# Torn meniscus?



## Tree94 (Jan 7, 2016)

Woke up one morning almost 3 months ago and my knee was swollen, didnt hurt real bad, but was swollen as ****.
Figured it was nothin and kept doing tree work for about a month and half.
Then it started hurting too bad to spike trees. 

After 3 months and a few doctor visits later they think I tore my meniscus and need to schedule an MRI to be sure. I can still walk on it, just cant do too much more.

Think I twisted it in a tree because the day before I woke up swollen, I climbed a real small tree where I was twisting a lot and planting my feet in tight spots.

Anyone else experienced something like this in the knee?

Damn MRI is 500$ even after insurance, plus haven't done tree work since November so really hurting my financial situation.


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## LegDeLimber (Jan 8, 2016)

I'm not a tree guy by any means, just rode dirt bikes and always did "blue collar" type work Climbed ladders, carried stuff around etc....
Both of mine are torn. cartilage is bad in one knee and gone in the other (worn down to bone).
Little over a year ago, the Dr said the outer half of the knees look like a 20 yr olds, but the inner part is shot and both meniscus torn.
Worst meniscus damage was on the inner side, sort of towards the back.
Sort of matches the loaded position of semi squat of dirt bikes and ladders huh.

I had the arthroscopic surgery on the worst knee , before the cartilage was completely gone.
It didn't help mine, But then mine was really pretty far gone before the surgery.
Some people say it helps, But I think those are mostly office job type folks.

This camera really struggles with getting a picture off of a shiny surface, so not the best looking pic.
i only can find this one sheet of pics.
But from looking at the pics of the meniscus, that the Dr showed me, It pretty much looked like a bowl of egg drop soup inside there.

I 'm sorry I don't have any really helpful info or good news to post about mine.
I realize that doesn't make it any easier to consider any kind of surgery
and I'd hate to sway someone else not to try getting theirs done.
I'm just waiting till my family & I can get things in place for me to have the Half knee replacement done. 
Hopefully I wont end up taking so long that I wear out the rest of the knee and have to get the whole thing chopped out.


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## Tree94 (Jan 8, 2016)

I've heard both sides of the surgery. Some people tell me the surgery works miracles. Others say it will never be the same and I will be dealing with it my whole life.
Hopefully mines not too bad and the surgery can get me up and running again.

Are you able to walk fine? or does it hurt you?


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## LegDeLimber (Jan 8, 2016)

I'm at the point where really I dread a trip to grocery store that includes pushing a shopping cart.
I'll get home from that and go put ice packs. This dulls out the pain a little bit but that's about all it does. The pain is back as soon as I get up and move around again.
I had to give up mowing my yard this year & most of last yr too.
Hopping in and out of my pickup is a real teeth gritter now also 
(2000, B4000, 4x4 at factory cabin height )
walking with a backpack blower gets about 1/2~~3/4~ish hr and then I'm useless for 2 days.

Anything that requires steping and putting weight on them while you twist or turn is what hurts the most.

So mowing or grabbing a vacuum and swinging/pushing it around etc, sets 'em off to swelling.
(got some arthritis in the mix also)
Climbing more than 6~8 steps is a problem, ladder to change a light bulb is a bit worse. 

I can't imagine myself trying on a set of spurs now. that would put them in that
slightly bow-legged and knee bent loading, so that inward, rear area of the knees would be carrying all of the load again.

Edit: Oh and forgot to mention that handling a saw is almost off the list too.
Early part of last summer:
I cut about 10~12 small( 5" or less) trees to help a neighbor get his fence in.
Just that amount of twisted loading on them, with running the saw, made me sit down and bite my lip a few mins before i picked up my stuff and walked back to the house.
Neighbor noticed how I was looking and told his son to grab something and give me a hand with it.


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## jasper89 (Jan 8, 2016)

LegDeLimber said:


> I'm at the point where really I dread a trip to grocery store that includes pushing a shopping cart.
> I'll get home from that and go put ice packs. This dulls out the pain a little bit but that's about all it does. The pain is back as soon as I get up and move around again.
> I had to give up mowing my yard this year & most of last yr too.
> Hopping in and out of my pickup is a real teeth gritter now also
> ...




I have had knee scopes on both knees (medial meniscus) and it was successful. I still can't climb trees but I couldn't before so that is a wash.
Having strong legs to start with and a good physical therapy program is important. In talking to the docs they said that the longer you delay removing the cartilage the more likely it is to tear up the smooth bone surfaces in your knees.
Kind of like throwing a handful of sand in a crankcase. I had it done and could run, bike play sports etc. afterwards and it has worked out very well. The last of those 5 knee scopes was 25 years ago and all is well. 
I also have the benefit of predicting weather based on how they feel! Best of luck to you.

Frank


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## Tree94 (Jan 8, 2016)

LegDeLimber said:


> I'm at the point where really I dread a trip to grocery store that includes pushing a shopping cart.
> I'll get home from that and go put ice packs. This dulls out the pain a little bit but that's about all it does. The pain is back as soon as I get up and move around again.
> I had to give up mowing my yard this year & most of last yr too.
> Hopping in and out of my pickup is a real teeth gritter now also
> ...



That's was a bit painful to read. Sorry for the pain you're having to endure everyday, I reckon I should get the ball rolling on my MRI ASAP to prevent any further damage...



jasper89 said:


> I have had knee scopes on both knees (medial meniscus) and it was successful. I still can't climb trees but I couldn't before so that is a wash.
> Having strong legs to start with and a good physical therapy program is important. In talking to the docs they said that the longer you delay removing the cartilage the more likely it is to tear up the smooth bone surfaces in your knees.
> Kind of like throwing a handful of sand in a crankcase. I had it done and could run, bike play sports etc. afterwards and it has worked out very well. The last of those 5 knee scopes was 25 years ago and all is well.
> I also have the benefit of predicting weather based on how they feel! Best of luck to you.
> ...



