Finally went to my orthopaedist today about the pain/weakness in my knee. He is fairly sure it's a torn lateral meniscus and is scheduling an MRI to verify.

Any experience with the surgical repair?

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I've had surgery to fix this just under two years ago... I also had some other problems but I could probably answer some of your questions... are there things you're wondering about specifically?

The recovery time is pretty quick though, even considerig I had a lateral release at the same time (where they cut the ligaments on either side of your knee and re-attach them).

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* Marcoux & Buntin * Miller & Moram *

Thanks, you answered one of my questions about recovery time.

Do they just go in and stitch the meniscus back together?

Small incision?

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Aw, Gary, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were in that much pain!

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Ouch! Seems like there are a lot of injury posts lately!

It only hurts when I do crossovers.

Actually, it's not that painful during daily usage anymore. Steps make it a little achy. When it first happened, I could barely walk, but over the subsequent 7 weeks most of the pain subsided.

Now it only hurts if I walk or skate for too long. The big problem is that my knee collapses when I bend it too much, hence very shallow crossovers.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I have a friend who had a torn meniscus resulting from a car accident. She was advised to have it surgically repaired but refused. It healed on its own, but I don't know if she was a skater at the time of the accident. Did you ask your doctor (not the one who would operate - that's what they live to do) about the possibilities of it's healing? I would be encouraged to give it more time since it has improved.

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I'm going for an MRI first just to see where and how badly. He hasn't discussed surgery or any other type of treatment yet.

This is the orthopaedist that would do the surgery, but he's not a surgery fanatic. I had to all but beg him to do my rotator cuff in 2002 and he tried very hard to convince me to live with my shoulder as it was. I couldn't lift my arm any higher than my waist. He's very big on physical therapy first, so I trust him about surgery.

The doc knows that I skate from when he did my rotator cuff and I begged him regularly to let me get back to the ice. I reminded him this morning that I injured my knee at the rink, but not while skating.

He must think I'm a lot better skater than I am. After he looked at my knee he said "With the level of intensity from skating, we want to make sure that when you land a jump you've got a knee to land on". I almost laughed out loud, but held back. Sure, my triple waltz jump-double bunny hop combination.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I also had a cyst of fluid at the tear from all of the fluid in my knee (there had been a lot of bruising there for a while because I skated on my knee a long time after I injured it)... anyhow, they ended up having to cut around the tear because it wasn't a fresh tear, if yours is more recent then they can likely just sew it back up.

I was told I would have three small holes but they only ended up making two on either side of my knee... they are tiny holes and I assume your surgery is going to be laporoscopic as well... you can barely see one of the holes at all, you really have to search for it, the other one hasn't faded as much but I only notice it because I know it's there.

I was walking within a week, not perfectly though, but I would assume you'd be walking a little faster only because I had a lot of other things done to my knee in addition to fixing the tear.

I'm not sure what else... right after surgery my knee had to be positioned just so to be comfortable but that's to be expected, it will be pretty sensitive for the first few days. They didn't tell me I'd be coming home with a brace from like my hip almost to my ankle, you might want to ask about that because if we'd known we wouldn't have taken the little civic to the hospital we would have taken a bigger car.

I didn't find I needed anything for the pain while I was resting but it was painful getting up to go to the washroom and such because it was sensitive. When I would get up the big brace would fall down and pull on the dressings and stuff, lol, so if you have someone around to help hold the brace up while you walk initially that's really helpful. I think I just took some tylenol if I needed anything.

Good luck, here's hoping you don't need surgery! But if you need it, it's really not so bad.

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* Marcoux & Buntin * Miller & Moram *

My experience was terrific. The original damage was done on the ice. I got by that time without surgury. The second injury was just a normal fall, off ice. I decided to have the surgury since the damage was on both sides of the meniscus.

I used a sport orthopedist. They started me on physical therapy a week before surgury. I started doing the exercises given to me immediately after and went from there. I was back on the ice (stroking/crossovers, no turning, not even 3 turns) in a week. Not a problem since unless in damp climates. It took about a month before I wanted to spin on that knee!

