Anyone here recover from a lateral meniscus tear?

I'm interested to know others experiences as well. I have had one since early December. I couldn't really run at all for6 weeks. Starting in mid January I've been able to very slowly increase. Started making real progress over the past 2 weeks finally and now am running up to 6-7 miles. Pushing too much causes swelling and I definitely can't do anything dynamic. Still can't walk down stairs comfortably and kicking a soccer ball with my 7yo is very uncomfortable.

I have a friend who got his trimmed with an arthroscopic procedure. He was back to running in 2 weeks and fully recovered. He's had no problems now for years. I've asked my sports med guy and he suggests PT for now. Apparently there is a long term risk of osteoarthritis when they trim it down. But it is very frustrating to be making such slow progress and know that I could have had a simple procedure with a quick recovery.

Are you doing PT for it?

It needs to be rehabbed

Pool running is really good for recovery in my experience.

It's been 9 days since my injury - a grade 2 lateral meniscus tear. On day 2, I had pain with trying to extend my knee. This went away on day 3. I also had pain with attempting to squat down, and this also has subsided. I tried running on the first few days following injury and the sharp pain along the lateral knee joint line was too much to bear. Since then, I have decided to stop running altogether for at least a few weeks, in the hopes that mine might be one of the rare peripheral injuries that heal themselves. I am able to erg row, so that will have to suffice for now.

Has anyone else in the 25-35 age group (with otherwise healthy knees) had success for traumatic meniscus tear (distinct twisting event) without surgery?

I don't fit the age bracket but when I was 16 I had the same type of tear from playing basketball. It didn't require surgery but it definitely took some time for it to get better.

I was in a splint for a week, then slowly made progress and could bike after about 2 and a half weeks I was allowed to go on the bike with no resistance. After a week of that I was able to add light resistance. Then a week after that I was able to build and do very light workout on the bike with high cadence but very low resistance. I was then cleared to do some light running and more strenuous workouts on the bike. Then after 2 weeks of that I was back to doing workouts and I could feel it a bit at the start but it was more stiffness than the pain.

I was very cautious coming back because I didn't want to risk having a setback, but all in all it was about 6 weeks before I ran for the first time and 7-8 weeks before I was really doing any serious training again. If I had some advice it would just be to take it slow and just focus on making sure it is fully healed before trying to push it too much, and get some treatment.

Thank you so much for your response and detailed experience. It is precisely the type of experience I was hoping to hear about (I only put age range to ensure that people would talk about acute traumatic rather than degenerative tears more common with older ages). I am very encouraged to hear about the timeline of your recovery.

I have a couple of questions for you, if possible:

1. Where was your tear, and how was it diagnosed?

2. What kind of pain did you have initially, and when did it go away?

3. Were you able to sprint after those 8 weeks?

Sorry if it's a lot; I genuinely want to avoid surgery, as it seems most people end up getting osteoarthritis-inducing cartilage trimming; and the orthopedic literature for younger, traumatic tear patients is rather skewed towards surgery without any genuine trials at conservative therapy.

I can't quite remember the exact spot of the pain but it was on the outside of the knee just on the outside of the patella tendon but kind of further back. They misdiagnosed me the first two times I went to go get it checked out with a LCL and MCL strain and then they did this one test where they were moving it around and it was making a popping noise. I didn't ever end up getting an MRI because they were pretty certain on the diagnosis and based off the progress that I had made in the week between the first appointment and the last one they had already ruled surgery out.

The pain initially came from whenever I put weight on it or straightened my knee and it would just give out if I tried to put any weight on it, and then eventually the pain kind of went away with weight and the swelling went down and then it was just a problem with weakness, so I got a bunch of exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee so that it put less of a strain on it when I went back. You need to make sure that you don't lose much quad muscle mass in that leg because that will lead to other knee problems so I was told so I tried to keep the strength up.

After 8 weeks I was able to do some longer sprints like 200s at 800 pace and then after 9 weeks I was doing full speed stuff again.

