anyone ever skated with a meniscus tear?

[sue123]

I just came back from the orthopedist, it was a second opinion, and he thinks I may have torn my meniscus. I am more tempted to believe him than the first orthopod I went to, because this one actually listened to me and actually did a more thorough exam. So I have to go for an MRI, and i asked him about skating. He told me I could skate in the meantime, as long as I don't do jumps since I'd land on the bad leg, as well as to avoid doing shoot the ducks on my right leg, or back sit spins, until he gets the MRI results. But the fact is, I want to be able to do those things again. Has anybody else had a torn meniscus, but continue to be able to skate like they used to over time?

I thought the coolest thing was that my doc had this little dictophone thing that he starts talking into, and called me an active 20 year old figure skater. It feels weird when someone I don't really know calls me a figure skater. It feels weird when I call myself a figure skater. And he was surprised at how flexible I am. Hehe, that's what stretching so you get better spirals and extension does.

[techskater]

I skated with a partially torn MCL for a whole year (I never had it surgically repaired, but I have rehabbed enough and built up enough strength around it that it is basically "healed"). I did not jump for the better part of a month because it was my landing side as well. I spent the time finding a camel spin, back camel, etc that had always given me fits, working on basics, etc. When it was OK enough to jump again, I took it easy the first day only doing jumps through loop and flip and then around the third day of jumping did lutzes and axels and landed them pretty easily after getting over the fear I was going to hurt myself again. I passed my Adult Gold FS test about 6 weeks after the original injury.

[Beccapoo2003]

This is just my experience... I am not a doctor and I don't know the details of your injury. I've had 3 knee surgeries with meniscus tears and had a new ACL put in and am doing fine with skating. Rehab does wonders!
Good luck! :)
Becca

[Joan]

My husband (not a skater, but athletic in other ways) tore his MCL a few years ago. He got it repaired, was in rehab for a few weeks or a month and then he was basically back to normal. Just be careful until you know if it is torn and then, if it is torn, get the fix done.

[iceskaterdawn]

I had a shattered knee cap and a severed patella tendon, but four reconstructive surgeries and a year of PT later, I was back on the ice with very few problems.

[sue123]

The thing I was worried about is that the meniscus acts as a shock absorber, and when you jump, it feels like extra weight, no? So even if I did have the surgery, they'd remove a part of the meniscus so there would be less shock absorber. But I guess I'll know more after the follow up visit. He put it in his little dictaphone "Discuss further treatment options at follow up visit". I want a little dictaphone.

[The Ice Demon]

I had an arthroscopy 2 years back to tidy up my meniscus on my right (landing) knee. It didn't fix anything and I have had ongoing problems with my cartilage since. I have skated on it the whole time, depending on where the pieces of cartilage are floating I usually can do all jumps/spins ok. It hurts occasionally, again depending on where the piece/s are floating. Sometimes (including at the moment) I can't fully straighten my knee the last inch or bend it totally (I avoid kneeling at all costs anyway). It doesn't hurt too much only on landings sometimes. At the moment I can live with how it is (including running on it) and more importantly skate on it. I figure sometime down the track I may need to have it operated on again but as the first op didn't change much (and previous negative experiences with the medical profession) I am very wary of letting a doctors/surgeon etc loose on it unless my knee goes bad and I can't skate on it!

Don't know if this helps but that is my experience and 2c worth anyway.

[mikawendy]

He put it in his little dictaphone "Discuss further treatment options at follow up visit". I want a little dictaphone.

You can get them--one of my colleages received one as a Hannukah gift one year. He has a long commute and finds he thinks of all kinds of things he has to remember to do once he gets home. I think there are some that are pretty small these days and that don't require the insertion of a cassette...

I hope your knee recovery goes well. My knees are cringing in sympathy of thoughts of knee pain and surgery!

[pennybeagle]

I still skate with what is most likely a small partial tear in my right meniscus. The original injury was about 3 years ago, and as I didn't have comprehensive medical insurance at the time, I couldn't afford an MRI or "optional" surgery... I was off the ice for 4 weeks and didn't jump for another month or so, during which time I did a lot of stretching and strengthening exercises. For about a half year, I'd occasionally feel pain, but not when jumping--it usually involved any kind of deep knee bending (like back sit spins) and often what would happen is that my knee would lock and then I couldn't get up, or it just wouldn't bend. But after a half year or so, it just kind of got better.

It's been pretty much OK since then, although last year in March or so, I banged up my knee again in a crazy fall (LCL contusion) and it started to kind of click and lock up every once in a while, probably because the cartilage was no longer in its happy place. I skated through it because I wanted to compete at nationals, and then took about a month off afterwards. It was a little tender over the summer, but now it's back to being fine.

One of these days I should get it checked out again, but I don't like going to doctors.

[aussieskater]

I *partially* tore both my right ACL and my right meniscus just over 2 years ago (click of death on xo's), both confirmed by MRI. Sports doctor said I was very lucky that both were only partial tears, as neither was bad enough to warrant reconstruction at the time - the ACL would heal by itself with care, and the meniscus probably not but if I was careful would give me several years of service before it would eventually require an arthrosocopy. If I had completely torn either, I'd have needed the surgery right away.

I was off the ice for 4 months, doing intensive rehab (I *really* didn't want the surgery if I could avoid it, and I *really wanted to skate again...), and have been skating on it consistently ever since. I listen to it when it starts to feel rickety or hurts (which happens not often but sometimes). It does limit me sometimes - I can't lunge with the right leg back at all, nor can I do bauers with that leg straight. The knee just will not accept that torsion.

However, I am not a jumper or a spinner (if I was, the injured knee would be my take-off one as I'm a CW skater). I now do synchro and dance.

Hope yours heals as well as mine has, and you can enjoy skating again!

[skateflo]

sue123 - it depends on where the tear is as to whether it needs further treatment/surgery. Go to this site for excellant review:
http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/index.html

I had a medial menisus tear for over 2 years when it finally started catching and that is when I had it arthroscopically trimmed - I skated after that for 11 years with a further tear (MRI confirmed 1-1/2 yrs. ago) until last month when I needed arthroscopy for patella fracture piece in my joint.

Many people have tears that they aren't even aware of and still are very active. The bottom line is how symptomatic it is, what rehab/strengthening of quads and hamstrings has been able to do for you without surgery.

[batikat]

I had what was assumed to be a meniscus tear from a skiing accident in 1987. I was told it would need athroscopic surgery but in fact I never had the surgery as we were moving abroad and I didnt trust the guy who had only ever done 1 athroscopy before to experiment on my knee and I heard a few stories of people who regretted opting for surgery as they'd not been helped. Instead I had physiotherapy to build up the muscles that support the knee. I wasn't a skater then.

When it eventually stopped hurting all the time, I took up some new sports - dinghy sailing, netball, aerobics and while I had twinges of pain from time to time I mostly ignored it and got on with life.

Years later I took up horseriding and my instructor noticed the imbalance in my legs and helped me to be conscious of it and try to correct it (I'd been subconciously using other muscles to protect the knee). Then even more years later (about 12) I started ice skating. It was probably one of the best things I have done for my knee as it seemed to help strengthen all the muscles around. I was lucky I guess that it was not my landing leg as that may have caused more of a problem but I can even manage a sit spin on it now.

Every case will be different of course but it is possible to skate with a damaged meniscus without resorting to surgery - and I am so glad I never had the surgery now. Of course you should take medical advice and my course of action may not work for everyone but it was certainly possible for me to skate better than I did before tore it, since I couldnt skate at all then! :lol: