Here's some of the major experiences I had with respect to a torn meniscus. I'll be happy to discuss any of the details, just email me (address at the bottom of the page).

Last weekend of September 1998

This was the weekend I first noticed the problem. On Sunday morning when I kneeled down to tie my shoe, I got a shooting pain in my leg, and shortly afterward noticed that the back of the knee seemed a bit puffy. On Saturday I had, in order, played ultimate frisbee, done a bunch of digging in the garden, and gone swing dancing (including lots of Lindy Hop). By the end of the week it seemed a little better, but I went to the orthopaedist anyway just in case. He started me on anti-inflammatories to see if that would solve it. As long as I was taking these the problem was minor, but as soon as I went off of them it returned, so he did an MRI and it turned out I had torn the medial (inner) meniscus. I was 45 at the time and had never had any serious problem like this before, but was told that after you turn 40 it's a common problem for active people. Just general wear and tear weakening of the cartilege after years of sports or other activities. I decided to have the surgery done (arthroscopic) since I am very active and planned on staying that way. What they do is trim off the bad part and leave the rest. For more details, just do a web search for arthroscopy and torn meniscus; there's a lot of information out there. The doctor told me that there was no reason I shouldn't expect a full recovery.

Jan 12

This was the surgery day. Done as outpatient surgery at a local hospital, and my partner Cathy drove me over there. I opted for general anesthesia since I am a total wuss about surgery and needles, but only had to get stuck once when they put the IV in; everything else goes through that. You have to completely fast for 8 hours before the surgery, and since it was scheduled for 12:30 that was tough. Nothing after I went to bed the night before. I was in the hospital a total of about 6 hours, and after waking up I don't remember a whole lot other than being really groggy. Fortunately, no adverse reaction to the anesthesia; some people get nauseous if they are allergic.

They gave me some heavy duty pain pills (vicodin) to take for the first day or so. The first night was very uncomfortable, I didn't sleep at all, really. Just tried to stay distracted with the TV and going online via a laptop. I would HIGHLY recommend having a laptop available for the first day or so that you are stuck in bed; it was a real lifesaver. I had done a lot of preparation the night before, like getting all the pillows I would need and putting everything where I could reach it. I wanted to be as self sufficient as possible since I don't like being waited on plus I pretty much like to be left alone when I'm not feeling well.

First 36 hours after surgery

Hate to be discouraging, but this whole time pretty well sucked. It was a lot more painful than I had hoped (not really sharp, more like a bad ache) even with the pain pills and lots of ice. The worst part was having to use the crutches when I needed to get up to take a leak, having my leg lowered down that far made it throb like the dickens. If I had had to take a dump during this period I would have been dead meat (bad news for women, sorry about that:) One thing about the crutches, it was VERY helpful to have good upper body strength in order to get out of bed. Most of the people I talked to didn't seem to be uncomfortable for quite this long; I'm sure it depends on a lot of factors.

Jan 14 (Thursday)

Jan 16 (Saturday)

Didn't help that we had an ice storm yesterday and power was out for nearly two days. That meant a lot more walking around than I wanted, as we didn't stay around the house much. Finally got to take the bandage off (and take a shower, we still had hot water). Really doesn't look too bad, other than lots of swelling. There are 2 small incisions near the kneecap and a small hole above the kneecap, that's it. I probably could have made it in to work if they had absolutely need me for something (I was scheduled to be out) but it was a moot point since the building lost power early on Friday. Tonight I went out to see a movie after dropping Cathy at the dance we usually go to. Walking around is getting a little easier but I still have to take it very slowly. By the end of the night I was exhausted, probably did too much walking today. I'll have to force myself to take it a bit easy since I'm getting antsy to be up and around more.

Jan 18 (Monday)

First day back at work. Each day it's getting a little easier to get around, but it's a slow improvement. I brought a pillow in to work for propping my leg up, this seems to help some. Mostly they advise not sitting for too long at a time, which seems to be good advice. For now I'm avoiding the stairs, although I've managed to use the ones in our house that go down to the basement if I'm careful. By the end of the day I was very tired, but part of this is probably due to not being able to get a full night's sleep. I seem to wake up early (around 5) since the knee starts aching for whatever reason. After I'm up and around it seems to help.

Jan 20

Talked to the doctor's office to at least schedule the first physical therapy appointment, I want to get started as soon as possible. They estimated I'd be going 2-3 times a week for a few weeks, minimum, to to range of motion/strength exercises. Right now I don't see strength being a problem, but it's still hard to bend the knee much past 90 degress. probably from the swelling. I've been trying to do the stretching exercices (gently) but still can't get it to bend that much. Walking is getting a bit easier though. The rest of the week is supposed to be cold, cloudy, and rainy, which isn't helping since the low pressure is making it feel worse.

