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Anyone torn one clean through? What was your recovery like? How long until you could ride again?
My little brother fractured his tibial plateau and tore his meniscus...had surgery about 6 weeks ago...For those that have had a similar injury, how long were you off the bike?
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Mine wasn't torn completely, but they did sow it back up. Originally they were going to trip it up and clean it up a bit until they got in there and saw that it was worse than what they saw in the MRI. Had surgery Feb 16, 2012 and was back riding the end of May if I remember correctly
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I had a similar break and meniscus tears back in 1979, but had multiple bone pieces separate from the bottom of the joint, I ended up over the years having nothing but problems because of the unstable joint resulting in ACL and MCL reconstruction three times and many "clean ups" of the meniscus. At age 54 I had a total knee replacement. Technology and medical procedures are leaps and bounds better today.
I wish your brother a quick and total recovery,tell him diligent rehabbing and getting the legs strong is the key to success.
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Edited Date/Time:
Its a long, slow recovery and an injury you'll feel off and on for a very long time.
I tore my medial and lateral meniscus and ACL, as well as fractured a few small bones in my left foot, on July 3rd, 2016. I had surgery August 15th, 2016 where they did a hamstring graft for the ACL replacement and trimmed and stitched both sides of the meniscus.After surgery, i immediately began physical therapy 3-4 days/week. 4 weeks later i was able to begin stationary biking very slowly/carefully but it was super painful. 8 weeks post op I had enough confidence to ride my street motorcycle around carefully while wearing my knee brace (there's not much leg strength required to casually motorcycle around). Between week 8 and week 20, I focused a lot on road cycling as much as possible and just generally fighting through the pain while building leg strength up. I didn't feel comfortable enough to run until week 25, and even that was at a casual 10min/mile pace. I just kept up with my cycling, leg strength exercises, and stretching consistently after that. I didn't feel 100% confident enough to ride motocross again until about 44 weeks post op. In hind sight i probably could have got back on the bike sooner, but i didn't really want to reinjury myself by getting back into it sooner. I'm a software/database engineer by trade so my 9-5 M-F was spent primarily sitting in my office.
To this day my knee still doesn't feel 100% like my other knee does. I'll get aches and pains and burning sensations every now and then from the meniscus area. My left leg still isn't as strong as my right. But i do feel mostly confident in my leg and have no problem or fear dabbing it.
There are apparently clinical trials going on right now for a synthetic full meniscus replacement, and the feedback seems promising thus far. I'll probably opt for that in a few years to get my self back to 100%.
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I had a partial tear in 2010. It didn't get caught anywhere in the knee and I didn't have insurance at the time and didn't get it sewn. 8 years later and it's 95% but I still feel it when I kneel. Good luck to your bro, make sure he takes plenty of time to heal, that is the best thing for it.
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My left one is torn in two different places , which can be even worse , because the three different sections catch on each other.....and sometimes hurts like hell. I have a partially torn MCL as well , which I'm just waiting for the day when that sucker gives out. One of these days I'll go in and get everything fixed , until then , I just have to cope with it.
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The meniscus is likely the least of his worries right now with a plateau break of that severitey. I just recently had a minor one along with a torn ACL and after doing some research I would take a ACL tear all day over a severe tibeal plateau fracture. They are no joke. Like he might start riding again after a year and a half.
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I did my acl mcl pcl mensicus , had a severe tibeal plateau fracture .And broke the very top of the fib where the acl joins. I was 16 at the time. Was told I 'll prob have a limp for life. Took me 2 year s to get back to 95% . Problem is they have to fix the bones first. Which was 8 wks in a cast .then all the physio to get your knee bending again . Then once you get there it's time to get an new acl . All I can say is that picture in the op look s very like mine. And I am willing to bet his acl will need doing . I am 35 now I still run and knee is prob 85% now . I 've lost a lot of flexibility. And meniscus is getting really bad . But it's not as bad once you keep moving . Tell your brother to do his physio like his life depends on it . And then it's a thing of keep your thighs as strong as possible . Cycling is great . Hill climbing low cadances. Ie .no off the shelf knee brace fits me . Xxl is too small . The bigger you can get your quads the better for your knees
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The surgeon said the ACL and MCL we both fine...they repaired the meniscus at the same time as the hardware went in the bone.
He’s been in a brace for 5 weeks now (moving his knee 10 degrees every day for the first four weeks...now moving it 20 degrees for the next four weeks).
The surgeon said that the bones should be healed in 6-8 weeks...but he can’t put weight on it for 12 weeks because of the meniscus. Then he starts PT.
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Miserable! 9 years later and still having surgeries on it. Had 2 in 2016 to remove floating chunks of bone fragments that had calcified and grew to be pretty large. They would move around and get wedged in between the knee when walking. Dropped me every time. Safe to say it will never be the same. Shitty thing is, didn’t even crash! And I was wearing knee braces. How bout you?
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Titan1 wrote:Holy Smokes...it’s almost identical...
What was your recovery like?Dirtydeeds wrote:Miserable! 9 years later and still having surgeries on it. Had 2 in 2016 to remove floating chunks of bone fragments that had ...more
It was my brother...be he high sided in a desert race, gnarly crash...
You are making me worried for him...
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Titan1 wrote:Holy Smokes...it’s almost identical...
What was your recovery like?Dirtydeeds wrote:Miserable! 9 years later and still having surgeries on it. Had 2 in 2016 to remove floating chunks of bone fragments that had ...more
Sorry dude, reality is tibia plateau fractures are definitely life changing. Heres the shit they cleaned out 7 years later...
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Although, looks like he still has meniscus or at least some sort of space between tibia and femur. Unfortunately I’m bone on bone. Theres a knee replacement sometime in my future. I wonder how Micheal Byrne recovered from his?
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I tore a sliver of mine, and actually opted out of the laparoscopic surgery. For me, I've had the least amount of pain from it when I consistently exercise my legs. Legday at the gym, and mountain biking seem to keep "most" of the pain away. If the pain comes back to the level of when I initially tore it, then I will revisit surgery.
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Those pictures look all to familiar. 