Feels good to read a more positive outcome with this situation. As I said above I can walk just fine, so hopefully mines not too bad and simple surgery will get me back to normal. Thanks for the reply.


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## trees4life (Jan 9, 2016)

I have a torn meniscus. Pain started 2 years ago. The problem I have is that my gait has changed and it has messed up my back, hips and ankles. Where I live (Ontario) the surgeon (very highly regarded by patients & doctors) told me her job is to delay major surgery as long as possible. I now must use a cane and will be starting rehab, hopefully soon. I suggest you do whatever the doctor recommends and don't put anything off.


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## Jim Timber (Jan 11, 2016)

LegDeLimber said:


> I 'm sorry I don't have any really helpful info or good news to post about mine.
> I realize that doesn't make it any easier to consider any kind of surgery
> and I'd hate to sway someone else not to try getting theirs done.
> I'm just waiting till my family & I can get things in place for me to have the Half knee replacement done.
> Hopefully I wont end up taking so long that I wear out the rest of the knee and have to get the whole thing chopped out.



Yours looks a lot better than mine did back before I had surgery in 2001. I haven't run since, but I'm going back next month to discuss maybe doing the plastic puck on the back of my knee cap and grinding down a couple spurs on my left femur that have worn through the cartilage on my patella.

My doc said they didn't want to do surgery if I could avoid it; claiming the studies they did in the 80's showed people who had spurs removed vs left alone had the same outcomes long term. I'm not buying it.  I can work myself into difficulty walking in a 10 hour day driving a manual transmission. I really think a partial reconstruction of the friction surfaces would help me out. We'll see what they say anyways. I've done a year of SynviscOne, and while it's great stuff, it's not providing me the 6 months of relief between possible injections. They said they can do cortisone at 3 months between greasings (what I fondly refer the chicken comb goop as), but I don't have any inflammation so I don't think cortisone would do any good.

To the OP: I have a friend who's going in for his medial meniscus surgery in the morning. If it's flapping around in there, it's never going to heal. I actually had a tear in mine too, but it was only visible in the MRI and my doc couldn't feel it while inside my knee so he didn't cut out the damage (wouldn't have left much left and I would've needed a full replacement in short order). I got extremely lucky and it did eventually heal, but I do know what you're dealing with.

If you trust your doctor, and they think surgery will help you, I'd get it done. If you're iffy on your surgeon, then go find one you do trust and see what they say. There's nothing wrong with getting a second opinion - we're only given one body, and we need to be particular on who we let work on it.


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## Toronado3800 (Jan 21, 2016)

Get the 2nd opinion. If you know anyone in the WorkComp field have them find out who the good surgeons in your area are.

FWIW, I had an ACL done 6 years ago. It went great. It is not my good knee but its 99%. Something in my head makes me careful climbing onto trailers carrying sofas lol. The doc was worried about my meniscus. Since then meniscus repair has come a long way. 

Sounds like if yours doesn't take a turn for the better there is no way surgery is going to make it worse unless the anesthesiologist kills you. 

Listen to others about any do any pre and post surgery rehab programs like you are going out for the NFL. My 1st day of post surgery rehab was with this young nurse gal. I couldn't disappoint her with a bad attitude!


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## Bwildered (Jan 22, 2016)

I've had 3 knee operations, one ACL with lateral reconstruction & 2 arthroscopic medial menisectomies
That was 30 years ago, luckily I chose a pioneering sports surgeon & have had no other problems of reduced activities other than not being able to kneel on it on a hard surface, I set a heavyweight regional powerlifting squat record & still ride my dirt bike in the bush, touch football, squash, logging with it so its held up really well, the choice of Doctor is everything & you want one the only does knees on active people, If they say they are going to remove the meniscus find another Dr as this is the opposite of what the top surgeons are doing as now they just trim the damaged sections, if you keep going it will eventually lock with the torn part of the cartilage catching in the joint & then arthritis is going to be accelerated. A MRI is the first non invasive step, I put up with a couple of years of a dicky knee & never looked back after having it done, even though it cost me $5000 I had to save up 30 years ago, I hope this has been of help.
Thanski


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## johninky (Jan 24, 2016)

Blew out my left knee a few years ago. Got to the point where the constant pain made even driving a car unpleasant. Problem just kept getting worse so had the surgery. Walked out of the hospital 30 minutes after the operation pain-free. Only problem was the left knee only had about 1/2 the range of motion as the right knee. Started doing leg exercises a few months ago...squats/kneebends/stuff like that and the range of motion is almost the same as the right knee. Point is as someone else pointed out, post-surgery exercise isn't an option. I'm 68 and don't jump off the back of trucks anymore.


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## Renbotic (Sep 16, 2022)

Tree94 said:


> Woke up one morning almost 3 months ago and my knee was swollen, didnt hurt real bad, but was swollen as ****.
> Figured it was nothin and kept doing tree work for about a month and half.
> Then it started hurting too bad to spike trees.
> 
> ...


So I work at a large tree nursery and garden center and I tore my meniscus moving heavy paving blocks catching my foot on a pallet with a block in my hands. I lasted about 3 months before the pain was to much. Being on my feet 10 hrs a day working hard and loading Christmas Trees towards the end was so painful. I had the surgery and did the rehab and it worked. That was 2015 and I’m doing great. However I just tore the other meniscus in my other knee climbing scaffolding last month 2022. This one hurts real bad right away. Had MRI and surgeon said this one is worse than the first. Going to have surgery in 3 months. I have to get through season and get to winter. We just don’t have the staff. It’s going to be really painful. So yes! Get the surgery! Hope this helps.


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