I'm scheduled to have a meniscectomy on my right knee (lateral meniscus) in three weeks.  I'm on my feet all day at my job and am hoping for a quick recovery.  I am planning to take 2 weeks off to help the healing process.

After reading several threads I'm growing concerned about things not going as smoothly as hoped.  Does anyone have any good experiences to share?

Should I push myself to walk more during my second week off?  Will this help or hurt things?

Thanks for any feedback.   

Hello Summer123!

My computer sometimes has a mind of it's own, so I apologizie if this is repeated or garbbled:)

I had a partial menisectomy in June of this year!  I was 39 y.o. in good shape at the time of surgery, however, did  sustain my injury in December, 2011.  I knew I did something bad at the time of the injury, but I am not a "cutter" gal so, I chose to go to PT for rehab.  We (OS/PT/myself) believe I also had a mild hamstring strain/tear at the medial insertion site of my left knee. After months of PT, I improved and began running 5, 6, 7 miles with recurrence of posterior knee pain.  My OS is also my friend (and previous walk on Quarterback for our University team) and was like "let's MRI your knee and best case scenario is posterior horn meniscal tear".  Well, he was right I had also suffered a medial posterior horn meniscal tear!  Speaking with him as not only an OS/friend but current athlete lead to the decision to have the arthoscopic surgery.  Might I add my other soft tissue structues were intact on the MRI.

I live in the U.S. and had this surgery outpatient.  I walked out of the surgery center without much pain (little dopey from anesthesia), and did not need the Narcotics.  I used NSAIDS, Tylenol, and ICE...ICE...ICE.  I was given instructions with daily exercises and not allowed to sit.  He wanted immediate activity to restore ROM.  I took 12 days off from work (and I too have a high volume job) and drove my car as soon as my leg obtained that amount of flexion (4 days).  I was super board!!!  Post op recovery was not bad!  I experienced problems with inflammation around 3-4 weeks.  At this time, I learned to take ICE with me, and stay on Motrin with only one emotional melt down. 

I am now three months post recovery, and about 70% recovered.  I can bike, do pilates, and yes run without much problems.  My PT is now my trainer and did too much aggressive lifting, squats, and lunges thus I have mild patella tendinitis now.  But, overall the pain that I experienced with the tear, and immediatley afterwards was the worst.  I do believe in a couple of more months I will be ever better!  I was a big runner prior to this event (15 half marathons, couple marathons ect) and my OS cannot encourage me to run, but I can currently run.  However, I have no further desire to compete. 

I hope your surgery goes smoothly, and do not get discouraged from recurrent swelling! 

Cardiogirl:))

What you read on here is naturally skewed towards poor outcomes. People who need answers when things do not turn out the way they thought they would often turn to the Internet for help. Those who have no problems whatsoever rarely come to places like this AFTER the event.

I have had the meniscii in both knees trimmed. The damage to my right knee for example was initially traumatic, but has since become degenerative for want of a better description. I have had small tears trimmed back on many occasions and now have about 60% of both the lateral and medial meniscii. That is enough to do the work I require it to do. My last operation on this knee was in 2004 here in Germany and I have not needed any work on it since. I was driven in to the day clinic by a friend and picked up by the same friends mid-afternoon. I had about 2.5 weeks on crutches but only to help me partially weight-bear. With physio on a daily basis straight after the operation and then 3 times a week, going down to once a week after 3 weeks, I was back skiing on the third weekend after the trim and back teaching skiing 6 weeks afterwards. I was driving 48 hours after the operation, i.e. as soon as the general anaesthetic was out of my system. I thought a couple of seasons back that I was having meniscus problems again, but it was just a tracking problem that we resolved with focussed PT and training aimed at sorting out my fitness.

As for the left knee, my last trim was in 2007 and again no problems since. My surgeon revised my ACL reconstruction in 2008 and looked at the general state of the meniscii. He said that there was very little arthritis in there and that I had about 50%, maybe a wee bit more, still in place and looking healthy. For someone my age and with my injury and sports history (PE teacher/ski instructor and also national level volleyball and field hockey player), he said I was doing remarkably in his opinion

You are the one who determines how the rehab works out. Yes it hurts at times, especially immediately after an operation. But being guided by a good rehab therapist, you learn to recognise what is good pain and what is bad pain. Too many people do nothing worthwhile for too long and then end up battling to overcome the result of their own inertia. That's when the blame game starts and we get whining posts complaining how the surgeon has botched the job, or the therapists don't know what they are doing! Both are truly rare situations, more often than not the fault does lie at the patients own door!

Sue 

Hey mine went well - I was unfortunate to sustain a Judo related ACL injury some time after but I would recommend surgery!