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3 Replies Last post: Sep 5, 2007 1:18 PM by sma777  
Click to view chavez333's profile Rookie
chavez333
6 posts since
Sep 1, 2007
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Sep 1, 2007 3:17 PM

ACL meniscus injury

I recently injured my knee, and when the MRI came back, the results were devestatingly worse than I expected. Not only is my ACL torn, the right side of my meniscus is torn and fliped over inside my knee. I've been to nemorous doctors, But all of them say the same thing. That after surgery, I would be foolish to ever Run on my knee again, since the main cartlige in my knee is so badly damaged at such a young age of 16. They all said they might not even be able to save that side of the meniscus. The thing is, I've been on varsity for track and soccer since I was a freshman in high school, and I've had so much going for me as far as scoholerships for good colleges, and now I dont know what to do. I have surgery next week and i have no idea what to expect. Has anyone made a good recovery from an injury this severe? Is there any way to try to stay in shape while I'm recovering? Is there any hope at all that I'll ever get to compeat competitivly again? please help.
Click to view jansd's profile Legend
jansd
418 posts since
Jun 8, 2003
1. Sep 1, 2007 8:28 PM in response to: chavez333
Re: ACL meniscus injury
I have run and played soccer for many, many years (I'm 51 now). I know a lot of people from my teams who have had acl-meniscus
injuries like yours and have made a full recovery. It's hard work after surgery. Make sure you have a supportive team, especially a physical therapist who has experience working with young athletes. Recovering from the injury and surgery is hard work and takes a long time, I have a friend who finally got the go-ahead from her doctor to play soccer without her brace (she wore a kind of bionic knee thing for months after surgery). She ended up breaking both her wrists within a few weeks, because she was putting out her hands to protect herself from falling when she got tackled hard... but her knee was fine! I have another friend from soccer who ran a marathon PR 13 months after her surgery.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is for you to find a good physical therapist. Maybe your coaches can give you some recommendations. Good luck!
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Click to view first timer2005's profile Amateur
first timer2005
15 posts since
May 21, 2005
2. Sep 3, 2007 5:20 PM in response to: chavez333
Re: ACL meniscus injury
You know chavez333, the doctors told me the same thing....forget running. Bah humbug to them. As far as I was concerned, if I could regain the strength back in my thighs, then I was going to try running. I started with cycling for a few months and then gradually started a training program and finished my first HM in May/07...with no problems during the the run. One thing that did seem to be a problem for a bit was fluid in the knee joint. It's important to deal with that and to take anti-imflammatory medication. I too had a torn ACL and torn meniscus. But I'm of the opinion.....use it or lose it. So I'm using mine and things are good. I originally had my ACL surgery 2 years ago.

Best of luck.

Darlene
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Click to view sma777's profile Rookie
sma777
7 posts since
Jun 11, 2007
3. Sep 5, 2007 1:18 PM in response to: chavez333
Re: ACL meniscus injury
Chavez333,

I'm a 40 year old who had my ACL reconstructed in March and my meniscus sutured at the same time. I'm running now, albeit only up to 2.5 miles 3-4x a week but you'd be surprised how quickly you recover once you get your quads firing again. I'm also back to soccer, just taking it a bit easy on the cutbacks. I'd suggest finding an ortho doc who specializes in sports injuries specifically ACL's. If you have a local college, pro, or semi-pro sports program around your area you can usually find a doc that fixes those athletes and start there.
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