Meniscus trim (I hope)

[Forevergimpy]

Well tomorrow's the big day.  Not that I enjoy surgery (who does) but I've known that this latest set back wasn't going to resolve itself since February so I'm more than ready!
I'm scheduled for a meniscus trim for a full length horizontal tear to my medial meniscus. I have had this meniscus trimmed before so on that end I do know what to expect, the only difference this time is that my OA has progressed and the MRI has stated other possiblities that my OS is being very vague about.
I have patchy grade 3 and 4 areas on my patella and there is a possible lesion in the medial compartment. At one of my apppointments when looking at the xray (before MRI was ordered), he had noticed an area of concern in the medial compartment and stated the possiblity of a graft or microfracture. However when he looked at the MRI films he only stated the meniscus as a concern. Whenever I tried to ask him more about this, he gave me the typical "we'll see when we get in there".
This is a new doctor to me so I am relatively unsure of his protocol. I do know he is very experienced and have felt like I'm in great hands so far so that's not a concern at this point. I think now all that's left is the anxiety of surgery. Ultimately, I just want to be out of pain and on to recovery. Anything that can be done to buy me some more time to the TKR in my future would be welcome too.
Oh well, just sharing my news - here's hoping for the best.

[LindaM]

Hey Gimpy,

I am sincerely hoping that your meniscus trim goes exceptionally well tomorrow and you are out of pain in a couple of weeks.  I understand your concern about the OA- I went in for a meniscus trim as well and had well established OA in my knees.  I asked my OS afterward how the cartilage looked when he went in and he said it was surprisingly good for my age.

 But for me the pain never left after surgery.  My OS, my rheumatologist and I all believed that the surgery had caused my arthritis to flare and we treated it as such with bracing, synvisc, PT,you name it.  Finally I went back to the surgeon and an x-ray showed bone-on-bone with a divot out.  I had been limping over 9 months when I had my PKR. 

I am sharing this story with you so that if things don't go back to normal withing the expected time frame you act and don't just assume that it will get better on its own.  Have it checked out with an x-ray sooner rather than later.   Had I insisted on an x-ray I think it would have showed bone-on-bone very soon after surgery.  With my second knee it was great last September, started to bother in October, and bone-on-bone by Christmas.

 For most people getting to bone-on-bone is a very long process, and hopefully it will be a very long time until your OA catches up with you(even better-if it never does), but if things don't seem to be going right, go with your gut and get it checked out.

Good healing and you will be in my prayers for a successful surgery.

Linda

[Forevergimpy]

I'm home and resting as comfortably as to be expected. Doc said the medial meniscus was jagged and frayed but honestly not as bad as he expected.  . Then he said the arthritis was worse than he expected and did a substantial amount of cleaning up. I guess no microfracture just debridement since I'm permitted to weight bear as pain tolerates but am not cleared to return to work until my follow up next Thursday. It'll be interesting to hear what he found and what he thinks for the future when I see him next week. Seeing as the MRI report stated areas of bone on bone on my patella I'm really curious to hear how it really looked.
Thanks Linda for the reply and for sharing your story.

[LindaM]

I'm glad to hear that the meniscus trim went well.  I know that hearing the arthritis is worse is hard, but as long as your meniscus holds out you should do all right, especially since he did a clean-up.  I look forward to hearing from you again with good news.

Linda