Give me your torn meniscus stories

I’ve been a TrainerRoad user for 6 years now, first as a triathlete and now as a road and cyclocross racer. I’m 27 years old, female and work a pretty physical job. I tore my meniscus at work in November. I finally was able to have an ortho look at it today after several weeks of physical therapy then finally an MRI and X-rays. Surgery seems like the way to go… I’m only 27 and would like to have good knees as long as I can, so no issue there. But 4 weeks on crutches and then another month after that before he said he would even let me TOUCH a bike on a trainer. That hit home. I’d like to believe with my age and fitness level, plus being an endurance athlete for years, (cross country in high school and a couple marathons before I turned 18), and being fairly nutrition conscious…maybe there’s a chance my recovery won’t take as long. Two months away from the bike is longer than I’ve been away from riding in several years. Anyone else have any experience with this? Give me some hope!

I tore most of the meniscus in my right knee when I was 16. I had two surgeries for fixing it and both times I tried to rush recovery(as 16 year olds do) and it was an excruciatingly painful experience both times. I couldn’t even get any sympathy for it!

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I tore mine about 2yrs ago (aged 35) a medial tear with a cyst. my specialist considered surgery but ultimately advised against it as he said at my age it would be better to manage it but did put conditions on

He advised 12mths of no impact exercise (running jumping etc) ok to cycle but not the mountain bike as he was worried about me coming off.

I ignored him, went mountain biking a few mths later as I thought it had healed and reinjured it. This put me back a bit

Now, I’m building up on TR on the road bike, the occasional mtb and running around with my kids. Occasionally it tightens up but I am working on this with my osteo to improve my flexibility to reduce the loads of tight muscles pulling on it

So far this process is working for me but it has taken time. Recovery is important and you can’t rush it as the knee is such an important joint. I looked at it like this. I was sidelined for about 12mths, but only cause I went back too early and re injured it. If I had waited and not ridden I guess I would of been back 3-4mths earlier.

Hope this helps, and good luck for a speedy recovery which ever eay you go

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I tore my left ACL and ruined most of my meniscus which was mostly removed - this was back in 2012 when I was 40.
ACL repair went very well, no issues since then except when walking long distances carrying a heavy backpack when I get a small amount of inflammation but I do take MSM-Chondroitin-Glucosamine supplement most days which really helps.

Now waiting for an MRI (this Friday) after wrecking my right knee yesterday - feels very much like ACL is gone (knee buckles when trying to stand up) but meniscus is probably damaged too.
Pissed-off with the stupid crash which caused it as I’m training for the 2023 BCBR and was making good progress.
Anyway, will wait to see what the MRI tells me and go from there I guess!

That sounds quite extreme for meniscus repair unless they are doing more than meniscus repair, such as microfracture. My wife has had both of her knees operated on for meniscus issues. For the one where she required microfracture, she was NWB (non weight bearing) for 3-4 weeks afterwards. For the other knee, which was more straightforward, she was able to start spinning again within a week or two. Other friends, who are avid cyclists and also had the meniscus surgery, were back to cycling with two weeks. Of course, your surgeon knows your anatomy/situation the best, so this is a conversation between you and him/her (not us internet experts) but some docs are a lot more conservative with their postop restrictions. Its amazing how much variation there is in restrictions after ortho surgery

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You are only 27. Eight weeks off now is nothing if it means you can keep cycling well into later life. I’m sure you’d feel worse if you tried to rush your return against medical advice and did more significant damage. Definitely worth playing the long game on this one I reckon.

