I have injured my knee, what should I expect??

GTP 044 · 24-11-2010, 05:35 PM

Hi everyone,

As the title says, I have done an injury to my knee and I am wondering what sort of recovery times and treatments I will probably end up with. I have got a "meniscus tear, a ruptured Baker cyst and a broken knee cap"

I am yet to book in and see a surgeon but I was hoping that those of you who have done a similliar injury to yourself can tell me what lies ahead for me.

Cheers,
Greg.

Melz · 24-11-2010, 05:45 PM

Hi mate, sorry to hear you are injured. Sounds like you have definetely done the job on yourself. Myself I have a mimiscus tear aswell (the other issues I don't) that alone took me a year to get over and I still have issues with it. But this might be that I'm just a slow healer!

Anyway I came in here to offer this little bit of advice (if its useful or not to you I hope it is!), try and keep as much strength in that leg as possible (speak to a physio about exercises after you see your surgeon). Passive exercise such as swimming is fantastic for maintaining strength in the leg, as it keeps your weight and resistance off it. My biggest issue was trying to get my muscle condition back up after a lot of wastage which prolonged the recovery time quite substantially.

All the best for a speedy recovery

fmc351 · 24-11-2010, 06:02 PM

That hurts just reading about it. My boys have lifted slightly.

Id say a lot of hurting is to be expected.

Springfield_Johny · 24-11-2010, 10:13 PM

Sorry to hear about your injury, while I havn't done a knee I have had other horrible injuries. Do exactly what your surgeon and your physio tell you no matter how painful and what exercises they give you to do. Any pain you go thru now will be worth it in the long run. Its the quality of life for the rest of your life your talking about, from walking/running to being able to drive cars and earn an income and everything else in between

UncleMiky · 25-11-2010, 08:20 AM

Early this year I had surgery for a meniscul tear.
Ended up having about 40% of the cartilage removed from the Joint.

I can't go into the cracked knee cap scenario, that I imagine will add substantially to recovery time.

I had keyhole surgery, took about 3 hours and was discharged later the same day on crutches.

Spend about 3 weeks on crutches and Panadine.
About 7 weeks off work - giving myself a good chance of recovery.

During recovery after that I spent plenty of time on stationary bike to keep up the exercise. Initially I could only use the one good leg, makes for a fun experience. Keep as active as the pain allows is the best advice I could give.

Get in for surgery as soon as you can, don't put it off.

AndrewR_AUII · 26-11-2010, 11:40 AM

Had Meniscus tear and torn ACL, resulting in two ops.
First one (meniscus removed), was down for a week the other one (ACL reconstruction) was 3 days. Will depend on how much damage and cleanup has to be done.
Painwise, not insignificant but not as much as I feared it would be.

As mentioned before, much of your recover will depend on you doing your Physio - this is so, so important to get mobility and strength back. On thing I found really good was walking in a pool - you can relearn to walk without having full weight on the affected knee.

SB076 · 26-11-2010, 12:43 PM

See a good surgeon, I have had ACL. MCL done once - this resulted in three follow up ops (last one 1/9) Unforunately I picked up stuagh or what ever they call it. I didnt find leg ops too bad to be honest, they are a lot better than broken jaw. If you want a good surgeon let me know.

Very important to do the hard yards after the op, do the excercises, strength building etc - it will help a lot in future.

Psi-Pop · 26-11-2010, 12:58 PM

I dislocated my knee two years ago, ended up tearing medial ligament and destroying a good amount of meniscus. I had about six weeks off work before I could move it well enough to do light duties. As everyone has said, do everything your physio says. Muscle recovery is crucial, this was my problem as I did my knee in France skiing and waited 12 weeks before op. So my left leg had a huge muscle problem. It still has pain some days but it's mostly okay again

RedHotGT · 26-11-2010, 03:24 PM

I had experimental surgery around 5 years ago on my knee... and seems to have gone well...

I had also damaged my Meniscus, to the point where pieces would float out of where they should be, and lock my knee, or cause my knee to buckle from pressure on the ACL etc...

