Knee Question for Ortho Surgeon or PT or Anyone that wants to provide input

[coskier]

Hello,

 

I am 6mo out of an anterior meniscal allograft. Recovery has been great. I lost a lot of strength, however my left knee was never as strong as my right knee as this is my 4th knee surgery on my left knee. 3 ACL's. My question is: I met with my surgeon today and asked him about water skiing this summer. His response was he wouldn't recommend it but its my knee and it would take a major impact to damage the cadaver graph. Obviously the graph will never be as strong as my original meniscus and skiing and other sports that we participate in have this risk of major impact. So How long does a person wait to ski?

[gregy]

Didn't even know that was possible. Hope it goes well for you. My advice would whenever you start make sure you have a good release system.

[JJR]

@coskier, right foot forward or left foot forward?

[A_B]

With your history, my unprofessional opinion would be to sit this one out and focus on strength and conditioning, at low intensity for quite a while. Be a great driver. Teach kids how to ski. Get caught up with the honey-do list. Take care of them knees! My wife just went through dual knee replacement. Not fun. She is great now, but if you can avoid it, I highly recommend keeping your own.

[MrJones]

I have not seen a cadaver graft meniscus as yet. Vascularity to the meniscus is not good in general (depending on area) and they are slow to heal. Even so, I would think that at 6 months you should have gotten most of what you are going to get.

 

If you leg is not strong that is another issue. With 3 ACL's and and now a meniscus reconstruction you are getting to the "salvage" area. Given that it's August, the wise move might be to continue strengthening over the winter and start solid next year.

 

Of course this is all opinion from people you don't know on the internet. YOUR PT and MD are likely the best source of info as they (should) know you and your knee well. Good luck.