I selected an orthopedist who works with football players. I figured if he could get them back on the field quickly, I'd be back on the ice in no time and I was.

Good luck if you decide to go for the surgury. By the way, that was in the spring of '98! All is still well with the knee.

Torn menisci can be very difficult to treat. From my experience as an OR nurse that primarily works in orthopedics, there are a wide variety of approaches to correcting this problem. There are only certain types of tears that can be successfully repaired. If your tear is a repairable one, and is done arthroscopically(through little incisions with a camera), the surgeon uses either a few stitches or tiny absorbable screws. As far as recovery goes, if the meniscus is repaired, you would normally leave with a brace on immobilizing your knee for a period of time, and slowly begin therapy. I don't know how this would affect skating, as I haven't had any personal experience with this. I do know that for the most part, the people that get their meniscus repaired, tend to be on the younger side. Most surgeons that I work with are less likely to repair torn menisci on people much older than 30 or so, but I'm sure that varies with the surgeon. The other option to repair, is just taking out the torn part of the meniscus, and cleaning up the knee. The recovery from this operation tends to be a little quicker, most patients are weight bearing on their leg right away, with some assistance from crutches. You also would not be in any sort of brace, more than likely. Unfortunately, with either approach, the results are not likely to be 100% improvement, and you tend to be predisposed to developing arthritis in the joint. A lot of surgeons will try to treat these conservatively because of this, with bracing and therapy, and anti-inflammatories. I hope this helps

I had a medial menisectomy when a skating injury got to the point (after 3+ years) where the flapping end of the miniscus was catching in my knee. The second one (the opposite knee- 2 yr. later) was when I was working on the slideboard, slipped and pitched my knee inward and rip! I lasted about 2 weeks with that pain and told my doc "Fix it!"

Many years ago they used to do open procedures and take out the whole cartilage. Today they do arthroscopic surgery and trim the cartilage back leaving what they can to keep the cushion there. I was put in a bulky wrap plus a large ace bandage, supposed to use a cane (that lasted 24 hours) and just sat on my rump to go down the stairs for a few days. I was back on the ice in 2 weeks both times. No PT just quad muscle strengthening which I already knew how to do. The second surgery, because it was a traumatic rip and deeper in the joint (closer to the insertion site) it was uncomfortable for about 2 months, but it did not prevent me from skating. I wasn't jumping at the time, so can't tell you about that, but I was in my early 50's.......I jump now with no problem.

Ironically, there have been a number of threads over the past few months regarding injuries, and everyone has a different story - and amazingly different styles of MDs. I use a sports orthropedic man myself.

The MRI will tell the story - and remember Plushenko has a torn meniscus too and has been skating all season. Sometimes, the tear does settle down, people live for years never knowing they have a tear, and sometimes, like my first one, the flapping end started 'catching' in my knee and it interferred wtih my skating - so 'fix it!' is my mantra.

I think that rotator cuff surgery often doesn't work very well, or at least that's what someone told me from their own experience. So that may be why your doctor didn't want to do that surgery to begin with; often physical therapy can help as much as surgery in that situation. I doubt that applies to a torn meniscus, although I, too, know someone with a torn meniscus who continues to skate without having had surgery.

But it's nice to know your doctor will consider all the options! Good luck, Gary!

Pat

Fortunately, my rotator cuff surgery greatly improved my range of motion. After the injury, I literally couldn't comb my hair because I couldn't raise my arm to reach my head. 1-1/2 years after the surgery, I'm very happy with the results.

Interestingly enough, my ortho had the same rotator cuff surgery as he did on me, so he knew exactly what my experience was.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Thanks to all for the terrific information. I feel I'm a little more prepared to discuss options with my ortho now.

Anything so that I can bend my knee again.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Gary! I didn't catch this thread yesterday. I'm sorry to hear about your injury!

I hope that whatever treatment you pursue is effective and that your recovery is swift.

