Complex Tear of the Meniscus with a lot of fluid (and ?) to the MCL...

[H2OSkiGirl]

So I water-skied on a warm February day this year and ended up with a "Complex Tear of the Meniscus with a lot of fluid (and ?) to the MCL..." I am a female in my late 30's and am scheduled for surgery in a couple of weeks. When will I be able to ski and possibly do a Cross-Fit work out?

[ForrestGump]

Kim, When I had my meniscus repaired I was back doing light Crossfit workouts(no weighted squats or knee bend exercises) in 10 days and full on in 3 1/2 weeks. Docs told me as soon as I had full range of motion and no pain I could start back. Now I didn't have fluid deep to the MCL, though.

[A_B]

From my experience, it depends on two things.

 

1. The repair of the meniscus. If they are just snipping a small flap of tissue off, or scratching the surface to induce bleeding and healing, the healing of the meniscus would be similar to a cut somewhere else in your body and would be ready in a couple weeks to begin light workouts. If they are suturing meniscus together in an attempt to not lose tissue and it is deeper in the meniscus, you will likely be told to avoid any weight bearing activity for a month, and then only very light activity for another month. Given that you do not regrow new tissue, the latter is the best long term scenario.

 

2. Swelling. Fluid in the knee restricts joint function. You will have swelling from the injury and the surgery. How fast you can get the swelling down would be based on how much you can ice, elevate, and compress the area. If you are on your feet a lot for work vs. desk job where you can somehow get your foot up, makes a big difference.

 

Good luck! Another tip - reduce calorie intake to match the reduction in activity. :)

 

Oh yea, if this is your first knee injury, watch that you don't hop around all over on your good knee, as a good % of people injure their good knee while rehabbing a hurt one.

[gregy]

Hopefully the MCL damage is not bad. That could take longer to rehab.

 

What happened, I tore mine doing a deep water start of all things? Doc told me 10 days but I waited about 5 weeks until it felt stable enough, I last a lot of strength in the weeks between injury and surgery . I did a lot of bicycling and light exercise for rehab and came back felling really strong.

[Stevie Boy]

I have had surgery on both knees ,my left knee was pretty radical and a huge gamble, meniscus torn for the third time and microfracture surgery on 85-90 percent of my patella grade four, which seems to have paid off, the right knee was menicus and some smoothing of the patella Grade Three.

My advice is not to rush it, do plenty of mobility work, before loading, do not under estimate how much wastage and strength you lose in a short period of time, remember they are going in and they will pull it about quite a bit, disturbing other tissue, if the wound was on the outside, you would realise, what has gone on, from the outside it looks fairly mimnal, it all takes time to settle down.

Wishing you good luck and a speedy recovery.

[MZito]

I have had my knee scoped 2X for this same injury. I have had both surgeries in the winter time so I can't tell you how long it would have taken me to get behind the boat. I can tell you in both cases I was back playing hockey in 2 1/2 weeks. I started therapy the day after the surgery to get rang of motion. Good Luck!!

[H2OSkiGirl]

Thanks so much everyone! I just had my Pre-Op today and they said a lot of the identical things you are saying here... I just wasn't sure if they had a blanket list of what they tell you... I have to go on a little escape to Cancun for the next 12 day and then right to surgery... I am happy to hear I will be skiing at the first of May... I really appreciate all of your personal experiences that does help me gauge a little about this whole thing that is on my mind a lot... Surgery is a big deal so your comments have helped my mind be at ease a little:-) Thanks Kim