Depends what he needs doing. Explorative arthroscopy you can walk out, as with partial meniscus repair but full repair maybe 4-8 week recovery. I don’t know the op’s diagnosis but a microfracture procedure for articular cartilage can take up to 12 weeks, nwb for 4 weeks.

Had knee debridment surgery (tidy up with saline) and they are gonna have a bash at microfracture as in my above post in about 8 weeks.

Sorry – 10 days; I was surprised when he said that, I had visions of being in work after a couple days

I had an arthroscopy a week ago last Saturday, walked out 2 hours later and was at work last Monday. Stitches come out this coming Saturday and I hope to go for a ride on Sunday.

I’ve had my ACL’s reconstructed in both knee’s due to football and i’m only 29.

First one was around 2008, Completely ruptured my ACL in my right knee and it was a fairly quick turnaround to get surgery, even though it took me a week to realise something was very wrong with it and have it looked at. Physio only lasted about 10 months before I started playing football again.

Then about 2 months later the other ACL went when I partially dislocated my knee. This time things weren’t so smooth.

Initially went straight to A&E as I knew exactly what had happened this time and the X-Ray typically didn’t shed any light. Was told to report to my GP who performed a couple of ‘tests’ on my knee involving twisting and pulling it and was told I had some light inflammation, I asked him for a referral to a specialist to have an MRI but he refused. It took me a few more GP visits over a number of weeks and some rather harsh words before he referred me to a specialist. I had an MRI and the specialist revealed that not only had the ligament snapped but it had completely disappeared! He had no explanation for that but put me in for surgery which has left me with one complete side of my calf numb which still feels a bit weird.

Thankfully I can still ride my bike with no problems even if most other sports are off the cards 🙂

seems that a common trend is that these injuries haven’t stopped you all biking. That’s good.

I’m waiting for the meeting with the work insurance doctor, who’ll decide what to do. That’s in 2 weeks. Hopefully the MRI and then surgery.

The knee is getting slowly worse. It’s now started to click quite often and walking any distance is uncomfortable. I guess that some debris (from the meniscus) has gotten loose into the system. Pah.

Complete rupture of my ACL, partial tear of the PCL, damaged medial ligaments and tore meniscus. All in one knee from the same incident.

I went to A and E after probably the most painful nights sleep i have ever had. Event a feather landing on my knee would have caused massive pain. They dianosed it as a spained knee. OK, i was relieved to hear that. However, for the next three to four months, my knee kept collapsing. Went back to the hospital where i was sent for an MRI. Verdict was ACL rupture etc. I was then told that i shouldn’t have surgery and should change my lifestyle ( i was 25 at the time) and not do sports but do things that wont cause my knee to collapse. I disagreed and went on the waiting list for surgery against the consultants advice. Then followed 1 year of attending knee class physio ( circuit training for knees). Finally got surgery and then another 1 year of knee class. Due to the faffing, waiting and bad advice etc i now have arthritus in my right knee. My knee still isnt perfect but it never gives way, but i do get pain if sat in car for a long time, or kicking a ball for the dog. I dont play any sports anymore like football/rugby, as it is just not worth the risk of it happening again.

Should i push for MRI+surgery?

Yes & only if you need the surgery.
You need the MRI for a proper diagnosis , anything else is guesswork.
I have had ;right leg – anteroir cruciate ligament reconstruction & meniscus trim and left leg – osteochondral lesions on tibia & patella plus a cyst in knee.The left leg was initially diagnosed as meniscus issues – sorted that with a drain of the cyst and cortisone injection (ouch). I am happier to have had my knees repaired than to have left them to get worse.
Hope you get it sorted.

MRI scan tomorrow, with approval from the insurers. 😀

knee seems to have stabilised. Obviously swollen, but walking about is ok so long as it isn’t too far. Aches in the evening, but a good sleep fixes that. Really looking forward to getting on to the bike, but until then i’m going to plan a rebuild of a local pump/jump circuit. Gotta keep busy.

Operation scheduled for 29th November, condition progressively getting worse – so can’t wait to get it sorted

knee seems to have stabilised

like I said this happened to me a lot I would have serious pain where I couldn’t even walk normally to being pain free. It just depends on if the meniscus tear is on pressure point of the bones or not. It moves so sometimes it did sometimes didn’t. In my case there was no swelling.

As far as the MRI scan was concerned I got to see the difference of being privately insured and state insured in the German health care system. I had private insurance and I could choose when I wanted the scan ( ‘This Wednesday sir! No problem!’) and they told me not use the main entrance when I came for the appointment but a special private insurance entrance with its own reception suite with free internet, coffee, cake and plush leather seats. I sat in there all of three minutes before they ushered me into the scanning rooms. Unfortunately I got chucked out of the insurance because I was in hospital too often so now I have to wait months like everyone else if I want any treatment! 😥

woody- good luck! great to have the op planned, although sorry to hear it’s getting worse

roter- same for me, just about. When i went to book the scan, the receptionist asked if I was free in 5 minutes. I blushed. She then said that there was an MRI slot free in 5 minutes and asked if i could take that! Annoyingly, as we were trying to book it through the system, somebody else had just nabbed it. Still, to get one for the next day (today) is just great, so I’m happy enough.

I quite like the private medical system through work insurance. But with my personal insurance, it’s a major faff and no quicker than going public (i.e. NHS equivalent).

had the MRI, even got a copy of the images and the analysis program 🙂

was fine, if a bit uncomfortable after 10mins

I chickened out of surgery for ACL tear & meniscus tear. 2 years on, finally running again and now pleased I waited.

@Hans glad you got the MRI it’s the best way to really know what the situation is. Now you can get a more informed diagnosis.

well, after looking through the MRI scan with the specialist, he says that all my ligaments, cartilage, menisci, veins, muscles and tendons look structurally fine. He can’t see any tears/rips/fractures.

As such, i’ve been recommended for physiotherapy, to see if there are any problems with muscle balance/condition or with the way i walk (gait?).

Quite satisfied with the health service. Relieved that nothing appears to be broken and i won’t need surgery.

Perhaps i’ll be OK for riding and snowboarding after all 😀

This is quite an interesting thread for me. I’ve always had crunchy graunchy knees since I was a kid – probably due to fairly frequently running/jumping off the garage roof combined with years of cycling abuse and recently had my right knee get a lot worse. GP said nothing wrong with it, it’s just a bit crunchy. I pushed for more of an investigation after it locked up during a long hill walk (locked between 10 degrees and 70 degrees, made the final 2km a tad difficult to walk!) Swelled a bit, got better next day but now aches a lot and I have kneecap pain frequently.

Got it MRI’d after pushing the GP towards the NHS website as she still didn’t think it needed looking at. Result is medial meniscus tear, enough to lock and make some really nice cracking/popping noises at times. In general it’s just achy but it puts me off doing things.

Next move I got sent to a consultant physio who looked at my MRI and suggested I should have surgery to remove the flapping bits, suggesting almost no risk and no future problems. I’m not convinced and will be going ahead with the process just so I can get to speak to a surgeon rather than the physio.

People keep quoting an increased risk of arthritis, but surely there’s a massive increased risk of that anyway due to having flaps of meniscus rattling around in a heavily loaded joint?