I'm 55 and had arthroscopic knee surgery on 7/28. It's a long story, beginning with taking a fall on the trail back in October, then trying for months to convince doctors there was something wrong beyond the general diagnosis of "arthritis". I finally found the right doctor, an old (70) experienced surgeon, who immediately spotted the problem on the 6 month old MRI (detached piece of meniscus floating around). Last Wednesday he removed the large floating piece, several smaller ones, and did some sort of repair to the lateral meniscus, which I suspect had torn a couple of months ago.

To anyone who has had this type of surgery involving the meniscus, can you recall how long it took to be able to get back on the trail, and what the different stages of recovery felt like? I was hiking hard every weekend until the knee had its meltdown. I'll be resuming physical therapy next week (I was going to PT with my general arthritis diagnosis for several months). Of course I'm willing to work as hard as it takes, but I don't want to do any more damage to my knee by stressing it too much too soon. Eventually I'll need a knee replacement, but if I can avoid damaging my meniscus any further, I believe I have a lot of miles left in the knee I have!

Thanks for any information or advice!
Alice


Edited by moondust (08/03/10 02:16 PM)