Well, I fell and tore up my right knee. Torn meniscus. Wednesday I had surgery, the doctor’s were happy with the outcome. Right now it hurts a lot more than it did before the surgery. I can barely make it around the house.
Any of you guys ever go through this? How long before this starts getting better? This is killing me. No Crappie fishing, no Steelhead fishing, Just laying around watching TV.
OK, I’m done whining now.
SR
I had it done about 4 years ago. My neighbor came over and told me I had to repair my fence so he could pasture his beefers two days after I had the surgery. My advice to you is don’t go fencing right after your surgery. My knee swelled up so bad that I couldn’t even get jogging pants on. I iced almost steady for 2 days to get the swelling down before my scheduled Dr. appointment. Doc said I didn’t do any permanent damage but probably shouldn’t have done that. Even with the stupid move I made it was about a week to ten days before I could get around fairly well. I really never had bad pain. Just swelling. Good luck in your recovery. The surgery is well worth it.
I’ve had knee scopes (aka removing torn meniscus surgeries) 2 times and 3 replacements surgeries.
The scope is a maybe +/- 2 week recovery.
I’ve had a torn meniscus on each knee both requiring surgery. Over did it after both surgeries. That added a couple more weeks of recovery, but if I remember right I was back to normal after several months (full movement of my knees).
Tore my ACL and lost half my meniscus a couple years ago. I started rehab the next day, which I thought was a bit premature, it will be sore no doubt. Keep bending it any chance you get until it hurts, then straighten it out for as long as you can til it hurts, then repeat. The more you push the limits the better. There is not easy way to recover, but if you want it to be as close to normal as it was prior, there is no substitute.
I got nothing accept a big old get well Rootski
Get better soon Rootski!
The fish won’t have a chance once you get better!
I have meniscus surgery scheduled for 4/21 but the more I read online the more I think of cancelling. Most new studies say therapy is just as good or better than surgery. Not sure what I’m going 5o do yet. 
I went back to work two weeks after having mine done and it was to soon. The more I moved the better it felt but there was definitely a fine line of it feeling better and over doing it. I don’t know if they changed much in the past 12 years but I tore it up again this December falling off a retaining wall in the dark but have decided to hold off on doing anything.
I have meniscus surgery scheduled for 4/21 but the more I read online the more I think of cancelling. Most new studies say therapy is just as good or better than surgery. Not sure what I’m going 5o do yet.
I did the therapy route the first time- and ended up with the surgery anyhow. I have had multiple surgeries thanks to sports injuries,the last a couple of years ago, recovery for a meniscus was no more than two weeks before I went back to normal activity. Granted there were some movements that were painful for a couple more weeks after that.
Tore my ACL and had some cartilage damage a few years back. Had reconstructive surgery and walked out of the hospital. They don’t like for you to stay off your injury at all in today’s world. Started physical therapy within a couple days and that was the best thing for me. You don’t have anything else to do so might as well do your therapy and it helps to keep the Vicodin bottle full. 
Get well soon, Rootski!
I noticed you said laying around the house! That is true except for your PT correct? Your PT is the most important thing to your recovery and please don’t skip it or stop before the doc tells you to. Depends on what you do for a living but I went back to work the next day. I had my knee on a chair and iced it regularly. At that time, my job could all be done via phone and computer.
But my wife had to drive me to/from work for about 2 weeks. And getting back on my feet full time was a couple week process. But for truly physical activities such as running, golf, etc, it was 6 months. Followed docs orders to a T and have had no issues since.
Good luck!
ET
Good luck with everything.. I had meniscus surgery 20 years ago. Easy recovery. The problem comes 20 years after when all of the remaining meniscus is gone and your cartilage is gone as well.. I roll with bone on bone and have to wait 10 years for a replacement. Blows.
