Question for those who have had knee surgery (Charlotte: military, schedule)

[ADR]

Wife diagnosed with tears in meniscus. She has been stuck in a chair 3 weeks because she can not bear weight on it. The Dr- Dr Jerry Barron, whom I think has a pretty good repuatation in Charlotte is going to do arthroscopic surgery and cut away torn ligament and clean out some arthritis.

We are just wondering what to expect. Does this usually bring relief.

Anyone else had Dr Barron? Feedback???

[ultraviolet*]

Dr. Barron is AWESOME. He did my ACL replacement in 2003. He was highly recommended to me by a friend, and I knew he had quite the professional reputation for caring for the womens' sports teams in Charlotte.

It was the first time I had ever had surgery, so I was understandably a little nervous. I asked him, "So how many of these do you think you've done?" And he said, "What, today? Today I've done three of them." And that little bit of humor and cockiness made me feel so much better! He then explained everything to me and we scheduled the surgery.

The day of the surgery, he came around and explained everything again, and what to expect, and afterwards while I was still in recovery, he came out and talked to my parents and told them everything went great. Wonderful bedside manner, and my knee is still in great shape now! I think you'll be pleased with him.

Good luck to you and your wife!

[amp]

I don't know the physician but have had experience with the surgery. I had my meniscus repaired(along with the acl and mcl), so a bit more involved, but it brought releif...but with 6 weeks on crutches and after physical therapy was able to resume exercise. My father on the other hand had his meniscus cut away and was walking after 2 - 3 days...without crutches. His MD informed him that it would limit some high impact exercises(i.e. playing basketball), but otherwise he could do most everything.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

I had it done back in 1995 or so. It was done on a friday a.m. as same-day surgery. I was given some exercises to do in bed, as I remember it was to bend my knee and put my heel as close to my rear-end as I could. I also iced it several times a day. I followed his instructions to the letter and on Monday when I went back to see him, he was pleased. I never had to go to PT. It's been so long that I don't remember what the restrictions were, if any.

I believe he used a long-acting anesthetic injected near my knee as I never really had any pain beyond what an Ibuprofen could handle.

I am sooo glad I had it done, I had a lot of pain right before the surgery, although he said I had torn it years before, it was so frayed. good luck to your wife!

[vindaloo]

Used to run 7 miles a day, five days a week on concrete. After a while, that will cause a torn meniscus. I had arthroscopic surgury on both of my knees. There is absolutely no scars and my knees are 100 percent. One was done 12 years ago and the othe 8 years ago. I have no limitations.

After the surgury done by the military, I was impaired for about a month. I was scheduled to see a physical theapist. I went for two weeks and quit as the stretches he had me do was simple enough to do on my own. There were no complications. Many athletes have this surgury done and are back on the field shortly thereafter.

I am not a drug taker and hate the idea of injesting drugs. I was worried about the spinal injection for pain. But, I was reluctantly (on my behalf) given valium (first time) prior to surgury and I passed out while telling my wife that it wasn't affecting me. It was actually a pretty cool experience.

As you have seen from other posters, it is not a bad surgury. I didn't even take any pain killers afterwards. I didn't need them.

[prouddaddy]

I do not have experience with that doctor but had my left ACL replaced and repaired. My right ACL is only partially torn and is fine with rehab. Speaking of rehab, it is really a big deal. Push through the pain and try to remember to take the pain meds right before doing your therapy, unless you have a high threshold to pain and do not need them.

I told all my therapists ( for both ACLs and a torn labrum in my shoulder once) that I wanted to be rehabbed like they would a professional athlete. That way, I would have no limitations or as little as possible as I got older.

Good luck with the surgery!

[Boss]

Meniscus surgery is quite common as the boomers(me) are getting older.I had it done 3 yrs. ago and have had no problems since. Get as much therapy as your Ins. allows. I had 20 visits and it was worth it.