Was a strange injury - because it didn't happen all the time... I did it playin basketball and it was just like jarring my knee... it was sore and went away... then about 2 months later I was just walking and my knee gave way (i had no idea why, or any pain?)... and as I already said - it would occasionally lock up and took ages to get back moving again (very painful)...

I spoke to surgeons etc, had MRI scans of my knee (twice) because even they struggled to work out what was going on...

In the end - they decided that removing the Meniscus completely would be the best option... leaving no cartilage/buffer underneath my kneecap betweem the femur and tibia... (i didnt like the sound of this)...

What they ended up doing was drilling a series of small holes into the femur and tibia - which healed with scar tissue... that scar tissue became the new 'buffer' or meniscus cartilage...

It was all done keyhole style... but I was no weight bearing for 6-7 weeks... then a further 8 weeks crutches after that...

Eventually - I'll get arthritis in my knee and it will go bad... but its better than the other options at the time... and its been quite good!!! I still play basketball - though have been advised that high-impact stuff is not advised...

Best of luck with your situation and I wish you well with the recovery...
Its not the end of the world.... Doctors/Surgeons are pretty cluey...
They can fix just about anything...

Much like a Ford fanatic with a rusty old 54H shell and some JG33 ID tags...
You can make it magic again - just takes time...

Cheers
Loftie

ch33z1l · 26-11-2010, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loftie

I had also damaged my Meniscus, to the point where pieces would float out of where they should be, and lock my knee, or cause my knee to buckle from pressure on the ACL etc...

Was a strange injury - because it didn't happen all the time... I did it playin basketball and it was just like jarring my knee... it was sore and went away... then about 2 months later I was just walking and my knee gave way (i had no idea why, or any pain?)... and as I already said - it would occasionally lock up and took ages to get back moving again (very painful)...

I spoke to surgeons etc, had MRI scans of my knee (twice) because even they struggled to work out what was going on...

In the end - they decided that removing the Meniscus completely would be the best option... leaving no cartilage/buffer underneath my kneecap betweem the femur and tibia... (i didnt like the sound of this)...

What they ended up doing was drilling a series of small holes into the femur and tibia - which healed with scar tissue... that scar tissue became the new 'buffer' or meniscus cartilage...
Cheers
Loftie

What you described is the exact symptoms I went through for about 1yr. I initially hyper-extended it (but in reverse) playing indoor hockey. As you said, strange injury, jarring your knee. I was unable to put any pressure on it for a few days, and just kept icing it to keep the swelling down before I got to the doctor, who just gave me pandeine forte.
I was still in pain, so borrowed some crutches from a friend for about 1 week. I still struggled to put pressure on it for about a month, and it was probably another 2months that I eased back into playing touch footy. Every few mtrs I could feel what was like floating matter come to the surface of the skin, and I would have to sort of massage it back into place.
When I started playing indoor hockey, first game back, my knee buckled and down I went.
I probably would have benefited from surgery, but after a year and its strong again.

GTP 044 · 29-11-2010, 09:59 AM

Well I went and saw my own doctor on Friday (I didn't see him originally when I did it as his surgery was closed) and he has told me that I have not broken my knee cap, the first doctor has misinterperated the results of the MRI.

That was news that I was certainly happy to hear. He booked me to see a surgeon in a couple of weeks but I got a phone call late Friday arvo and the surgeon can fit me in this Tuesday to have a look at it and work out where we can go from here. Hopefully I will know more tomorrow about when operation can take place.

Cheers,

Greg.

fmc351 · 29-11-2010, 11:37 AM

Thats good news mate, a broken knee cap sounded nasty.

**DJR-351** · 29-11-2010, 12:00 PM

Well in the old days back on the farm, it would have been a trip around the back of the shearing shed then BANG!!!

Good to hear it is not as bad as initially thought, 10 or so years ago I got my left knee squashed in the bow door of a landing barge, took three goes under the knife and fifteen months before it came good, still gives me a bit of grief on cold days tho.....

AndrewR_AUII · 29-11-2010, 12:30 PM

Good (but in a way, disturbing) news.

Auturbo6 · 29-11-2010, 09:45 PM

Some pain in the knee region i would suspect. Only guessing though.