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Haven't had knee surgery yet but in December tore my ACL and have a slight meniscus tear. Doing physical therapy first.
So far I have more mobility than I had when I first injured the knee. Walking better and very slight limp. See the doctor for my 6 week follow up on Monday. I am trying to avoid surgery if I can. My knee has not buckled either.
Haven't had knee surgery yet but in December tore my ACL and have a slight meniscus tear. Doing physical therapy first.
So far I have more mobility than I had when I first injured the knee. Walking better and very slight limp. See the doctor for my 6 week follow up on Monday. I am trying to avoid surgery if I can. My knee has not buckled either.
It's amazing what PT work can do. I've been thru so much with this right knee and all worse from hip replacement complications. I didn't walk for about 3 months, long story, and then when I finally did my knee would buckle and I do PT every day that I learned in rehabs and no buckling, I don't want another surgery.
Only you will make the decision for you. And these surgeries are mostly elective. Meaning we elect.
Haven't had knee surgery yet but in December tore my ACL and have a slight meniscus tear. Doing physical therapy first.
So far I have more mobility than I had when I first injured the knee. Walking better and very slight limp. See the doctor for my 6 week follow up on Monday. I am trying to avoid surgery if I can. My knee has not buckled either.
Both my wife and daughter had ACL surgery. My wife put off the surgery for 10 years and kept having nagging issues. She was glad she eventually had the surgery. The knee with the ACL surgery is better than the other knee. She would have been much better off if she would not have waited to have the surgery.
My daughter had ACL surgery after tearing it in a college basketball game. She had it as soon as possible so she would have time to rehab before the next season. She did physical therapy after the surgery and during the summer. She was back working out with the team that fall and started every game when the season started. She is not a competitive Crossfit athlete and does Olympic and power lifting weight lifts such as squats.
You can avoid surgery if you want but surgery will make your knee 100% normal. as far as the ACL is concerned. The meniscus is a different issue. Meniscus repairs depend on the location and your age. They take a long rehab and then may not work. It is much more common where they do arthroscopic surgery to remove part of the meniscus. I had this surgery and it did nothing for my meniscus tear.
Haven't had knee surgery yet but in December tore my ACL and have a slight meniscus tear. Doing physical therapy first.
So far I have more mobility than I had when I first injured the knee. Walking better and very slight limp. See the doctor for my 6 week follow up on Monday. I am trying to avoid surgery if I can. My knee has not buckled either.
hey lubby,
it's not an either/or situation. absolutely do the P/t. I had a tkr on my left knee, it was a long 2 year journey . Of course you should avoid surgery as long as possible.
Unfortunately I'm going through the same journey with my right knee, what can I say....osteoarthritis.
anyhoo, I'm still doing p/t and it does help but I'm not going to freak out when it's time to get the right one replaced.
Had my 6 week follow up and the doctor was impressed with my mobility compared to the January visit. I have no pain, no knee buckling just slight stiffness and aching which is nothing. I will not be doing surgery. I have another follow up April 29th. I can actually cross my bad leg over my good leg. Still can't bend down or do squats but that will take time the doctor said. to the OP who said having surgery will make my knee 100% normal " How do you know that for sure?"nothing is guaranteed. I can't afford to be out of work right now and If I can do PT I will.I have 40 visits and have used 6 so far. If my knee gets only 80% better than I am fine with that. I plan to ask PT if I can join a gym too. The other alternative is cortisone shots if I really need them and so far I don't.
Update: I got the SI joint injections April 1st but they didn't really help. And the PT has mostly been the same exercises I've been doing at home all along, so not much help there either. I've got one more PT session this week and then I go back to the neurosurgeon on April 30th. I'm pretty sure that we'll be discussing surgical options.
Sorry to hear about the injection, probably cortisone right?
No one can tell anyone what to do or not to do, but as I see it and I deal with a damaged knee and keep going with no MAJOR surgery, the more surgery done the more trauma to the body and the area of course.
The Prolotherapy MD I hear every week on the radio says that at least half of his patients come to him after their failed joint surgeries. They want him to hopefully give them some life back to the damage. I would surely go to this work before more surgeries, but that's how I believe anyway. You could get at least consult(s) on this therapy for your issues.
