Waiting for Arthroscopy

mishkin

Hi all, recently had an MRI carried out and received the results today. I'm told I have cartilage tears (both knees) & I will need to undergo an Arthroscopy. It could be a few months before I get an appointment for this procedure and I'm just wondering how much I can do until then regarding exercise.

I should give a little bit of background:

The pain in my knees has been there for years (3/4 at least), but I was told 3 years ago after seeing a Dr & Physio & X-Ray that I had arthritis. Since then I have done a fair bit of cycling to try and build up the knees. Recently however the pain started getting worse so I decided to go for an MRI as i was informed that X-Rays are not reliable at diagnosing arthritis.

So today I was told there is no arthritis but cartilage damage.

My question now is (and I'm sorry, but I forgot to ask the Dr.) can I still cycle & swim up until the time of my operation??

Also, sorry not used to posting here & could well be in the wrong forum, but I'm thinking this would be a common problem for runners/athletes.

Any advice really appreciated.


Thanks.

sam30

absolutely the more the better but build up slowly. likely they are degenerative tears as u say you have had pain for few years . Do a bit of research lots of evidence emerging looking at longterm outcomes for surgery for degenerative meniscal tears which show no benefit over conservative management i.e exercise, strenghtening , physio etc

sam30

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1305189

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1301408

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22437659


check these papers out just for bit of info to help in making decision if u interested. Although sometimes more info makes things more complicated!

tang1

Speaking from experience and in no way offering you medical advice, surgery would be very very last resort if i were you. I had it done in the summer of '13 and it took me nigh on 8 months to get back running.

I was told after that surgery wasn't really necessary and i could have worked on strengthening the knee which would have improved things in a big way and had me back running in 4-6 weeks at most. I'd be asking if the surgery IS really needed before getting it and asking if there is an alternative to it.

mishkin

Thanks everyone,

I really appreciate the info..certainly food for thought..I had thought that surgery was the only option and while I'm still not ruling it out, I'm more than willing to explore other avenues.