Jan 22

Went back to the orthopod today for the 10 day follow-up. He showed me pictures of the inside of my knee. The part of the meniscus that was torn looked like a brillo pad with little threads hanging out all over. The healthy part is totally smooth and the difference is obvious. There was also a picture of my ACL, which was in good shape. I only had about 25% of the meniscus removed; less than I first thought. Physical therapy starts Monday - 2 to 3 times a week for 4 weeks to start. I'm doing pretty well but there's still lots of swelling that has to go down. This weekend is major bridge competition, so I'll be sitting a lot and will have to make an effort to get up and exercise a bit between each round.

Jan 23

Feb 3

I've been going to the gym for a little over a week. Strength in my left leg is down about 50% of what it should be, which isn't surprising, and I was told that it takes anywhere between 1 to 3 months to get back to full strength. There's definite improvement from last wek, but what is still a big problem is if I misstep or twist at all and put torsion on the knee (as in spinning). This is still pretty painful, but only for a few seconds and it doesn't last. A normal problem since the insides haven't fully healed yet but it makes dancing hard and frisbee impossible, at least for now. I may try out a dance this weekend, though.

Feb 7

I did go to a dance last night and managed OK dancing every other dance and not doing any serious spins or kicks. Got tired out by the end of the night and iced my knee when I got back as it seemed a little swollen. This week at the gym has been hard, particularly for the quad leg lifts. Those are a little painful across the top of the knee (not the inner area where the meniscus is) and I'm still only lifting about 40% of what my other leg can do.

Mar 3

I've been busting ass in the gym trying to get my leg strength back up to normal. Weightwise, I'm now at about 80% full strength for both the hamstring and quad. I've been dancing regularly and am mostly up to full speed now, except for the hopping and kicking. Last weekend I decided to go out and give ultimate frisbee a try. I could run around gently, but cutting and jumping were difficult and painful. The orthopod warned me that I'd still feel some pain or discomfort over the next few months but that this was typical and that I should work my way back into my normal activity routine. I may hold off on frisbee a few more weeks, though. I still don't have full range of motion, but am only missing a few degrees fully open and about 5 degrees closed. At least I'm not getting any of the severe swelling that I used to get prior to surgery. Now after dancing or other activites, I might notice some soreness a day or two afterwards, but no real swelling (I still ice it down after dancing or weights).

Mar 17

Today was my final physical therapy session. I had my leg strength measured on this very interesting automated Cybex machine. After doing leg reps at various speeds, the machine gives you a computerized analysis of your strength and a graph of the results. I'm at about 80% quad strength at the slowest rep speed (and largest resistance) and somewhat higher at the other 2 speeds. Hamstring strength is a little better, and near 100% at the easiest speed. This is about par for the course and I should eventually get back to 100%. Even though I can now pretty much straighten it out all the way I'm still missing about 5% angular bending for fully closed. Dancing is now fine, although I still notice it afterwards, but haven't been back to frisbee, mostly because of the bad weather.

May 17

I've been bad about updating this, mostly because there's not a whole lot new to report anymore. I'm still not at 100%, particularly for ultimate frisbee (I've been doing that for about a month), but it's slowly getting there. Biggest problem is with acceleration and rapid cutting, running straight ahead is no problem. At the beginning, I was still really tentative, but now that I've taken a few tumbles I'm getting more aggressive about diving on the ground to make catches. A few weeks ago I took a nasty fall right on one of the incision points and it swelled up a bit but no lasting damage. The knee still gets a bit sore after extensive frisbee or dancing (especially Lindy Hop), but I was told this would be a problem for at least 6 months, and it would gradually go away.

Oct 29

Haven't updated this thing in a while. I'm pretty much back to nearly 100%, although I can still feel a little soreness from time to time. In the gym I've been back to full strength for quite a while and I've finally been able to let loose at frisbee and go full out. Not sure given my age if the occasional slight soreness will ever go away completely, but if it never gets any worse than this I definitely won't complain.

Two years later

Everything is still just fine. I can definitely say that the surgery was a success and well worth it. The slight soreness at various times has never quite gone away, but it's really pretty minor. I suspect that my age must have something to do with it; if I was in my 20's the recovery might have been 100% rather than the 95-98% that I ended up with.