DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Knee Surgery

I messed my knee up at the end of June. I was running 5-6 days a week like I normally do. But, I was back in Ohio at my home up there and was running on the trails by a local lake. There are a lot of hills there and I thought...........this is great.

I was running up hills to help keep my thighs built. I was running down steep hills to make sure that I didn't lose my foot speed. And I was going to make a thread about it because it was so freaking great.

Well, one of the hills was actually asphalt. It was a steep, curved lane that guys used to launch their boats. I was running down it one day and hit some pea gravel and I felt it right away.

I was hurting pretty bad, but decided to run again the next day. I figured the pain was just me getting older. I chose to run on a flat track and that avoiding the hills would solve the problem.

Well, the next day.........I had to go up and down the steps on my butt. I kept thinking that it would get better w/time. It didn't.

Then, as most of you know, my son developed cancer. So, I put off having my knee looked at. I was walking funny and then my back started messing up.

So, I finally went to the doc..........and I have torn medial and lateral meniscus. Just one side on the lateral. The back thing doesn't need surgery.........just physical therapy, but the knee has to be done. They are telling me a minimum of 6 months of rehab because the medial tear is pretty severe.

I can't believe that crap. I am hoping to start running again w/in a few weeks. I have a high pain tolerance and I am sick of not being able to run or play hoops at the gym.

I'm sure some of you have went through this. I'm guessing that the docs over exaggerate the recovery time..........right?

Everyone heals differently. Here's my nursing input. If they put you on anti-inflammatory, ibuprofen or otherwise, take it as scheduled wheher you hurt or not. Keep it elevated if all you're doing is hanging out on the couch. Go to therapy. Do your excersises they give you at home. Push through the early pain but don't over do it. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll get back to your old self. Face it as a new challenge.

Thanks Portland. I plan on kicking it's ass! Just like I did when I had the tumor on my carotid. 6 month rehab is BS. I'll be running again in a few weeks and hooping again in a 4-6 weeks.

And even that is too long.

Vers pm me i will give you my number so we can talk.but not tomorrow till after 5

man that stinks. Good luck with the recovery.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery. My only advice would be to not push it too fast. If you don't show a little patience, you could end up worse than you started out.

Prayers Brother

Sorry to hear. Hope it all works out ok for you and you get back to running again real soon. Good luck.

I'll be praying for you Vers. Hope you're back on your feet really quickly after the surgery.

jc

Good luck and speedy recovery. I just went through rotator cuff surgery. Rehab was tough, but I am glad I had them to push me through it.

SIPPO Lake??

Slow and steady wins the race.
Listen to your body.

Hey Vers, I had my knee scoped about 20 years ago for a torn medial meniscus, and mine was pretty severe too. The rehab was about 6 months. However, I had to wait about a month with my leg in an immobilizer before the surgery, so I had considerable atrophy of the quad, which made rehab a little harder. I would recommend you ask for some fairly strong pain meds to take for a day or two after the surgery. My doc refused to give me anything stronger than Tylenol 3, which did nothing. I didn't sleep for two nights after the operation; my knee felt like something inside was trying to chew its way out. After watching the video they gave me of my surgery, I could've killed that SOB. Right before they closed up, the video showed this Pacman-looking tool being used to scrub my femur to help spur scar tissue in order to provide some kind of cushion between the bones now that all the cartilage was gone. It hurt. I had been a regular jogger before the injury, nothing special, like 3-4 miles, 5-6 days per week. After the rehab, whenever I tried to jog my knee would swell to almost twice its normal size. That was the end of my running/jogging, and the beginning of my cycling for exercise.

Anyway, best of luck.

Damn Dave, that sounds awful. I think yours is way worse than mine.

Guys, thanks for the sympathy stuff.........but, that wasn't my intent. A knee is nothing big. It will heal.

I was kinda hoping to hear some stories of how doctors exaggerate how long it takes to recover. I'm going nuts not being able to run and play basketball.

And yes King.........it was at Sippo. Good eye.

I tore my rotator cuff years ago. I elected not to have surgery. They told me that it would ease the pain, but my arm wouldn't be what it used to be. This is when I was coaching football and I was throwing a lot of passes during DB drills.

How is your arm strength now? Can you throw a football and baseball well or did the surgery simply ease the pain? Again, this was years ago and maybe they improved the procedure.

At our age, anything downhill that puts stress on the knee should be avoided. Even walking down steps puts a sheering force across that joint. Uphill good, downhill bad.

Yeah man, I found that out the hard way. LOL

And the crazy thing is that while I was running, I was kind of excited about coming on here and writing about the benefits of running hills. Doh!

I used to run a lot before I joined the Navy. Running on aircraft carriers didn't work for me.

I try to avoid high impact on my knees now. Definitely no road races or hard packed trails for me any more. If I run, which isn't often, I go for grass.

I try to stick to Yoga and weight(or bodyweight) training. I might recommend that for awhile before trying to run again. Get your strength/stability up and work/break up the scar tissue before easing yourself back into the impact of running.

