Hi all, new to this site but hopefully I can get some insight. I never "injured" my knee that I know of, I am 28 and healthy/active female. I woke up one morning with severe knee pain after a large amount of walking during previous days. The pain continued and increased after walking about .5 mile. X-rays were negative. MRI showed "low grade articular cartilage irregularity". Consult with surgeon, he was very friendly and said he thought some of my soft tissue or meniscus had gotten caught in the joint. He said a knee scope was the solution. I explained I am in a program for school and will need to start school again middle of Jan and start clinicals May 2015. He assured me "You will be walking perfectly in 1 week and be 100% in about a month". So I had my knee scope Dec 12, 2014. After surgery he spoke to my husband and said that I have a completely healthy knee joint, tendons, muscles etc. I just had an inflamed large piece of tissue that was removed. My discharge instructions were sparse, just info about bandage care. No mention of exercises or weight bearing/bending/straigtening instructions. My knee was bandaged at a 45 deg angle and had to stay that way for 3 days. Once i took the bandages off, my knee practically stayed in that position. Post-op appointment 10 days later I was extremely swollen and could not straighten or bend my knee. I had very very little range of motion. I asked the surgeon if that was normal, he said it was due to swelling and the swelling should be gone within a week. I asked about PT and he said it wasn't necessary. Asked if I should try to straighten/bend/weight bear. He said only what was comfortable, not to try and if it wasn't 100% comfortable. So 2 weeks later, still swollen and no improvement on range of motion. This was almost 1 month post op. I called his office and said swelling hadn't improved nor had range of motion. I asked if they could give me exercises, PT or if they had any suggestions. I never heard back and finally called the next day. I was told PT wouldn't help because of the swelling, doc said swelling should be gone in 6-8 weeks (previously said 1 week) and to just keep icing and anti-inflammatory (which i had explained I had been doing constantly) Finally, i knew something wasn't right and I got ahold of a physical therapist who had me come in to look at it. He said I needed therapy NOW, he worked on me that day and was able to get my knee straight (with extreme pain). My quad muscle had atrophied. So, he sent info to my surgeon requesting a prescription (which took him a week 1/2 to respond.) I have now been doing PT 3 times a week for 4 weeks. I have range of motion but my quad muscle is not responding. Still very weak and my PT is sort of surprised it hasn't come around yet. I also developed tendonitis during PT. I suffer with walking, my body seems to not know how to walk on that leg and my knee just doesn't function normally. It catches and gives out randomly when going from straight to bent. I don't understand what is going on. I know I should have started PT right away, but is that the only problem that could be causing this? I had an appointment with him in Jan. and he was there for 2 minutes and didn't care about my questions or concerns. I see him again next week. I still have swelling as well. I'm afraid he was putting on a front in my first consultation with him and told me what I wanted to hear to "sell" me a surgery. Please help!! Should I try a second opinion? Wait it out? I'm so defeated.
