bgd, hopefully my tale will give you so hope?
Aged 20 I injured my knee playing football, then spent 3 years waiting for someone to tell me what was wrong and 2 years on waiting list for op (back in the good old days of the NHS)
So at 25 had an ACL replacement, whilst in hospital bed reading a mountain biking mag the surgeon came on his rounds, he took one look at the mag and said “you can forget doing any of that again” I was also told that chances are I would have OA by the time I was 40, as the joint had been worn in the 5 years I was waiting for the op!
As soon as I could (encouraged by physio) I began cycling, turbo at first then road and eventually off road, now it’s about the only thing I can do, walking even short distances gives me knee pain.
The Donjoy knee support (I think it was called) which I was given at the hospital is no help at all, uncomfortable to wear and does not prevent joint pain.
Anyhow I’m 45 know and still cycle between 120-150 miles a week, completed Le-Jog in 2009 and rode the 7 day TransWales event in 2010, have completed 400k Audax rides and 12hr TT’s.
So my advice would be if it don’t hurt do it, I firmly believe that regular excercise on mine is what’s keeping it going, and with cycling being non load bearing there’s not many better ways out there to excercise, I also do weights a couple of times a week to keep the muscle strength up.
Anyway that’s enough of my ramblings, get your bike out tomorrow and go for a ride 😉