything since.

Thought I'd come back and do an update on this. MRI results are in and the consultant was surprised to see the damage 🫤 no only do I have a severe meniscus tear it would also appear there is considerable damage to the cartilage and quite a bit of inside bruising- hence the pain I'm having. X-rays now need to be done to look at the knee bone which seems to have broken down. This has floored me quite a bit! In my head I knew it was bad because the level of pain I have been experiencing so I'd sort of prepared myself mentally before I walked into the consultants room. Hearing him say this could mean knee replacement surgery was likely has sent my head in a spin. I'm here googling all sorts and thanking the lord I have bupa!!