I tore both menisci in my right knee last year and had my surgery 12/30. (No idea how or exactly when.) The MRI showed the medial one, but the lateral one was found when they did the arthroscopy. The medial one was had a horizontal tear and had gotten pretty shredded. (Looked like someone took a cheese grater to it.) The lateral one looked more like a bad blister.

Because of my age (mid-30s) and the type of tear, they were not able to repair and instead did a meniscetomy. They basically lobbed out the torn part and shaved down the edges to make it as smooth as possible. The shredded pieces had been catching in my joint, so my knee would lock up on frequent occasions. The pain was absolutely crippling.

I already have arthritis and fibromyalgia, so my recovery has been much worse than I expected. (Compound this with the fact that I slipped in the shower 3 weeks after surgery and may have torn something else in there--just had the MRI yesterday and will find out next week if I need another surgery!)

I have two small incisions on the top of my knee--about 1cm each. I had a LOT of swelling and still do, but that is definitely the exception, rather than the norm. It still goes numb when it swells up too much, which is often. Pain goes from not too bad to absolutely horrific.

I was walking on the knee immediately after surgery, although my whole knee area was completely numb from both lidocaine and the swelling, so I couldn't feel what I was doing. I had a walker to help stabilize me, but I was full weight bearing right away. No brace or crutches or anything like that. They had wrapped a giant ace bandage around it which I left on for the first 24 hours. One of the incisions had opened, so I butterflied it closed and it was fine.

I began stretching/strengthening/mobility exercises the day after the surgery and was ahead of schedule until the "shower incident" when I regressed almost to pre-surgical nightmare.

Hope things go well with your knee!

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Hi guys,
I am bringing back this thread. I torn my meniscus while skating and I am really frustrated. It took a week to see the orthopedist, then another week to have MRI scan, but although I have had the scan, the people who have done the MRI can't give me results, so I need to make appointment again with the orthopedist to get the results and the nearest appointment is in 2.5 weeks! So it will be over a month from the date when I injured myself when I just find out the results of the MRI! Then probably waiting several months for the operation...one must love our NHS!

I was reading this thread and it seems that some people are able to walk (someone even skate) with torn meniscus. Why can't I? I am in real pain and walk only with crutches. I can't see myself skating at all at the moment. Maybe the MRI will give me some explanation. (at the moment the diagnosis was not confirmed yet, the orthopedist just said that it is 'probably' meniscus.) Does it depend on where the tear is? (or did I manage to tear something else than meniscus?)

I have had partial menisectomy on my other knee 15 years ago (it was the keyhole surgery- with very quick recovery) and I have been skating and not having any problems with that knee at all since then, so at the moment I am desperately hoping that I can have the surgery as soon as possible and be back skating very soon. I miss it so badly!

Can you write about your experience with torn meniscus and how quickly were you back on ice, please.

Wow. hanca, you probably wouldn't know, but garyc was a much loved poster here who passed away a few years ago. I was weird to see a thread started by him pop up.

ETA: http://skatingforums.com/showthread....light=garyc254

Anyway, no help from me for your meniscus question. Sorry.

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

All sorts of alarms went off in my head when I saw Gary's ID on this old thread. I expected to find a spammer had resurrected the thread.
It's okay to keep it going since it's so valuable.

DH tore the meniscus in BOTH knees, but he's not a skater and he can walk on them, although he's really struggling since he gained weight. (Plus, his feet hurt) The surgery that most of our friends have had involved snipping the torn piece off so that it doesn't "catch" as the knee moves. DH refuses to have the surgery.

There's a speed skater at our rink who wears two knee braces. I was chatting with him last week and he said that he has a torn meniscus in both and he doesn't want to have the surgery, so he's been treating himself with an ultrasound machine and gel that he bought over the internet from Canada. I don't know much more about it, but he said that the treatment info is on the internet if you search.

Have you been icing the injury and elevating your leg? Any anti-inflammatories?
Even if you're waiting for Dr. Godot, they should have given you some advice on caring for it while you wait.
Hope it's not too serious.

