Who's ever had knee surgery?

Nope. I have never kneeded it.

 

ive had arthroscopic surgery as well as acl reconstruction on my knee. For your torn meniscus, you're going to need arthroscopic surgery and its not too bad. You can walk pretty soon after and should be back to normal in about 4-6 weeks if you do the rehab.

 

I have a torn PCL and my doctor said that surgery for this doesn't always get great results. So my hoops career ended at age 38 and have arthritis to look forward to in about 20 years.

 

well I am basically done with athletics for life and I am 26. I have had 3 knee surgeries on my right knee. first I tore my acl in basketball. then I had a meniscal tear which was very easy. I was walking on it the same day. then I tore my acl again and I ended up needing microfracture along with the 2nd acl reconstruction.

for your surgery don't worry about it. the surgery is not painful. the incisions are so minor and the procedure is very simple. just do your rehab and make sure you get your knee and leg strong.

also, if you don't get the torn meniscus removed then you will get arthritis much sooner than if you do get the surgery. and your doc may have just been telling you the worst case scenario. my right knee is basically like bobby sura's knee and my doc said that if I continued to try to play sports on it then I would have bad arthritis in 10 years.

now the positive thing...knee replacement surgery due to missing cartilage will probably be obsolete in 10 years due to developments in regrowing cartilage. they do knee replacements because the knees get so jacked up from arthritis after the years of bone to bone contact. so if you have cartilage covering the bone so there is no bone on bone contact then you won't have the arthritis. they can currently regrow your knee cartilage except it is very expensive and still in the experimental stages. as stem cell research continues they should be able to get the knee cartilage to rebuild itself...thus making knee replacements obsolete as well as the arthritis.

 

I had arthroscopic foir a torn meniscus from doing carwheels while skiing (warning to all...bindings apparently did not release while doing cartwheels).

I would not do it again with just any surgeon. I would either find a great one or live with it.

If it's done improperly you also run a higher risk of arthritis. If you end up with a lot of bone-on-bone, it's just as bad as repeated swelling.

They can also cut or nick a nerve and you'll have burning in the knee forever. Mine was maybe just knicked and the skin on my knee was numb for years (discomforting sensation, but not painful).

The main reason I had the surgery was so my knee would not pop/swell when jogging, volleyball, hoops, etc. Jogging was most important to me because I ran 6 miles/day (it kepy me addicted to exercise). The surgery went many hours over expected and afterwards the surgeon told me that they removed most of my cartilidge so I could no longer run on the knee ... no more jogging, volleyball, basketball... (but I could still snow ski ) ... they had never even mentioned that as a possibility.

If you do it ... REHAB REHAB REHAB. Else, you will favor the leg and one leg stronger than the other will eventually lead to back problems.

 

Surgery or no, antioxidant supplements can help minimize the swelling and glucosamine/chondroitin supplements can help the cartilidge recover and help lubricate the joint (increase synovial fluid).

 

I had ARTHROSCOPIC Knee surgery with MEDIAL MENISCECTOMY. At first, I took VIOXX for the swelling, but that didn't help it. I used to just hurt for no reason at all, and it was just the pain catching up with me.

I had a 25% tear on my PCL, which caused the MENISCUS to tear and the cartilage from the FEMUR to grind on the bottom bones. The PCL healed on its own provided I didn't do any heavy running or lifted anything heavy in 8 months.

While the doctor was "in there", he also smoothened my cartilage to prevent scratching the meniscus, and cut off all loose ends the PCL had. The doctor said the other choice would have been to get a corpse's PCL and put it in me, but that he would NOT recommend ever playing basketball again. Eff that chiznit... I said "fix MINE... I don't want nobody else's ANYTHING inside of me..." so I am back.

I am back on the rubber floor of the gym here at work, playing full court during lunch.

Check this out: http://www.edheads.org/activities/knee/

 

Not only that, but the leg you had surgery on will lose a lot of muscle size (atrophy) that is very hard to get back. I had acl surgery many years ago and my left leg thigh muscle is still smaller than my right.

 

I had surgery about 10 years ago to remove plica from my left knee (Hakeem had the same surgery about a year after me). The most important thing to remember is to take your rehad seriously. Not only do you need to find a good surgeon, make sure the rehad center is top knotch, too. Go through every step of the process. Over-exertion doesn't help. Just make sure you get the flexibility and strength back as you will lose a lot of muscle due to the suregery itself. You should be close to being back to full strength at around 6 weeks. Not following through completely with the rehab will lead to scar tissue which can be more painful that your original injury.

After 10 years, my knee still has some soreness in it from time to time, but it's nothing like it was pre-surgery. Cold weather seems to trigger some of it.

 

i would like to second that. make sure you find a doc that you are comfortable with. if you think he is incompetent or doesn't really care then find another one. i found my doc from a recommendation by another doctor. my knee is still jacked up but the doc who did my surgery used to be the team doc for the spurs.

also, i have that same nerve problem too. i've got used to it but it causes mild numbness from the mid point of my shin to my ankle.

 

I had ACL surgery back in 2000 after tearing it playing soccer and my left hamstring is alot tighter than the right, in fact it feels like there's a knot in there.

EddieWasSnubbed, you are still really young so might as well do the surgery so you can still participate in sports or at least still run and excercise. It will probably be painful, I know for the ACL surgery I was in agonizing pain for 2-3 days afterwards but after rehab and excercise you feel as good as new once you get over the mental aspect of it. I still get pain in my knee once in awhile but it goes away after icing and rest. Goodluck!

 

Had ACL surgery back in last Oct. Tore my meniscus, acl and mcl. Just like you put it off for a while, but i had to get it done. With the right surgeon, PT, and equipment, you'll be up and walking with a brace within weeks. The surgeon did a great job, and is really nice and explains everything. My opinion is get the surgery and be done with it, so you can start rehab.