The day I can't play pickup basketball anymore is the day I balloon to 400 lbs.

I'm a veteran of 5 knee surgeries, all on the same knee - all 5 had some sort of meniscus work, 3 were microfracture as well, and 2 also included nerve decompression.

6 months seems excessive for meniscus, it makes me wonder if they didn't tell you everything. It sounds more like you have articulating cartilage damage.

This being said, my advice in no particular order:
1) do as your doctors, nurses, and PT say
2) do your exercises as prescribed, and don't stop until you're told it is ok to stop
3) take your time getting back. the last thing you want to do is push it and have another surgery because of it
4) do what you can to keep engaging your quads and calf pre-surgery, the stronger you are before surgery, likely the stronger after. Chat with your doc/nurse/pt about what you can do now to keep/build strength without causing further damage
5) with your high tolerance for pain, you might want to consider not taking your pain meds, or taking less. I don't personally like to have the pain masked unless it is unbearable, and frankly the addictivie qualities of some of these pain meds scare me. As noted above, take anti-inflammatories as required.
6) ask the doctor if a GameReady machine (http://www.gameready.com/) will help with recovery and if you can borrow or rent one (check with insurance to see if it is covered). I know they helped me significantly. Another option that doesn't include the compression is the Breg PolarCare Cube (http://www.breg.com/products/cold-therapy/devices/cube-cold-therapy) - it is worth the $150 or so (plus the 6 bottles of water), and it more likely covered (at least partially) by insurance. Trust me, this is so much easier and less messy than ziploc bags of ice
7) ask your doc if you'll need to elevate your leg after surgery and if so, see if someone has one of those wedge pillows you can borrow. it is easier than stacking pillows
8) you can "rent" crutches at Walgreens (or used to be able to) - I think it was $10 and I got it back when I returned the crutches. That was a long time ago, I ended up buying nice "comfortable" crutches because I had so many surgeries.

if I come up with anything else, I'll post. If you want to chat in person, send me a message with your phone number and I'll call

Thanks to all who posted w/prayers and advice.

I'm hard-headed, but I get the feeling that I was wrong about the docs exaggerating things. I'm the kinda guy who likes to tackle things head-on and push myself more than others can push themselves. That is one of the reasons I was so good at sports. That and speed. LOL

clwb419: Dang man.............I am no expert, but your advice sounds extremely sound. The doc was talking about the pain I have on the other side of my knee and he said I probably hurt it be overcompensating for so many months w/out getting treatment. Not sure if that is true or not and he wasn't sure either. I have just been walking funny and my back doc said that my gait has caused some of my back issues.

I am going to follow your advice and it is very similar to what my daughter has told me.

I have already started some exercises to help strengthen quads and calves, as well as limbering hips and hamstrings because of the back BS.

No way will I take pain pills unless I absolutely have to. I had a huge tumor removed from my carotid artery and had a tube in my freaking neck that drained out blood and puss for several weeks. Never took one pill. In fact, they prescribed three different pain pills to be taken each day and I never even filled them. I am not saying I won't take a pain pill.......I ain't that dumb...LOL.....but, only as a last resort. A guy I played ball w/in college got hooked on the damn things and it was ugly, man.

I have crutches. Brought them down from my barn in Ohio. They were in there for years because my wife broke her ankle at one point.

Dude.............thanks so much for all the great information. I owe you................big time!!!!

"No way will I take pain pills unless I absolutely have to. I had a huge tumor removed from my carotid artery and had a tube in my freaking neck that drained out blood and puss for several weeks. Never took one pill. In fact, they prescribed three different pain pills to be taken each day and I never even filled them. I am not saying I won't take a pain pill.......I ain't that dumb...LOL.....but, only as a last resort. A guy I played ball w/in college got hooked on the damn things and it was ugly, man."

Just to clarify. You can refuse to take narcotic pain medications but be sure to take your anti inflammatory medications. Be it ibuprofen or something stronger, prescription strength. Those are 'pain pills' too but have a bigger role in your healing process.

Lucky for you that with the state your in you can smoke some weed instead.

Thanks Portland.

They gave me some anti-inflammatory meds when I first went in. I didn't think they were helping and had to take them w/food. Kind of a pain in the ass if you ask me.

Anyway, they scolded me this last time about not taking them. LOL

Live and learn, I guess.

I don't think weed is legal in SC.

But, both of my kids have plenty of stash. LOL.........that's probably a 70s term......"stash." LOL

the poster who suggested yoga might be on to something. I know it sounds wimpy but you always hear good things about it. A local hockey team does yoga once a week, their coach encouraged them to try it. Now they're all doing yoga.
Just saying don't discount it.

I started doing some yoga moves for my back. I don't have the freaking patience to do all that crap they do, but I at least do some of the moves.

My style has always been to attack things hard. Push the body until it is completely exhausted. This stupid knee is getting in the way of that. I keep hearing "patience." Annoying.