If it's any consolation, Sports Medicine and Orthopedic doctors are hard to get appointments with in the US. One of my friends recommended defining ALL the appointments that are needed and making them up front so that the patient didn't have additional delays waiting for appointments. He did research by talking to the nurses and doctors as well as friends who've had that surgery done.

A friend of mine who broke his kneecap in a work accident has it even worse: it was considered a work-related injury that should be covered by Workman's Compensation. The Plan forced him to do physical therapy for six weeks and only then would they order the MRI (a four-week wait at that point.) Unfortunately, by the time the MRI results came back, he was in trouble because the kneecap had healed poorly, but he gets around with a cane now. He can have a knee replacement when he's older, which he's really looking forward to after 15 years of hobbling around. (They said that he was too young at 38 for the surgery.)

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Ups, I am sorry, I didn't know.
I needed to hear something positive (such as that someone had the operation and within two weeks was back on ice or something like that...). It has been dragging on and I was getting a bit desperate, and I was browsing the past threads and noticed someone had the same in the past...
Well, it wasn't my intention to make people sad or upset. Sorry!

It's okay - you had no way of knowing. This thread has some good info that's pertinent. No apology needed.

We all still miss Gary - he and Blades were a fun part of Patsy's Parlor for ages, so much so that there are dedications to them (and others) in the Parlor intro.

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Can't help you on the knee problems, but if it makes you feel any better, you're doing way better than me at getting to see the orthpods to get your MRI results. I had a near 3 month wait for the first available appointment which was then cancelled because the doctor was on holiday, this was rearranged for another 2 months later, and then this was cancelled as the doctor was on fracture clinic rotation and the appointment rearranged for a month later. So after initially getting an appintment within 2 weeks of the referral and having a prompt MRI I then waited 6 months for the results.
(and the bad news, was that the MRI showed a perfect back so the doctor couldn't do anything to stop the pain).
So whilst not helping with the actual knee problems, I'm making you feel better about your ability to access the NHS.
I do however hope you have a speedy recovery.

Hanca, I understand your frustration... When I had problems with my leg it took me almost 3 years before they diagnosed me with post-traumatic dystrophy which by then had entered the only-1-in-10-chance-of-recovery stage (and that happened because my doc wouldn't send me to the hospital for X-rays for a half a year, even though there was a fracture - just one in the length of a bone and not through, so the function remained uncompromised and the doctor didn't believe me I was in as much pain as I was and even encouraged me to skate). It's still very much a question as to what my skating future looks like. I too, desperately wanted to skate but I was on crutches for well over a year and skating was absolutely out for two all together.

BTW, when they did the MRI and other tests on that leg one of the things that'd surfaced was that I'd at some point put a tear in my meniscus in that leg (my landing leg), but not through so it apparently grew together all on its own or something, and I've not even a clue as to when that might've happened since I don't remember an incident of that kind since it's my understanding a twisting motion is required? Apparently, according to the doctor anyway, none of that should be worrying me since our body is just that cool about healing.

I would probably have another MRI if the previous one was fine and you are still having problems. You know that your problems are real, you don't just imagine them, so there must be something wrong inside... Healthy knee is not supposed to hurt. I don't know what is the outcome of MRI, is it similar to X-ray- sort of a picture or film, or how does it look like? Is it possible that someone just didn't recognise whatever is wrong with your knee (misread the results from the picture, didn't notice tiny little tear)? How clear the results are?

I accesed the treatment through A&E, and I was not able to stand on it at all, so it may have the impact on how quickly you see someone. However, even if this speed is quick for NHS, it is far too long for me. This accident happened after I came from holiday, so I haven't skated already 2 weeks and now add two more until MRI,(if you don't count the seven minutes it took me to injure myself), plus now 2.5 weeks to get the results, that makes total of six weeks without ice and we haven't started the treatment yet. 6.5 weeks! I usually skate six times a week! That's 78 hours of ice skating already lost I miss it so badly that I am seriously considering having it done privately. Not sure where I am gonna borrow the money from.

My work involves a lot of travelling. It is no fun to be on public transport with crutches!