I had surgery a couple months ago to remove a part of my meniscus that was torn. I feel like I have done everything right. I have been taking it easy, other than doing exercises to build my leg back up and stretches. I regained my range of motion very quickly, I have been doing some light weight exercises to regain strength but it can be very painful to do and afterwards it gets pretty swollen.
I really wouldn’t be too concerned about it but this is not suppose to be a very serious surgery and the recovery of just removing the torn part is suppose to be quick. Everything I am reading, and what I was initially told, was I could resume all physical activities after 6 weeks. It’s been 8 weeks now and I don’t feel I could do any type of physical activity and it doesn’t seem to be improving.
I’m starting to worry something isn’t right, or even worse, this somehow wasn’t the issue (although the pain now is worse than before, so I guess you could say it’s not the exact same pain). I doubt something went wrong and I can’t imagine what could go wrong, as it’s a fairly straightforward procedure from what I’m told.
I would like to hear from other people that have had part of their meniscus removed to see if this is normal or anything to be concerned about.
I’ve had several meniscus repairs. Recovery was anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks depending.
What are you doing for PT? Spinning works best for me to get the muscles firing gain and regain stability.
Recovery from my surgery took longer than I expected...At least 8 weeks and it was just a "simple trim" of a smaller frayed flap according to the surgeon. They performed the surgery through 4 tiny cuts that didn't warrant stitches. I was on crutches for a solid week getting in and out of work and not confident on uneven surfaces. Like the prior post, I used a spinning bike after I ditched the crutches to keep it loose and build up my strength. It's okay now but I am still careful about kneeling on that knee and it occasionally aches. Best of luck!
My left knee was like nothing happened after just 2 weeks. I walked in for PT and the therapist was like, yeah, what are you here for. My right knee, never really felt great after and ended up 2 years later with a knee replacement. Did you have PT for your knee?
The doctor said I did not need any formal physical therapy. I have been riding a stationary bike for 15 minutes, doing all the stretches I was instructed to do, and doing some light weight training (leg press, lunges, leg extensions, hamstring curls, hip abduction/adduction, calve raises). I do the bike and stretching daily, and do weight training 3 times a week. I have been doing this for about 5 weeks now.
There hasn’t been any improvement in pain when doing exercises, but my knee feels fine otherwise, maybe some pain doing stairs. It will get sore after weight training and sometimes carry over into the following day.
Maybe I am just a slow healer. Kind of bummed out about the lack of progress but I really don’t want to contact the doctor over nothing. Thinking I’ll just give it another month or two and see where I’m at.
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A doctor that said no PT after knee surgery?!
Granted I'm not a doctor (but as someone who's had knee injuries) I'd find a therapist or a trainer and get them to set you up with a plan. Waiting another month or two and hoping your knee starts feeling better – despite it showing no signs of improvement yet – is wild.
You need to go back and get it looked at again…or get a second opinion. At this point in your recovery, I wouldn’t expect any pain (if it’s as minor of a repair as it sounds).
Get a doctor to look at it and they’ll probably want an image to see what’s going on in there.
I hope you get it dialed soon.
Good luck!
Manny
Agreed with TG. You need to go back or possibly find another doctor. Odd they said no PT.
The doctor put you back together, but you need to train the muscles to work right again. PT is needed. I spent almost one year in pt in 2020-2021.
Complete knee reco for me, I done my ACL, PCL and Meniscus skiing, long story short I had all sorts of issues after the surgery that were not related to the actual surgery repair itself (found out that I had factor 5 Liden blood issues) So after a bit of a delay into getting on to any exercises after the operation I started doing bike and exercise as per docs orders.
Pain started to drop off after a couple of months but my leg felt "tight" for about 10 months despite all of the exercise I was doing until one day I was down at the oval watching my mates sons kick the football around (AFL) and kicked the ball back to them, instantly my leg started to free up, I kicked the ball around a few more times then let it rest, next day knee was sore but the tightness was gone and I have had no issues with it since. Keep up the exercise but if pain levels don't drop get a second opinion.
I had some meniscus removed about 20 years ago. I was injured in sept. By the time I had surgery in feb I was about 80% recovered. I didn't get back to 80% after surgery for about 5 years. Im at about 85% now. Of course I was pouring concrete 2 weeks after surgery so I could make my mortgage payments. Probably didn't help matters. Found out later that I was only the second patient that dr operated on . Probably didn't help either.
Thanks for the advice guys. I am one of those people that hates taking time out of my day to see the doctor over nothing, let alone the $50 copay every time I walk in there. But I am a little concerned still having pain still and judging by the replies it’s justified concern so I think I’ll message the doctor and see what he says, or go somewhere else for a second opinion.
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