But.................this ain't no thang. It's just annoying. Big freaking deal. My son is going through much worse. Look at GM. His [censored] is unreal, yet he somehow keeps a positive attitude.

GM is a true hero, folks!!!

Stage freaking 4? And he keeps on kicking ass. Dude's amazing!!!!

And there are a couple of other dudes who PM who have cancer. I won't name them because they don't talk about on the board. Gotta respect the privacy thang. But, those guys are studs! True heroes.

A knee is nothing!!!!! I pray that none of you think I was looking for sympathy. I just wanted advice. And I got some good advice.

Thanks dawgs................while I don't like about 5 or 6 dudes on here, I think most of you are really great people.

Thanks again.

Hey, Hey, Hey I am just a stupid redneck butthole and don't you forget it.

I got A rep to uphold.

Push yourself with the rehab bro, BUT don't over do it. It's a fine line. I always push myself to the max. You can ask Ytown he visited me in the Hospital during my rehab. The reason I am doing well is that God has blessed me, and I out worked most people in my position. BUT you also have to listen to your own body. If your body tells you to back off bro then BACK OFF. Don't be over macho and keep going. If your body says OK keep pushing then go for it.

I think you should teach yourself how to back off when it comes to exercise. Most people, especially as they get older, cannot handle 5-6 days a week of running. That's inevitably going to be a big workload and doing that kind of stuff is why so many runners end up beaten, broken, and injured. The body needs time to recover!

If there is anything you take from this it is that those who have your attitude (and mine) of pushing things hard are generally able to inflict a greater stress on the body via training than they are able to recover from. This is especially true if you're adding weight training or other intense exercise into the mix as well.

I'm not sure how your knee will feel after recovery. You may have to give up running altogether. If not, get on a good running program. Check out one of the running sites (Hal Higdon, Runner's world, etc.) and do one of the more modest programs. It'll probably end up being 3-4x week running with some other forms of cross training/exercise on a couple other days. Take care to wear quality running shoes, try to run on grass/dirt, avoid your downhill running on asphalt or anything else that puts unneeded stress on the joints.

There's really nothing magical about running; you can maintain a decent cardio base on a fairly modest amount of 'easier' work whether it be the bike or elliptical or whatever. Getting the heart rate up to 130-140 range for a while is really not that challenging. Add some basic weight training and possibly some flexibility or yoga stuff into the mix if you have to do more and you have most things covered.

As far as the surgery, recovery and all that, I don't really have much to add. Others have given some good information. Find a good surgeon and follow his advice.

I am not kidding.............you are truly freaking awesome! I don't think a lot of posters understand just how severe your cancer is. Stage freaking 4!!!!

But man, you are a man among boys. You are one of the toughest SOB's I have ever had the pleasure to know.

I love you, bro..............

AHHH Lots of folks have to live life with a bunch of crap. You and I are just two of them. You know just as well as I do we have two choices. Either cry about it, or do our best to kick it's ass. I know which choice you would make

I love you to bro. But your not getting a reach around

LOL..................we disagree on some FO thangs, but bro...........I just want people to freaking realize what a true man you are. No [censored], I felt dirty and guilty when people were being sympathetic towards my stupid knee.

Yo.............that ain't no knock on y'all that expressed sympathies. In fact, I think that makes you look like very nice people. I'm just saying that I don't deserve any sympathy. My son does. GM does. A couple of the dudes who PM do.

Man, I can tell this isn't sounding right. F.........! I don't know...I just wanted some advice. No sympathy. My bro GM deserves a ton of recognition. Dude is tough as nails.

Let me tell you. You deserve to listen to my advice. Push yourself. BUT don't be stupid. Listen to your body, no the DR's voice. I have no doubt you will be a lot better long before the DR's tell you that you will as long as God doesn't throw a monkey wrench in your recovery bro

Thanks bro.

Hang in there Vers. Maybe Arch will send you flowers if he gets over his penis envy.

Seems like we're all going through something nowadays with our bodies. Reminds me of that Fight Club quote, "Hey, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart.”

Get well soon.

I'm sure the overcompensating is truly the case. All the more reason to get this fixed right the first time.

And you don't owe anyone anything - we're a community, and communities work best when we help each other.

best of luck vers. I had a knee surgery back in college. hope rehab goes well

You have to face the facts. There come a point where you can't do what you once could.

There is that fine line. Exercise can break down your body if you don't go about it with balance.

I hurt my heel by walking 40 miles a week. It's been a year and a half and it is just now beginning to feel near 100%. Heels don't heal easily. Hopefully by March, the beginning of my serious walking season, I will be able to get back at it. I hope so. My inactivity and not doing a good job of adjusting my calorie intake has cost me 30 lbs.

What did you do to your heal?

I got a bone bruise on my calcaneus in early Oct. 3 to 3 1/2 weeks on crutches. Another.....I don't know, 4 weeks, maybe 5, of being able to walk without crutches, but still had pain.

For the last month or so the only times it ever bothers me is when I wear dress shoes and am on my feet for, an hour or so. And even then, it's not "pain", it's more just slight discomfort.