Def get a second opinion.
Unless something else is going on, most docs would want you to do light rotation on a trainer in 2-3 days, maybe a week if the are super conservative about sutures/staples etc.
Your PT regimen sounds like from the 70’s.
I’ve had 3 (one w/ACL doesn’t count). 2 before 29.
On those I was at full activities in under 4 weeks
My last was at 48 and recovery was much longer. 3 months to all activities and 6 until I felt 100%.
But, I was walking on it the next day.
Age can be a factor as well as the specifics of injury and surgery.
Yours seems like an outlier, but even in the grand scheme of things; 8 weeks goes by fast

I tore my lateral meniscus at work when I was 35. Thankfully worker’s compensation covered it all and got me in super quick. If I’d had to wait for the public healthcare system (Canada) it would have taken a bit longer. It was a ‘bucket handle’ tear. Doc said I could go either way, wait it out or have surgery. I went with surgery. It was arthroscopic, in and out in a few hours. I was walking the next day, riding within about 6-8 weeks, and could run 5k within a year with no pain. Eight years later, I have more pain in my other knee.

My experiance was/is very similar to @Curtisd4 - my bucket tear was scraped away 7 years ago (80% removal) and I got to the point that I completely forgot that I had it done :slight_smile:

I took up running 6 months ago and I had a slight twinge of pain during a half marathon last week and was like “oh yeah - the doctor said maybe stick to cycliing didnt he?”

57 year old quite heavy male. Just had a repair to both the medial and lateral meniscii - they were trimmed lateral had a degenerative tear at the edge but the medial was the worst.

When i tore the medial I left it to calm down by itself and set it off again a few months later so had two 4 week periods of doing nothing - pretty much unable to walk Managed to get it MRI’d then it was on to surgery.

Was walking with crutches immediately after and using them for the best part of a week. I had rehab exercises which have been good but I’m still struggling a bit to be honest and have seen the physio for a follow up. I need to build up far more muscle around the joint for stability which makes sense really as it had been around a year from tearing it to getting it sorted and Im old. I also have some arthritus in there which hopefully you shouldn’t.

Every case is different and you will be different. All I can say is if you do have surgery make sure you follow the rehab, do as much as you can, if you push it you’ll know because your knee will tell you.

The leaflet I got from the physio-terrorist only advised cycling/spinning after three weeks which I managed but found tough though others have said two or three days but then i had probably more done inside my knee (cleaned out) and I’m old so don’t recover as quickly as you “young uns”. This is also uk based so more of a production line of surgeries at times.

If you go for surgery line up a good series on netflix or prime to watch, get some books in and opt out of Strava for a while. Thats all good for mental health and work at the rehab one day at a time. Best of luck :+1:

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Tore posterior meniscus when in my early 30s in mid 90s, keyhole surgery to trim it, massively swollen and extremely painful for a few days but back on the bike in less than 10 days (might even have been a week). Since then zero issues.

So would I agree with the comment to get a second opinion

You are 27 with good blood flow to the area. Unlike older athletes where they have to absolutely cut it back, they might be able to actually do more repair work where your blood flow will help it better.

Regardless, meniscus tears are the simplest of the ortho problems out there. You will be back lightly spinning in a couple weeks. This is a minor speed bump in your adult athletic lifestyle. My medial meniscus tear occurred in my 40s and I was back in good form pretty quick. Good luck with your tear. and stay positive!

Exactly this. You only have so much meniscus…no reason to risk your remaining meniscus trying to rush your rehab.

This post is from Jan of 2019, the OP isn’t 27 anymore and probably beyond surgery recovery. Someone just bumped a dead thread.

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This indeed an old thread.

Also, people here are throwing around “repair” when their words clearly sees or a minisectomy. “Scraping”, “cleaning out” are all arthroscopic but just clean the offending tissue. Most of these surgeries are quick and ppl are back on their feet in a few days and regular activities in a few weeks.

A meniscus repair sews up torn tissue and can only be performed in specific cases. Location of the tear, age, etc… a repair often requires non weight bearing for about a month and then range of motion limits which would prevent someone from riding a bike.

So even though this is an old thread people are throwing around terms and anecdotes of completely different scenarios and surgical procedures.

