Since last August I've been dealing with a constant irritation on the outside of my left knee, painful but manageable. Figured I could work it out, keep riding, and it would go away eventually. Never did. Went to the doc on Monday, I've got a lateral and medial meniscus tear. I've got two options - 1. get surgery now and blow my whole summer or 2. ride easy this summer and try avoid further injury - have surgery next winter. My doctor said you can keep riding with a tear as long as you don't aggravate it - i.e. ride hard...
if i can make it worse, how much worse? what am i facing now and what would i be facing if i injured it worse? what caused the initial injury? what would cause further injury; normal movement, exertion or trauma? what is the recovery time for your current injury and the prognosis post op vs possible advancement of the condition.
does this doc know what "riding hard" entails? if i were you i would have a bunch of questions before i make a decision like this and i dont see what good our opinion is without that information.
tojnom....I can't really advise you as to surgery now or later (since I ski and bike, either are a hard pill to swallow). however I can give you insight into my thinking lately.....bite the bullet sooner than later....working an injured body part will only make things worse and you can't predict how much worse it may get....especially when the friends call and want you to come along on an epic ride....sometimes it's too hard to resist.
I also have a question for you....can you describe the irritation you were getting? Where exactly on the knee did it hurt? Did it hurt all the time, or only when doing specific things? Was the pain sharp, throbing, sore, etc?
I'm going through what has been diagnosed as IT band issues....but have not had a MRI and am suspecting that something else may be at work....wondering if your symptomatic signs are similar to what I have been experiencing.
Well so far so good, I have been riding 3 or 4 times a week and I've had minimal irritation (about 8 hrs week). I honestly don't think the tears were the culprit of my injury, my hamstring (medial hamstring - behind knee) was really the issue. I took about 6 weeks off and the back of my knee feels about 90-95% recovered. What's worked for me - stretching daily, higher cadence, warm up and cool down 5-10 mins.
I probably won't compete this year, but at least I'm riding again. Maybe in the off season I will get it done. Both tears will need to be scoped with roughly 2 months recovery. Even with the surgery, there's no guarantee that it will ever function like it did a year ago. It's really a bit of a gamble, and ultimately I'm not willing to take that risk yet. Thanks for asking...
Well so far so good, I have been riding 3 or 4 times a week and I've had minimal irritation (about 8 hrs week). I honestly don't think the tears were the culprit of my injury, my hamstring (medial hamstring - behind knee) was really the issue. I took about 6 weeks off and the back of my knee feels about 90-95% recovered. What's worked for me - stretching daily, higher cadence, warm up and cool down 5-10 mins.
I probably won't compete this year, but at least I'm riding again. Maybe in the off season I will get it done. Both tears will need to be scoped with roughly 2 months recovery. Even with the surgery, there's no guarantee that it will ever function like it did a year ago. It's really a bit of a gamble, and ultimately I'm not willing to take that risk yet. Thanks for asking...
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