No meniscus in my knee

harryhotspur

Anyone out there have their meniscus removed and got back running?
How is it going for you and how long did your recovery take?
I had mine removed 3 weeks ago, my knee is still sore, but really want to run the Dublin city marathon in 6 weeks time. Any help would be greatly received.

Ceepo

harryhotspur wrote: »

Anyone out there have their meniscus removed and got back running?
How is it going for you and how long did your recovery take?
I had mine removed 3 weeks ago, my knee is still sore, but really want to run the Dublin city marathon in 6 weeks time. Any help would be bour greatly received.[/quote

What did your surgeon say about going back running ?

harryhotspur

Ceepo wrote: »

harryhotspur wrote: »

Anyone out there have their meniscus removed and got back running?
How is it going for you and how long did your recovery take?
I had mine removed 3 weeks ago, my knee is still sore, but really want to run the Dublin city marathon in 6 weeks time. Any help would be bour greatly received.[/quote

What did your surgeon say about going back running ?

I'm back with the surgeon Thursday, but he has already told be if I continue I'll need an knee replacement sooner rather than later.
But I keep hearing of people that went against the advice and are running fine post meniscus removal.

Ceepo

harryhotspur wrote: »

Ceepo wrote: »

I'm back with the surgeon Thursday, but he has already told be if I continue I'll need an knee replacement sooner rather than later.
But I keep hearing of people that went against the advice and are running fine post meniscus removal.

Be very careful when "Listening " to people who have had meniscus operations done, as their operation may well have been a lot different than yours,
you may have had a lot more damage done or far more repair work done that them.
Personally I think it would be madness to run a marathon so soon after having knee surgery done, no matter how much of your meniscus is left. It will not have had enough time for any proper repair after surgery.
This is not even taking into account kind of compensation problems that may arise for the comprised running form that you will have.

Is the Marathon that important.?

endacl

harryhotspur wrote: »

Ceepo wrote: »

I'm back with the surgeon Thursday, but he has already told be if I continue I'll need an knee replacement sooner rather than later.
But I keep hearing of people that went against the advice and are running fine post meniscus removal.

Sounds like you'll need one either way. Question is, do you want to run between now and then?

ger664

As a pacer you have a responsibility to your pacees. Pull out running a marathon post knee surgery is not ideal prep for a marathon for either you or your intended pacess on the day.

chrislad

I don't get this. Genuinely. A qualified professional, with many years of training and experience, has told you that if you keep it up, you will need a knee replacement. Anecdotal stories from "other people" are nonsense compared to what this guy says.

harryhotspur

harryhotspur wrote: »

I had mine removed 3 weeks ago, my knee is still sore, but really want to run the Dublin city marathon in 6 weeks time. Any help would be greatly received.

Sounds like madness to me.

Tore my meniscus 2 or 3 years back. No surgery needed, thankfully, it just settled down and there was no flap to cut away. Surgery would have been a last resort anyway as have heard that they cannot predict how the knee might react post surgery. But think you're not even giving yourself a chance by rushing back to do a marathon.

joesoap5

chrislad wrote: »

I don't get this. Genuinely. A qualified professional, with many years of training and experience, has told you that if you keep it up, you will need a knee replacement. Anecdotal stories from "other people" are nonsense compared to what this guy says.

You don't want to get a knee replacement if you can help it, its one of the trickiest operations because the knee is so complex and the success rate is not that high.

intheclouds

joesoap5 wrote: »

You don't want to get a knee replacement if you can help it, its one of the trickiest operations because the knee is so complex and the success rate is not that high.

Eh, success rates are over 90%. No need to scaremonger.

OP I'm a veteran of many knee surgeries, one of them removing 50% of my medial meniscus. You don't say what percentage you lost or of it was lateral or medial?

Regardless, running a marathon in the weeks following a knee surgery is madness.

I WILL need a knee replacement, through no action of my own. However to put it off as long as I can I run on a treadmill, I take regular walking minutes during the run to protect myself injury, I wear a support when I run to keep the joint warm and supported and most of all, I let my body recover naturally post surgery and would consider returning to normal activities lightly at the 3-4 month mark, building to full pre op activity after about 8-10 months.

Listen to your surgeon, they always err on the side of conservative, and I often do things that would make mine wince but a marathons on soon after surgery! No way!

joesoap5

intheclouds wrote: »

Eh, success rates are over 90%. No need to scaremonger.