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Wow. I forgot about this post completely, actually. I’m 31 now and can say that it indeed was a repair and not a simple minisectomy. I should also mention my ortho is a fellow cyclist who I rode with frequently on group rides. With that said, I figured I would go back through my history and give an update to whoever might be interested later. At the time, knowing that surgery was scheduled for three weeks from the original post, I opted to do a round of VO2 work with the thought that it would be the first aspect of my fitness I would lose over the recovery time. After the three weeks of VO2 work I did an FTP test the day before my surgery. I tested at 210 which put me around 3.2 watts/kg. I followed my PT regimen to the letter post surgery and my physical therapist at the time was great. She is an avid mountain biker and understood my desperation to get back on the bike. I was off the bike for 6 weeks. Once allowed to ride I did a few easy endurance spins before given the okay to ride as desired…as long as I stayed on my trainer. Their fear was potentially causing damage if I were to fall or unclip quickly in an awkward manner. 7 weeks post surgery I performed an FTP test. FTP was down to 180. My weight was also down significantly. During recovery I had been very strict with my diet to prevent any weight gain. I was born into a good Italian family and have no problem eating my feelings, so I stuck to a food journal and ate as healthy as possible to aid recovery and keep the pounds off. Due to the weight lose my FTP was 2.8watts/kg…not horrible but certainly not where I wanted to be coming into Spring. I did another two week stretch sweet spot work to ease my knee into riding again and try to gain back the muscle I had lost. Another FTP test after two weeks put me at 192 or 3.0watts/kg. After that FTP test and with my knee feeling strong enough I did another 4 week block of primarily VO2 work with endurance spins sprinkled in. After this block I did another test and was up to 207…6 weeks of being back on the bike and I was nearly to my pre-surgery FTP. I did my first Spring race the following weekend and got back to group rides afterwards. At the end of May I was in the middle of a group ride and stood up to power up a hill. When I pulled up on the pedal I pulled out of the clip. That afternoon I felt a twinge in my knee and it swelled significantly. I saw my ortho who said it was common…I believe he said that I had pulled an anchor out. I’m not sure exactly what that meant, I’m no doctor but his lack of concern and his blessing to take a long trip to Vermont to mountain bike was enough to calm my nerves about it. After not seeing any improvement in the swelling after a couple of weeks he ended up giving me a cortisone shot and I have had zero issues since. 10 weeks after being cleared to ride I performed another FTP test and came in at 214 which put me at 3.39watts/kg. That summer I did 7 road races and followed it up with another 10 'cross races. Looking back it was all less horrible than I had believed it would be, which is understandable to any athlete that has overcome an injury or illness. I think we all have a bit of panic when it seems like all our hard work is about to be washed away. Hopefully, someone else can read this who has a similar situation facing them. I still ride plenty and completed 7 road races and 22 cross races last season. No knee issues to report.

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Both torn within 2 weeks of each other back in 2015. Use to run a lot and play highly competitive squash.l and football. No way was I letting anyone into my knees with a knife! Anyway resorted to cycling as every time I tried running I’d get swollen knees. Kept a good base fitness with TR and a couple of years ago after watching other half running for years eventually managed to learn to run again using Vibram fiver fingers. Taught me to use my feet as first suspension part, it takes all pressure/impact off knees and now happily trail running again, currently 52 years old and doing 60km a week running along with two threshold/SS TR sessions. I still have a abductor tear from footballing days, again now way I’m letting anyone mess in there with a knife, I handle that with given core exercises. Strong believer in strengthening areas (and losing weight) to help other areas, it’s served me well… One day I know I might require surgery for something but it will be a last last resort, they’ll have to wheel me in for that.

Tore mine in 2020 and fought through pain for 2 years until I had a large meniscal cyst develop. Raced and rode a ton during this time. Surgery to remove partial lateral meniscus and cyst in March 2022. Back to riding 6 weeks later. 95% recover today and training for leadville currently.
For what it’s worth, PRP seemed to be beneficial for me, but also acknowledging the lack of studies on effectiveness. Was 27 when I tore it. 30 now.

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