The most important thing you can do to help speed up the recovery is to manage the swelling. Any fluid build up will cause pain and restrict your range of motion. Icing it frequently is huge and from my experience while the gel style ice packs are simpler to use they are no where near as good as using actual ice and water. This old school type of ice pack works great as you can “shake” it up every few minutes to circulate the water otherwise it warms up near your knee. The other most important thing you can do at least a couple times a day is to find a way to get your knee elevated to allow the fluid not to pool up in your leg. To be most effective you will want it to be above your heart which helps significantly to help avoid fluid build up in your leg. Laying on the couch with your propped up on the back of the couch is a couple times a day will help a lot. A third way to help is to wear a good compression sock while your up on your feet to avoid the fluid building up in your leg in the first place.
I’m not sure these are standard yet at a normal rehab facility but if you can get access to one of these through your PT or even discuss with your insurance it help immensely.
http://www.gameready.com/cryotherapy-treatments-technology
Will
ice-pack.jpg
I’ve had 7 knee surgeries. Just had another meniscus tear taken care of last summer. I actually did a guide trip the next day in 3 footers on Petenwell. I was pretty much back to normal within 2 weeks, but lateral movement took much longer to be tolerable. The pain on that never will really go away 100%.
@MXSKEETER, if you don’t need to get it fixed, don’t. I went a long time with a tear without issue, until it tore a little more and started locking my knee up. At that point, surgery was the only option.
I had 3 meniscus surgeries between the ages of 15-21, so my recovery may be different since I was a high school and college athlete during those. Most important thing is Physical Therapy and push the limits each day. Range of motion, quad/hamstring/glute strength, work the swelling out. I’d have a hard time thinking that somebody wouldn’t be back to work, especially if their job doesn’t involve physical labor, within 2-4 days. I think within 6-8 weeks you should be back to better than before the surgery.
No 2 bodies recover the same though. Look at current Washington Redskins Offensive Lineman Brandon Scherff. When he played for Iowa he tore his meniscus on a Saturday, had surgery on Tuesday, and played 4 days later on Saturday. Obviously he had access to state of the art rehab facilities and had to prove he was worth the millions of dollars he was going to receive in a few months, so being sidelined wasn’t much of an option.
Well it just got worse….Huge pain and cramping in my right calf so I went in and found out it’s a blood clot. Apparently this happens to a small percentage of knee repair patients. Lucky me! So now I’m on blood thinners. The first blood thinner is injectable…….yup, twice a day I have to give myself a shot. There’s something unnatural about deliberately jamming a piece of metal into your own hide. Ugghhhhh….but the alternative isn’t good either. If a chunk of that clot breaks off an gets to my lungs, I’m in serious trouble.
I hope this blood thinner deal doesn’t get in the way of fishing,, or I’m really going to be upset 
Wish me luck guys.
SR
Good luck Steve. Blood clots are nothing to take lightly. Follow docs instructions and be careful for a few weeks and you should heal up nicely. Friend of mine just went through similar clot issues and he’s back to full speed. Took about a month.
I had mine cleanup up in August. Still swells up from time to time. PT is very important. Icing helps and resting with it elevated. Still do that today when it gets sore … ice and elevated.
Way better though today, than it was prior to the surgery.
Where did you have it done? Mine was through Tria … would highly recommend Tria.
Steve, really sorry to hear about the surgery and the complications. Talk about some fun and games that a guy doesn’t need. It’s like they say, it ain’t the age, it’s the mileage.
It’s a tough deal, but I guess I always thank God I live in a day and age that they can DO something about this stuff. One thing worse than having the surgery would be NOT having the surgery and having to live with a bum knee the rest of your life.
Hope you’re on the mend soon and then the Physical Terrorists can whip you into shape so we can join forces for some bird hunting. No off season these days for us finely tuned athletes.
This is especially critical because without Gentlemen and Scholars like you and I, the bird hunting will be left to–Gawd, I can hardly bring myself to write it–barbarians, visigoths, and hunters with autoloaders.
Grouse
Get one of these. It will hepm manage the sweeling. Amazing how good cold will help.http://www.amazon.com/Aircast-Cryo-Cuff-Gravity-Cooler/dp/B00P3D4CLM
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