Knee Suregery

[tdowns]

Any Doctors out there or has anyone been in my shoes?

I had Miniscus tears in my Right Knee repaired yesterday. I was out of it and my wife talked to the doctor. I guess the tear was worse than they thought I think a lateral tear. I'm in a knee imobilizer and no weight bearing for 3 weeks.

I feel fine and am considering riding this weekend. I'm a flatlander from michigan and have a trip with the buds scheduled. I will be riding alot of rails to trails and nothing off trail. I'm thinking of trying it out with a short ride on friday and strapping my crutches along the tunnel.

What do you think? Thanks for your input!

 

[xrated]

won't be worth the ride if you hit a mogul and get bucked and your knee twists. Stay home and keep that sucker elevated. If your riding this weekend and just had surgery I think your pushing a little early.

 

[skidooboy]

if it was anything but meniscus i would say you would be ok with riding but, meniscus heal slowly, dont have their own blood supply to repair themselves. also, everytime you put weight on that leg you are squeezing that meniscus, possibly damaging the repair. that is why they say no weight bearing. they dont want you to wreck what they fixed. when they cant fix the meniscus any longer, they remove it, then you have no padding between the bones on the upper and lower leg and you will be prone to pain the rest of your days.

in my opinion you are done for the season, dont risk what little we have left for the year to get one more ride in (especially here in michigan). if you let it heal the summer you will be good to go forever. push it now you might not have too many pain free seasons.

i know i had a catastrophic dislocation to the left knee the last day of march last year. it tore everything in my knee and blew the meniscus right out of the sides of my knee. they sucherd them together and i was non weight bearing for 6 weeks. i played by the rules till they let me be weight bearing, then i rehabbed my *** off. i was back on the supermoto bike in 12 weeks racing.

best thing i can tell you is to ask yourself this one question, did i enjoy surgery? do i want to do it again during sled season? is one more trip this year worth the possibility of me having more pain for a greater period of time?

ok, so it was three questions.

dont ride, heal up, they'll make more snow. ski

 

[HANDSOME]

I had surgery last year and there is no way I would go for a ride that soon. That knee holds you upright.... pretty important.

 

[tudizzle]

take it slow and do it right the first time...besides riding trails wouldn't be worth it anyway!

 

[SLDHVN]

Not to be negative but i wouldnt ride with it, like said earlier 1 wrong bump or twist and you are really gonna be hurting! I am no stranger to knee surgeries, take the 3 weeks to relax, then stretch EVERY morning and get all of your range of motion back AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! If you really want to ride that bad go buy a new movie or something! lol
GOOD LUCK MAN!
Andrew

 

[oregunrmk]

The only thing you should be riding this weekend is your keyboard. They always take alot longer to heal the second time. See if maybe instead of you doing the riding, someone (hint-hint) could take over for ya in that dept.

 

[Ex-Member]

Yeap, I wouldn't do it.

Take a week or three off, recover, and you'll get those weeks back when you're back to 100%.

 

[up-high]

I've had 3 knee reconstructions and a bunch of scopes(both knees). Like was said, its slow to heal. Stay off of it. Not worth the trail ride. You mess it up some more and you'll be like me. Nothing but pain for the last twenty years! Bones grinding on bones really hurts!! Take the time to heal. The trails will still be there next year. Your wearing a knee immobilizer for a reason. SO THE KNEE DOESN'T MOVE!!!!! Was that too subtle?

 

[TIM]

i had a rip in my medial meniscus. It was a horizontal rip.
I was riding with in 2 1\2 weeks. Lots of excercise though.
First surgury on that knee and have had 3 others on my right knee.
Everything is good right now. The surgury was nov 25. I was riding on the weekend of dec 12.

tim

 

[John]

Three scopes and one filet here. Don't do it! Miniscus tears take a long time to heal. If they did a micro-fracture you should wait until next season. Trust me, it only takes one wrong move and you get to do it all over again.

Edit: Tim, you must be one commited guy. I was on crutches for 6 weeks after my first (micro-fracture) 2 weeks on crutches, 4 with a cane for the second (again with the micro-fracture) and another 2 weeks of the sticks when they gave up and jerked it out for the third. I never even considered getting on the sled...

 

[xrated]

Tim you don't coun't....healthy as an ox is an understatement for your physical wellness.

 

[wasatchrider]

listen to the doc. make an appointment if you are feeling like you can do more and he will let you know your progress. you push it now you could make it worse. you dont want to get reconstructive and be out for the next 9 months and 10k of more surgery and recovery later. even if you have 80/20 you out 2 grand and have of your year.
just think if its worth the risk.
if you knee is week you acl could be next

 

[wasatchrider]

i have been in your shoes
2 reconstructive
2 orthoscopic

 

[adrenaline junkey]

4 scopes and 1 acl reconstruction. Take it easy for the next few weeks not worth undoing what ya just got fixed. It only takes a second to make it much worse than it was

 

[Sunridge Sledhead]

I'm an orthopedic and sports physical therapist. I treat your post-op condition every day. I would not recommend riding. Meniscal repair successes are a coin toss when it comes to good healing anyway. This is so because of the poor blood supply to the meniscus. If you lose the meniscus you will have premature aging/degeneration of your knee cartilages and premature need for a total knee replacement. One weekend ride is likely not worth it??? But, as I tell my patients....it's not MY knee! Good luck! PM me if you have further questions.

 

[travydog]

I broke my leg last year and they went threw my knee to put the rod in and even this year, the first few rides were kinda slow and not to hard. I would wait till the doc says go for it and not before. Stay with the physical theropy and listen to the doc. Thats my 02

 

[jfox1995]

I would do as the doc says. I've had 7 knee surgeries and the next thing for me is total knee replacements, problem is I am 29 years old. My problems stem from other issues, but the last time I had knee surgery I got on my feet too soon and the surgery I had basically did nothing. Take your time healing, the snow will be there next year.

 

[Coldfinger]

I had the surgery in Nov 2007. Give it 4 weeks minimum. I did and that was probably still a few weeks too early, even for an easy ride.

Sunridge - are you aware of anyone having meniscus replacement? I heard 2nd hand there is a doc in California who does this. The guy who had it done has since hiked/climbed several mountains, including in the Himalayas up to 22,000 ft.

 

[Sunridge Sledhead]

I had the surgery in Nov 2007. Give it 4 weeks minimum. I did and that was probably still a few weeks too early, even for an easy ride.

Sunridge - are you aware of anyone having meniscus replacement? I heard 2nd hand there is a doc in California who does this. The guy who had it done has since hiked/climbed several mountains, including in the Himalayas up to 22,000 ft.

Meniscal transplants were being tried a lot about 5 years ago. One of my close friends, an orthopedic surgeon, even had one. The problem is the same as the meniscal repair, even worse, restoring the blood supply is a biotch! Most of the surgeries I saw failed and ended up being removed completely, or at least trimmed up. There are new components on the market that look promising for those of us, including myself here, who had large meniscectomies (partially cut out), or for those 20+ years ago who had them removed completely. These will likely replace the current total knee replacements and are a graphite type of cap that covers the end of the joint surface. We are doing some of them in Utah right now. Not sure on the long range outcomes yet, however.