Does this belong here?? If not of course move it!

I know I've mentioned my knee problem a lot on the boards these past 3 weeks, but today I found out that I have a torn meniscus (which is basically kind of like torn cartilage in layman's terms, from what I could understand from research). My family practitioner called me today with the results of my MRI and they are referring me to an orthopedist.

I suppose I am putting this here because I was getting back into exercising and all that again and for the past three weeks I have not been doing anything (per doctor's orders). I don't know if I will require surgery or not but looks like I'll be off my feet for awhile.

I guess what I want to know is when you all are "down for the count" and cannot exercise, or can do limited exercise (my swelling,popping, and pain have not gone down at all and I'm supposed to be RICE-ing) is there anything special you do?? And has anyone on here gone through this before?

Martina,

Unfortunately I have a bit of experience with this. I used to be a firefighter and had a fire truck run up my leg, not across, but from just above my ankle to my thigh, needless to say your knee is in the middle of all that. I had a torn meniscus, torn ligaments and knee cap damage. I was non-weight bearing for 8 months. That's how I gained my weight, (60 lbs in 6 months) I had three surgeries in three years, with rehab in between.

The meniscus is like a shock absorber between your knee and your shin bone (tibia). You have a medial and lateral (inside and outside aspect of your knee). My injuries involved other things. I am sure if you did a search you would find a lot more info on the meniscus.

If they do surgery probably the best thing to do is to do the exercises they give you as much and as often as allowed. Just after surgery they had me do what they call a "heel slide" which was just basically sliding my heel on the bed and bending my knee (not quite so easy after surgery)

Unfortunately I don't have info on just a meniscus injury.

One thing you might try is working on abs, upper body and leg lifts (ask the doc about this one) or maybe you could sit in a chair and lift one leg then the other (kind of a modified kick) at the same time you could do some arm raises with light weights or lifting both legs together. If you had a WATP video or something similar maybe you could do the sitting kicks instead of actually walking. I don't know, just ideas

I don't have any medical training, but I also have a fair amount of stupid knee experience from the last several years, so I can share with you some of what I have learned from my own experience. I started with a partially torn ACL and over the next couple years acquired tears to both the medial and lateral meniscus along with a couple other ligament and bone injuries. Knees are definitely not fun!

My medial meniscus was trimmed, and the lateral meniscus was repaired. You've probably already read this or heard it from a doctor, but a lot of structures inside the knee do not have a good blood supply, so they heal poorly. If you have a tear in the correct portion of your meniscus, and the doctors think that you have a decent chance of having it heal, they'll probably try to repair it (stich it closed). The other option is generally to remove the torn piece of cartilage, leaving as much of the remaining intact cartilage in place as is possible. Unfortunately, although the long term prognosis for a meniscus repair is better than the removal alternative, the rehabilitation is much more serious. For my repaired meniscus I was completely non-weight baring on the leg for 6 weeks after surgery. That means walking around on crutches, which when you're 215+ pounds and completely out of shape, is definitely not in the slightest bit fun. I don't remember the specific recovery time frame for trimming the meniscus (a partial menisectomy) but that will vary from surgeon to surgeon anyway. It's generally much shorter, which will also mean that you will have less muscle atrophy. However, having a partial or complete menisectomy also increases the speed of progression of degenerative arthritis in your joint, which if you are also struggling with weight problems can land a bunch of other joint issues in your lap in a short amount of time.

Your orthopedist may also suggest waiting on surgery. A lot of people get by with just a torn meniscus, although it more than likely won't heal on its own. If you don't have surgical treatment, they will almost certainly recommend physical therapy. In any case, as soon as your swelling is down and your doctor will clear it, I would definitely recommend starting to work on strengthening your quads and hamstrings (what torn meniscus PT usually focuses on). These muscles really take a hit during recovery from knee surgeries, but are super important for having a good post surgical outcome. If you think surgery is looking likely, but you still need to give your leg a rest for a while, if you can manage it I think working on arm strengthening would probably be helpful. If I could go back in time, I would definitely have done that before my first knee surgery...

There are a few leg specific exercises you can do that are fairly low stress... Once your doctor clears you to do them, adding them to your daily routine will likely help to decrease your joint pain, increase joint stability, and improve the chances of a successful outcome if you do end up going for surgery. Quad sets, or contracting the quadriceps and holding for a specific count... like 10 or whatever, and then releasing. Doing sets of those (generally 10 or so per set, repeated several times... I always do 3 sets of 10 at a go) will help keep the quads happy... But with swelling etc. sometimes the quads are also really hard to get to contract, and that again is where PT is helpful. They can use electrical stimulation or other techniques to get your muscles starting to work better again. Another knee pt exercise is to contract the muscle like a quad set, then keep your leg straight and raise in the air and slowly lower it. It gives your quads a decent enough workout, and again it would be an activity you can do off your feet, so it's less stressful on your knees.

I definitely wish you all the best luck with your knee; I am at about 6 months out from my last knee surgery and still trying to get in to the routine of regular exercise. If you have any other specific questions or find you need to vent more if your knee ends up making you want to scream in frustration (mine sure does!) feel free to message me.

I am wondering if you could ask your doctor about low impact exercise, like swimming, stationary bike, hot yoga (quite aerobic) etc. And I agree, get the upper body in shape for crutches if you are having surgery. I had a torn meniscus and ligaments, managed without surgery for a few years, but did eventually have an arthroscopy and have been painfree ever since, that was 7 years ago.
I am currently having heel problems instead, and am similarly frustrated about exercise.

My husband tore his meniscus at work almost three years ago. He was standing on a cable and when it was pulled up out of the tunnel they were in, it cause his leg from the knee down to go up to the side instead of extending out from your body in the front. Still makes me cringe to think about.

He opted for the surgery which really wasn't too bad. There wasn't an unusual amount of pain afterwards and recovery time seemed to be fairly reasonable. He didn't have to do any special rehab, but some basic at home exercises to stretch out the knee and work on regaining movement.

He was back at work around two months post surgery (don't quote me on that, it's been a while) which included going up and down ladders, walking, standing and kneeling throughout the day.

I second asking your doctor about low impact exercises. I know a lot of physical therapy centers use the underwater treadmill for knee and other lower body injuries.

Hope everything goes well and you have a speedy recovery.

Thank you to all of you!! You all were very very very helpful!! Sorry it took a few days to get back to you all but its been a rough few days on the personal front. Happy new Year!