Menisectomy recovery

[KevinJo]

Fellow spyer's

I am currently 5 days post-op from a partial medial menisectomy for my left leg (lead leg) meniscus and cleaning up the arthritis that caused the dang meniscus tear.  Orthopedic surgeon said should be good for rounds of golf around week 7-8 since it was not a repair. My question for the forum is has anyone else had this type surgery and if so did you have to alter your swing or setup in anyway to be confortable playing ,,, Thanks

[GolfSpy_APH]

3 hours ago, KevinJo said:

Fellow spyer's

I am currently 5 days post-op from a partial medial menisectomy for my left leg (lead leg) meniscus and cleaning up the arthritis that caused the dang meniscus tear.  Orthopedic surgeon said should be good for rounds of golf around week 7-8 since it was not a repair. My question for the forum is has anyone else had this type surgery and if so did you have to alter your swing or setup in anyway to be comfortable playing ,,, Thanks

Best of luck with your recovery and hope that all goes well! 

Sorry can't offer up any advice or experience.

[GaryF]

9 hours ago, KevinJo said:

Fellow spyer's

I am currently 5 days post-op from a partial medial menisectomy for my left leg (lead leg) meniscus and cleaning up the arthritis that caused the dang meniscus tear.  Orthopedic surgeon said should be good for rounds of golf around week 7-8 since it was not a repair. My question for the forum is has anyone else had this type surgery and if so did you have to alter your swing or setup in anyway to be confortable playing ,,, Thanks

Two years ago I had arthroscopic surgery to repair two flap tears of my medial meniscus (back knee) and they discovered a torn plica and slightly dislocated knee cap.  I also have a number of arthritic tears which aren’t repairable. My surgeon is also the UGA football knee/elbow/shoulder surgeon.  He told me initially I could start chipping around 4 weeks.  I tested it out and that turned out to be true, but I basically held off until 7 weeks.  I did PT starting 3 days after surgery, twice a week.  I let them push me, and my 40 minute appointments often lasted 60-70 minutes.  

At 7 weeks, I met with the surgeon, he gave me clearance for full go but said I’d likely feel some discomfort, and take it easy for the next 90 days, but no limitations,  Then he added..’if you played football, you would have already played 2 games’. 

Right after the 7 week apt, I played 9 holes, but didn’t do tee shots, but dropped a ball where typical drives land.  I did fine. I didn’t hit drives primarily because I sometimes have a tendency to lay back a little, and that torques the knee.   A few days later, I played again, with a plan to not hit tee shots, but got to the first tee, and decided to hit,  I did fine. 

We have a lot of hills in GA, and the roughs from cart path to tee boxes and greens often have big slopes downward.  Through it all, my greatest discomfort was walking down hills and steps.  By the 90 days, I had played a lot, and by then was feeling really good with no after effects.

Two years later, it’s been great.  A few times I’ve felt like I’ve tweaked it by pivoting, but fairly mild pain that clears up after a day or two.  I do wear a support (no a brace) which gives some compression. 

Just prior to surgery, I did buy an outstanding knee wrap that ices the entire knee, front to back.  I’ve even used it since for elbow tendinitis.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079JX3J4W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My advice - take it easy, do the PT and exercises between, and let your body tell you when it’s ready. Good luck!

[KevinJo]

40 minutes ago, GaryF said:

Two years ago I had arthroscopic surgery to repair two flap tears of my medial meniscus (back knee) and they discovered a torn plica and slightly dislocated knee cap.  I also have a number of arthritic tears which aren’t repairable. My surgeon is also the UGA football knee/elbow/shoulder surgeon.  He told me initially I could start chipping around 4 weeks.  I tested it out and that turned out to be true, but I basically held off until 7 weeks.  I did PT starting 3 days after surgery, twice a week.  I let them push me, and my 40 minute appointments often lasted 60-70 minutes.  

At 7 weeks, I met with the surgeon, he gave me clearance for full go but said I’d likely feel some discomfort, and take it easy for the next 90 days, but no limitations,  Then he added..’if you played football, you would have already played 2 games’. 

Right after the 7 week apt, I played 9 holes, but didn’t do tee shots, but dropped a ball where typical drives land.  I did fine. I didn’t hit drives primarily because I sometimes have a tendency to lay back a little, and that torques the knee.   A few days later, I played again, with a plan to not hit tee shots, but got to the first tee, and decided to hit,  I did fine. 

We have a lot of hills in GA, and the roughs from cart path to tee boxes and greens often have big slopes downward.  Through it all, my greatest discomfort was walking down hills and steps.  By the 90 days, I had played a lot, and by then was feeling really good with no after effects.

Two years later, it’s been great.  A few times I’ve felt like I’ve tweaked it by pivoting, but fairly mild pain that clears up after a day or two.  I do wear a support (no a brace) which gives some compression. 

Just prior to surgery, I did buy an outstanding knee wrap that ices the entire knee, front to back.  I’ve even used it since for elbow tendinitis.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079JX3J4W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My advice - take it easy, do the PT and exercises between, and let your body tell you when it’s ready. Good luck!

