Meniscus :

miniscus removal experience and recovery question - - Posted by dallywags (dallywags), 9 January 2005

Hi, I guess I'm a new member of the "I've had my meniscus removed club"   Hockey injury.  I'm a 33 year old female and have never had knee problems before.  I don't even really know what happened on the ice that day, but I'm definitely no stranger to injuries!!

Unfortunately I feel I got missed over by the doctors.  They assumed at least an ACL injury at the hospital, but referred me on to a surgeon for diagnosis because they didn't want to make one.  It ended up that I didn't get to see someone for 6 weeks after the injury because the surgeon I was supposed to see went away and then just referred me on to someone else.  There they just sent me straight to physio because they insisted I had been diagnosised with the ACL injury even though I told them I hadn't yet been diagnosed.  I pleaded with them to see me for a proper one.  They blew me off.   So then I called the previous surgeon I was supposed to see.  I got a nicer negative answer but it was still a negative.  They said just wait for the other surgeon.   I was so depressed after talking to them.

I had a good idea from my multitude of previous injuries  - spiral and mulitple fractures,torn ligaments and more that it wasn't just a torn ligament.  Thankfully I went to a good physio and he clued into that I might have a meniscus injury and therefore didn't make my ROM exercises too strenious.  

My understanding is that my surgery probably should have happened sooner.  But I'm sure you all could tell me if I am wrong in my thinking here.  

Regardless of how I've gotten here, before surgery I couldn't straighten or bend my leg- it was stuck crooked.  I thought in the hours following surgery that it felt more flexible, but I was still on the anesthetic.  Now 1.5 weeks after the surgery, it does not seem to be any better.  I have very little range of motion.   I tried doing my leg "sliding" excercise and I am only able to bend and attempt to straighten a tiny bit.  

My knee started to hurt immediately after and then 2 hours after 5 mins of excercise, I can't bend my knee at all.  And certainly I can't straighten it!  Now I've had to take 2 Tylenol 3 for the pain it's caused.  I hadn't needed any meds before the excercises.

I can walk around okay, to the kitchen and back and little trips like this without my crutches, but my leg is still crooked. Of course it is sore.  

The swelling is down alot.  I had a lot of swelling and bleeding from the surgery.  Would have appreciated some morphine in the 2 days following.  The T3 didn't do it!!!  Probably because there was a lot of tissue damage in the time before my surgery.

I'm wondering if the pain and lack of flexibility I am having now is normal?  I know it's only 1.5 weeks, but I can weight bear and the swelling is down so I think I should have more Range of Motion.  I mean I certainly do expect some rehab pain, but I'm wondering if it would drive me back to my painkillers.  Is this is par for the course?

My surgeon is away until the 17th so I can't get any answers from him...   I do not know how much they removed because I have not seen him since.

I'm sorry this is such a long post, but I wanted to see what other people's experiences are and if my situation is unique at all  

I appreciate hearing from anyone in regards to their experiences and any thoughts on mine.


I'm looking forward to a better 2005...
HNY


Posted by dm (dm), 13 January 2005

Go to the hospital and see if the op report's available. It might be, or might not. If the pain's bad, and your os is away, call the dr's office for the on call doc, whoever's seeing his cases while he's away. You shouldn't have to wait if it hurts that bad.

The "crooked" you mention sounds like a loss of extension, if I'm understanding you right. It can take some rehab to get that back, if I recall right it has something to do with having the quads strong enough to pull the leg into full extension. At not quite 2 wks postop, you probably have some swelling left that hinders things too.
Posted by andrewc (AndrewC), 13 January 2005

Hi there Dallywags

I myself had a serious meniscus inury playing football. I am 28 years old and UK based.

I tore my whole lateral meniscus and it displaced into the intercondylar notch (part of the knee joint mechanism!) which meant my leg was also totally locked in a crooked position  
For different reasons (NHS) I had to wait 4 weeks in this terrible state for my surgery and then my meniscus was repaired by my surgeon with sutures in a 1 1/2 hr op and I was sent home!

Repairs are MUCH more involved (and painful it seems) than removals but as my leg had been crooked for so long I could NO WAY bend it properly after 2 weeks!!
In fact...to put it into perspective it was 2 FULL MONTHS before I was able to do a full rotation on an exercise bike!!!!

Dont worry about your ROM. Just KEEP up your physio and persevere. A GOOD exercise to straighten the leg is to sit on the floor. Put you "bad" leg on the ground and try and gently ease it flat. Use you leg muscles to try and pull the knee nearer to the floor but DONT force it too hard! (altho I used my hand to coax it very gently. I was doing these for 5 weeks before I got there!

Unfortunately (as I have found) leaving the gap before this type of surgery makes recovery FAR harder on the patient. Long delays can cause flexion contractures where the muscles almost set in a new "tighter" position......only time and effort actually got me back to normal but I would say 6 weeksis NOT detrimental and altho your rehab will be hard....it shouldn't have done you major damage.
Although I did suffer an imbalance of the quadraceps meaning my patella tracked all over the shop for a bit.

Thankfully, I am over this now and am jogging 4 nights a week and also going to the gym a lot (although the back of my knee still has fluid swelling) tho my knee often does feel very odd and irritated after exercise.

My advice would be. Keep up physio all the time and do exercises often at home (wall slides, heel slides etc). Get extension sorted so your leg will go straight and then focus more on ROM. Then your walking adn strength.

Good Luck

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