I've had two more SI joint injections. The second one helped a lot more than the first. Unfortunately, since those injections helped the pain in my SI joint, I started feeling the pain in my lower back a lot more. I have scoliosis in my middle and lower back and both have worsened over the past year. Now I'm scheduled for a lower back fusion (L2-5 or L2-pelvis) in January. I'm getting a new MRI and CT scan in October which will determine the extent of the fusion. I would have the surgery sooner but my doctor is on a short deployment.
I probably would have waited anyway beachwear I wanted to hopefully get my knee fixed first.
After the VA finally referred me to a civilian orthopedic surgeon, it took almost two months to navigate the VA's referral system and actually get an appointment. At the initial appointment, he didn't think a TKR was needed based on my symptoms and I guess what he'd seen of my VA medical notes. However, he did send me to get a new MRI. I just had my followup to discuss the MRI results yesterday. Short story - now I'm having a TKR in September. Basically I have issues with my quad and patellar tendons (above and below the knee), partially torn ACL and PCL, arthritis under the kneecap and on the inside of the knee, along with continuing meniscus issues. Anyone of those by themselves would not warrant a TKR. We talked about possibly doing a partial for the arthritis on the inside of the knee but for that to work I need a strong ACL/PCL. So then I would need surgery to fix the ACL/PCL first, and then after that healed another surgery for the partial. Not much confidence that that would even fix my issues and high probability that I'd still need a TKR down the road anyway.
I've had two more SI joint injections. The second one helped a lot more than the first. Unfortunately, since those injections helped the pain in my SI joint, I started feeling the pain in my lower back a lot more. I have scoliosis in my middle and lower back and both have worsened over the past year. Now I'm scheduled for a lower back fusion (L2-5 or L2-pelvis) in January. I'm getting a new MRI and CT scan in October which will determine the extent of the fusion. I would have the surgery sooner but my doctor is on a short deployment.
I probably would have waited anyway beachwear I wanted to hopefully get my knee fixed first.
After the VA finally referred me to a civilian orthopedic surgeon, it took almost two months to navigate the VA's referral system and actually get an appointment. At the initial appointment, he didn't think a TKR was needed based on my symptoms and I guess what he'd seen of my VA medical notes. However, he did send me to get a new MRI. I just had my followup to discuss the MRI results yesterday. Short story - now I'm having a TKR in September. Basically I have issues with my quad and patellar tendons (above and below the knee), partially torn ACL and PCL, arthritis under the kneecap and on the inside of the knee, along with continuing meniscus issues. Anyone of those by themselves would not warrant a TKR. We talked about possibly doing a partial for the arthritis on the inside of the knee but for that to work I need a strong ACL/PCL. So then I would need surgery to fix the ACL/PCL first, and then after that healed another surgery for the partial. Not much confidence that that would even fix my issues and high probability that I'd still need a TKR down the road anyway.
Glad your second shot was more successful. I am assuming it was not cortisone. As for a partial, we have had lots of friends who have chosen that route and it has worked for awhile at least. I will add, most of them have eventually had full replacement.
I'm now two weeks post TKR. I was surprised how quickly the surgery went. In to the OR at 8, on my way home by 2:30. Most of the other surgeons seemed to keep their patients for at least one night.
Had my two week post op followup on Tuesday. I'm healing as expected. The Dr noted that my swelling looked really good, as did the scar.
I still have limited range of motion and aches and pains, but my biggest problems seem to be muscular. My calf seems to be in knots and even though PT works on it every session, it just doesn't want to loosen up. Similar with my quad, although that's more soreness than tightness. I had a previously torn quad that the surgeon repaired while he was doing everything else. Since most of my PT exercise involve tightening the quad first, I really feel it afterwards. I had my first PT session the day after surgery, and I felt that one for a couple of days after.
The other big issue that I'm having is that I'm having a hard time sleeping. As I move around during the day I loosen up even though it still hurts. When I lay down and am still, everything just tightens up, and I just can't get comfortable. Its starting to get better, but last night was really bad.
I'll admit I was pretty miserable for the first few days, but I can see the progress I'm making.
Now if I could just get that damn knot out of my calf maybe I could get some decent sleep.
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