Thanks.... wonder why they didn't find the torn plica on MRI.   
My surgery was Feb 6th and they started me on PT 1x a week for 5 weeks after the initial evaluation when the PT said I was walking good for 3 days post-op and my range of motion was good?? Have initial post-op with surgeon at 3 weeks so we will see what he says then before I pay my deposit for the 3 day guys trip.  In some of my initial pre-op conversations with him I told him the outing would be at the end of week 7 and start of week 8 and was 3 days of 18 holes and he said "you will be fine, just use riding cart".   Right now my biggest issue is knee tightness first thing in the morning for sure and the typical quadricep issues after knee surgery.  I had this same knee done in 2010 for a small tear and don't remember the issues with quadricep and stiffness, maybe it's because i didn't have to go over a month from tear until surgery back then.  

[GaryF]

5 minutes ago, KevinJo said:

Thanks.... wonder why they didn't find the torn plica on MRI.   
My surgery was Feb 6th and they started me on PT 1x a week for 5 weeks after the initial evaluation when the PT said I was walking good for 3 days post-op and my range of motion was good?? Have initial post-op with surgeon at 3 weeks so we will see what he says then before I pay my deposit for the 3 day guys trip.  In some of my initial pre-op conversations with him I told him the outing would be at the end of week 7 and start of week 8 and was 3 days of 18 holes and he said "you will be fine, just use riding cart".   Right now my biggest issue is knee tightness first thing in the morning for sure and the typical quadricep issues after knee surgery.  I had this same knee done in 2010 for a small tear and don't remember the issues with quadricep and stiffness, maybe it's because i didn't have to go over a month from tear until surgery back then.  

Not sure why the plica didn’t show up but was mentioned in a really detailed post-op report the surgeon wrote.  They also gave me a series of about a dozen photos inside the knee during surgery. Intriguing to see. 

Initially my ortho thought issues were primarily due to arthritis, especially since I couldn’t recall a specific injury.  So we did a few weeks of pain mgtmt before committing to the mri using Meloxicam (Mobic) which I have used off and on for back/disc issues.  It got much better, then it got worse.  

Two days before thanksgiving, I had a 1 pm appt for the mri.  At 5pm my ortho called me, said he didn’t have the report yet, but he got a call from the Hosp radiologist.  He told me to stop everything, I had flap tears and they were bad.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the surgery scheduled until the first of January, but was an incredibly easy surgery.  Took place on a Friday, I was limp/walking on Sunday.  

PT started on Monday.  Range of motion was non existent!  Head of the PT unit is TPI certified - he did an assessment then turned me over to ‘Jessica’ who was absolutely fantastic.  I did the PT for the full 7 weeks, and twice a week was perfect for me. She focused a lot on activating the quads, and working full range of motion.  Took almost the full 7 weeks to get completely straight. 

I had a lot of stiffness, etc, and a lot is simply caused by swelling that collects behind the knee. You have a lot of golf planned but I’m sure you will work up to it. Everyone’s swing is different - being front knee, I’d angle my front foot 45* toward target to reduce torque.  It’s a common technique anyways as we get older and lose flexibility. 
 

[Kenny B]

In 2014 I had my right knee meniscus repair a month before I had my left knee replaced.  The doc said I needed a good leg to stand on before the replacement.  Of course I didn't play golf for about 3 months.  One of these days I will need that right knee replaced; probably in November when the season winds down.

[KevinJo]

10 hours ago, GaryF said:

Not sure why the plica didn’t show up but was mentioned in a really detailed post-op report the surgeon wrote.  They also gave me a series of about a dozen photos inside the knee during surgery. Intriguing to see. 

Initially my ortho thought issues were primarily due to arthritis, especially since I couldn’t recall a specific injury.  So we did a few weeks of pain mgtmt before committing to the mri using Meloxicam (Mobic) which I have used off and on for back/disc issues.  It got much better, then it got worse.  

Two days before thanksgiving, I had a 1 pm appt for the mri.  At 5pm my ortho called me, said he didn’t have the report yet, but he got a call from the Hosp radiologist.  He told me to stop everything, I had flap tears and they were bad.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the surgery scheduled until the first of January, but was an incredibly easy surgery.  Took place on a Friday, I was limp/walking on Sunday.  

PT started on Monday.  Range of motion was non existent!  Head of the PT unit is TPI certified - he did an assessment then turned me over to ‘Jessica’ who was absolutely fantastic.  I did the PT for the full 7 weeks, and twice a week was perfect for me. She focused a lot on activating the quads, and working full range of motion.  Took almost the full 7 weeks to get completely straight. 

I had a lot of stiffness, etc, and a lot is simply caused by swelling that collects behind the knee. You have a lot of golf planned but I’m sure you will work up to it. Everyone’s swing is different - being front knee, I’d angle my front foot 45* toward target to reduce torque.  It’s a common technique anyways as we get older and lose flexibility. 
 

Good luck in your continued recovery 

[KevinJo]

18 hours ago, KevinJo said:

Good luck in your continued recovery 

I ordered the ice pack you referenced