When does swelling go down after knee arthroscopy? I'm now almost 24hrs post-op.

Depends on how much digging around they did, age, rehab, etc. I could walk right after surgery in November. Huge mistake. Two days later I was swollen, in terrible pain and bleeding from one of the suture sites. Now, 8 weeks later, I am finally able to run/walk for 30 minutes. But I can tell there is still some swelling internally. But hey, I'm 59 and happy to still have two knees.

Had my knee scoped to clean up a menescus tear right after Thanksgiving holiday. I walked out on my own and the swelling was there for about 2 weeks. I only took ibuprofen and icing. I could put on my straight leg jeans after 5 days. Started running during Christmas break. Some slight swelling through earlier part of this month. I'm in my 50's. Good luck and be patient.

5x arthroscope here.

Takes at least a week, sometimes two. Best thing is to get walking on it ASAP and start stretching within two weeks.

The fluids will eventually congeal into a viscous goop so stretching is very important to gaining your mobility back.

Good luck.

I had surgery about 12 weeks ago, felt great the next day rode the bike while my ran 2 days after surgery. Tried running 3 weeks after surgery which was a mistake.

I think your age could play a big part in the healing process, I am in my late forties and don't heal nearly as quickly as 20 years ago.

Take it easy and follow your doctor's instructions. Now 12 weeks later I am finally able to run and am presently running about 30 to 35 minutes per day.

Malmo, do u still run today? Why or why not? What kinds of stretching prevent the "goop?"

Also to all others. What was your knee scope for

Do I run. After 5 knee surgeries. My knees look like swiss cheese. What do you think?

You aren't preventing goop, you are reducing the accumulation of it by stretching. The main thing you work on after knee surgery is to get full extension at the end of your normal walking gait. Full extension isn't 180º, it's actully more -- about 190º

malmo wrote:

Do I run. After 5 knee surgeries. My knees look like swiss cheese. What do you think?

You aren't preventing goop, you are reducing the accumulation of it by stretching. The main thing you work on after knee surgery is to get full extension at the end of your normal walking gait. Full extension isn't 180º, it's actully more -- about 190º

Dont Some people get knee surgeries for reasons that aren't Wear and tear degenerative?

Or does it hold that once you've had 3-4 knee surgeries (whatever the reason) that you can't run anymore?

I've had 5 meniscus tears. Your meniscus is your gasket -- your padding.

http://tinyurl.com/meniscustears

I've had three menisucs surgeries and still run fine. Depending on the surgery I've run as soon as two weeks after and as long as 3 months.

The swelling will improve greatly over the first two weeks if you ice and baby the knee. There will be some degree of swelling/stiffness for a couple months though, especially as you start to ease back into activity, this is normal, just ice it as it happens.

In my experience it will take 6 months or more for the knee to really feel back to normal.

Had radial tear cut out in September. Was putting weight on it that evening (instructions were to put weight on it as tolerable). Surgeon wanted me doing range of motion stretching the next day. First PT appt. was at day 3 post surgery, then twice a week for a month and two more appointments to check progress. I think the PT and ROM exercises were key to getting back.

Started running progression at 3 weeks increasing both distance (200 meters to 3/4 mile) and intensity and had discomfort, but no real pain once I got up to around a mile. Backed off a bit and was patient, and right now, I feel that I am just getting back to a normal feeling in the knee. I'm in my early 40s.

Why does it take up to 6months for knee to feel normal again ? That seems like a long time

I had knee surgery on Jan. 23 so I'm 10 days post-op. I used crutches for two days and was then able to walk on my own.

I had no pain after the surgery but I did and still do have a lot of swelling. I get my stitches out tomorrow and hopefully can begin physical therapy next week.

My knee doesn't hurt at all while walking but it does feel stiff while climbing stair. I can't bend it past 90 degrees, though I think this is mainly due to the swelling.

Shouldn't you be asking your doctor?

I had my knee scoped to remove a plica years ago. I think I remember it being swollen for a couple weeks and they also had to drain it. It was weird. The doctor stuck a needle in my knee and pulled out a bunch of liquid. As they drained it shrunk like a deflated balloon. It felt sooo much better after getting that crap out!

Jersey Girl wrote:

I had knee surgery on Jan. 23 so I'm 10 days post-op. I used crutches for two days and was then able to walk on my own.

I had no pain after the surgery but I did and still do have a lot of swelling. I get my stitches out tomorrow and hopefully can begin physical therapy next week.

My knee doesn't hurt at all while walking but it does feel stiff while climbing stair. I can't bend it past 90 degrees, though I think this is mainly due to the swelling.

I had mine on Jan 24th to remove a cyst pressing on ACL. I was able to ditch crutches in 3-4 days and am walking around now but my walking gait doesn't feel entirely normal yet (some soreness/light pain lifting up the operated knee after i walk on it). There's still swelling but I've started PT 3x/wk now and they are moving my patella manually to make sure it moves well in the groove in addition to all the exercises they've given. I've gotten up to 20mins on bike very low resistance and seat high. I could do more but haven't been given permission yet and I want to make sure i do all the rehab correctly. I was measured at like 130 degrees flexion now on operated knee but in reality it doesn't feel good to bend much past 90 when I'm like standing up and walking around. So I of course cannot do a quad stretch (heel to glute) without pain. I'm just wondering - how long does it take for the operated knee to feel pretty much the same as the non-operated knee? (and knowing whether the surgery helped a lot or not)?

The weirdest thing was getting home from the surgery and trying to bend it a bit and Not only being very stiff but hearing fluid moving around (Loud sounds like gushy suction cups of fluid ). That noise pretty much went away after 48hrs though.

I had meniscus surgery in Japan in 1990. They had a different protocol to the west - four days in bed, with supervised rehab. The doc said t hat outpatients can do themselves more harm walking around in the first few hours than he did in surgery.

REST and do the exercises they give you, for a cople of weeks. Don't prolong your recovery through "aggressive testing"....

eurodonkey wrote:

I had meniscus surgery in Japan in 1990. They had a different protocol to the west - four days in bed, with supervised rehab. The doc said t hat outpatients can do themselves more harm walking around in the first few hours than he did in surgery.

REST and do the exercises they give you, for a cople of weeks. Don't prolong your recovery through "aggressive testing"....

What do you mean by "more harm walking around"

When a doc says its going to be 5-6 wk recovery, is that realistic for distance runners logging moderate to high miles? Or is that more a general guideline for people to return to sports like football or baseball, etc?

Swelling down but still stiff. Feels like ROM is 80-90 when I first wake up and 130degrees later on.'still stiff 1.5weeks out