OP I'm a veteran of many knee surgeries, one of them removing 50% of my medial meniscus. You don't say what percentage you lost or of it was lateral or medial?

Regardless, running a marathon in the weeks following a knee surgery is madness.

I WILL need a knee replacement, through no action of my own. However to put it off as long as I can I run on a treadmill, I take regular walking minutes during the run to protect myself injury, I wear a support when I run to keep the joint warm and supported and most of all, I let my body recover naturally post surgery and would consider returning to normal activities lightly at the 3-4 month mark, building to full pre op activity after about 8-10 months.

Listen to your surgeon, they always err on the side of conservative, and I often do things that would make mine wince but a marathons on soon after surgery! No way!

Sorry I wasn't scare mongering, not on purpose anyway.

I'm sure there's surgeons out there who have closer to 95% success rate (the likes of Kevin Morans brother) and others with a lower success rate.
It probably depends on your age and condition as well.

When I think about it I would probably be referring to older people having the lower success rate.

Hopefully I'll never have to through it

We can agree that its a bad idea to run a marathon post surgery.

intheclouds

joesoap5 wrote: »

Sorry I wasn't scare mongering, not on purpose anyway.

I'm sure there's surgeons out there who have closer to 95% success rate (the likes of Kevin Morans brother) and others with a lower success rate.
It probably depends on your age and condition as well.

When I think about it I would probably be referring to older people having the lower success rate.

Hopefully I'll never have to through it

We can agree that its a bad idea to run a marathon post surgery.

It depends what you consider to be success as well. Your idea of failure could be another's idea of success!

Although reported stats (Google) are 90% success rate for tkr, apparently 95% of patients report being happy with the surgery, so even if there are issues afterwards, often it's better than what went before.

Ray Moran has high success rates because he cherry picks patients who will make a good recovery, athletes etc.. It's easy to look good if you avoid chronic patients. He also discharges patients quickly and good luck trying to get a follow up, too busy too busy.....

For the OP the key is putting OFF the knee replacement as long as possible, because despite high success rates, the prosthetics only last 15-20 years, so if you have it done very young, you end up needing a second. These definitely don't work out so well with the bone loss. Worse, they too have limited longevity and then there are no more choices. I've seen elderly ladies in wheelchairs due to loose prosthetic knees and their bones are too brittle for any repair work, so they have lost all mobility.

Tldr, try to hold off knee replacements until your 60s at least, by doing what your surgeon tells you!

joesoap5

intheclouds wrote: »

It depends what you consider to be success as well. Your idea of failure could be another's idea of success!

Although reported stats (Google) are 90% success rate for tkr, apparently 95% of patients report being happy with the surgery, so even if there are issues afterwards, often it's better than what went before.

Ray Moran has high success rates because he cherry picks patients who will make a good recovery, athletes etc.. It's easy to look good if you avoid chronic patients. He also discharges patients quickly and good luck trying to get a follow up, too busy too busy.....

For the OP the key is putting OFF the knee replacement as long as possible, because despite high success rates, the prosthetics only last 15-20 years, so if you have it done very young, you end up needing a second. These definitely don't work out so well with the bone loss. Worse, they too have limited longevity and then there are no more choices. I've seen elderly ladies in wheelchairs due to loose prosthetic knees and their bones are too brittle for any repair work, so they have lost all mobility.

Tldr, try to hold off knee replacements until your 60s at least, by doing what your surgeon tells you!

Any information I have listened to has been from relations or friends who have had the surgery, are waiting on it or need it. I wouldn't base any findings on 'google'.

Ray Moran must be doing something right. He has people all over the world flying in to get surgery and he doesn't just deal with athletes.

The one thing I would say is that money talks alright with msot of them. If you have the money then they have the time so when you say they send you on your way then you may be talking about patients who don't have the money to keep paying for follow up consultations etc.


When you say that about the chronic cases, you could say the same about any surgeon. They all prefer someone skinny with money who will be a success story. They know it will be dodgy if they have a poor history, are carrying a lot of weight or won't look after themselves post surgery.

RacoonQueen

This thread went beyond looking for medical advice from the first post. Sorry, no go. Talk to your surgeon - they and only they can advise you on this.

Locking thread.