Anyone ever torn a medial meniscus?

I had a small tear in the meniscus.  So small it was called a "hang nail"  I also thought I had tendonitis and did a month of PT before the MRI revealed the hang nail.  I had the arthroscopic surgery to clip it on Dec. 21st (almost 6 weeks ago).  You can see my logs, but basically, the recovery time isn't that bad.  I was biking (slowly) after about 6-7 days.  You can walk the same day as the surgery (w/ limp).  PT 2-3X a week.  I started run/walking around week 4 or just after.

The key is not to push the recovery, and do the PT.  I would do the PT before the surgery if you elect to have the it.  Basically stretching and squats, leg presses, leg lifts, and others.  You can find them on the internet.

Good luck.

The recovery is pretty straightforward. You should be weight-bearing with crutches pretty quickly if you have surgery. I've had significant tears of both the medial and the lateral meniscus in the same knee. Just be sure to follow the PT instructions and be careful with it when you return to training.

What Bill said..."follow PT instructions"...and don't push too hard too soon.

I tore my ACL and medial/lateral meniscus playing soccer.  Had the ACL repaired, the medial was stitched up, and the lateral was trimmed.

If I had to do it again, I'd have asked them to trim the medial; as it stood, due to stitching, I had to be non-weight bearing (aka crutches) for 4 weeks.  Basic rehab started the day after my surgery and progressed from there.  Unfortunately, I pushed too hard too early and had to back off due to the dreaded pain on the kneecap that sometimes occurs when going through knee rehab motions (esp leg extensions).  As a result my right quad shrunk quite a bit and this threw me off-kilter from a physiological standpoint.

This said, my injury was pretty severe.  If you're dealing with basic meniscus repair, it's usually done via arthoscope and you should be on the mend very quickly.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone. MRI is today. It sounds like the main difference in recovery is the full meniscus repair vs just the torn part being cut off.

Thanks for the great info so far. Depending on what I find out, I may be emailing some of you

MRI results are not pretty. Large tear in the medial meniscus with damage to the femur head.

See the docs again this week. Will have meniscus repair and holes drilled in the femur head to help the bone rejuventate.

any more insight to this?

Thanks for all the info so far.

second what sue's saying from personal experience.  My hubby had the total ACL reconstruction along with the microfracture thing and the dr told him to walk whenever he felt like it after surgery- BIG MISTAKE- and ruined everything.  So we went to another doc (hey there!) and she fixed him right up with the ACI, he absolutely HATED the 8 weeks on crutches and the passive motion thingie afterwards but he's running a little right now finally and not in a lot of pain that he was before.  Short term pain for long term gains.

check out my album for his surgery pics the one titled "knee" I think..... 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/show-album.asp?albumid=3023&photoid=17464