I am far from an expert though this was just my experience so I would suggest going to physiotherapy if you can to make sure that you are not jumping in too soon and putting yourself at risk.

Thank you so much for the detailed response. I am saddened to not be able to run for a while but your reply does give me hope for improvement, given appropriate rest and rehabilitation.

I was 18 years old when I had this issue.

In that winter I ran with heavy military boots through tough terrain. For about 2 weeks.

Then I began to do some speed work, but after two weeks my right lateral meniscus started to bother me.

There was a sharp pain when bending the knee.

The doctor told me to get ready for surgery, but I refused.

Instead, I tried a last resort: each night I bandaged the knee in a plastic bag with onion.

After two weeks the pain went away and I didn't even had to quit my training. But I stopped doing speed work.

Not sure if the onion was a great cure, or if the affection was not serious.

ha, i'm not sure if you're kidding about the onion, but if your story is real, I am quite comforted by it. Any speedwork since then?

bump

randompasserby wrote:

ha, i'm not sure if you're kidding about the onion, but if your story is real, I am quite comforted by it. Any speedwork since then?

I'm not kidding at all. I hated the idea, but the alternative was surgery...

After a few weeks of long slow runs I began to do speed work gradually.

My mother had plantar fasciitis and she tried this method with some success.

After a week of wrapping her foot like that, the pain faded away, but when she quit the treatment the pain came back.

"Garlic and onions are very rich in sulfur. Sulfur is a mineral that has anti-inflammatory properties that can help prevent cartilage damage and joint pain. Garlic and onions are an easy way to help increase bone cartilage because they are versatile and can be added to a great number of meals and dishes."

In the end, medicine uses same source for drugs: nature.

Yes, I've had both lateral and medial and the medial is much much worse. Follow the directions of your PT

George Ilie wrote:

I was 18 years old when I had this issue.

In that winter I ran with heavy military boots through tough terrain. For about 2 weeks.

Then I began to do some speed work, but after two weeks my right lateral meniscus started to bother me.

There was a sharp pain when bending the knee.

The doctor told me to get ready for surgery, but I refused.

Instead, I tried a last resort: each night I bandaged the knee in a plastic bag with onion.

After two weeks the pain went away and I didn't even had to quit my training. But I stopped doing speed work.

Not sure if the onion was a great cure, or if the affection was not serious.

That is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on here... and that's saying a lot.

That's quite an interesting experience, George, and I'm reading up more about this home remedy now - I had no idea people did this.

Post-injury day 11:

I no longer have any pain along the lateral knee joint line, including walking down the stairs and extending the knee fully. I am thankful for that but will not return to running any time soon. With PT, I will begin light indoor biking (which I've never done before) and some quad strengthening exercises, provided there is no pain with those movements. I will continue to update this thread once in a while so that others with meniscus issues can get an idea of non-operative treatment, as this is an injury for which the orthopedic literature shows genuine pro-surgical bias with minimal trials for conservative therapy (specifically for acute traumatic tears in young, otherwise healthy, knees). More about me: My running background is as a sprinter, although I dabbled at 5k a few times in my spare time (nothing better than 18:45 or so); so I am by all LRC accounts a hobby-jogger.

There a few things that should be avoided (at least what I learned).

Exercises which stiffens the muscles, such as excessive sprinting or strength.

Also, crossing the legs (when sitting) puts some pressure on joints unevenly.

Post-injury day 29:

I have no pain at any point and have been able to resume running. Initially, I had discomfort running at slow paces, such as 10 min per mile, so I ran as easily as possible (eg 12:30/mile pace). to avoid discomfort. With time, and rest, I am able to run now with no discomfort at any pace. I have not done any sprints or speedwork yet - and will save that for 8 weeks out - but I have gone 5:30 pace without issue. Thus far, I have kept my mileage low and performed accessory exercises to strengthen the quads and hamstrings for rehabilitation purposes. I'll check back in when I perform speedwork and sprints. I hope this is helpful to anybody with a similar lateral meniscus tear.