Meniscus tear...

[gzhpcu]

Right, I am doing exercises to strenghthen my knee. Still wondering if heat would now help more after 10 days...

[bottle]

Avoid surgery (you'll never feel the same after), avoid medicines (will only break down your immunity). The human body has an amazing way to heel itself. Just give it some rest. Just live in the most natural chemically or surgically unaided state you can. The human body is the most powerful and advanced self managed machine ever built. Feel better.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

I think this is right. It certainly was the consensus view of the dancers at the North Carolina School of the Arts. But sometimes one has to undergo surgery despite one's best efforts, as when I was down on the court in the middle of the NCSA annual singles final, ahead as guest participant but down because my chronically torn left leg meniscus had slipped. So what could I do? Push it back in place.

Maybe one should constrain oneself from telling such a story which anyway I have told before. But I am an old guy, and the minute the subject is knees the medical stories come out-- a faucet that can't be turned off.

So with meniscus pushed into place, I increased my lead, was in the last game three points from putting the tournament away when I found myself down on the court this time unable to run, pivot, walk, do anything, and I couldn't push the torn meniscus back into place, it wouldn't go.

So I lost the match and had meniscus repair surgery (which I watched on a screen). The repair lasted for five years. Eventually, I had a partial knee replacement, a good choice.

I am somewhat aware of your age and don't even think the orthopedic surgeons by now will do meniscus repair for your age at least around here. Replacements, yes, they do them by the dozens every day. But avoid them if you can, or if you can't, delay them for as long as you can despite what anyone says and good luck.

Note: Dr. Zacharias showed me my other meniscus on a big screen. It didn't look torn but rather squashed, with a bulb of material protruding to one side of my right leg. Dr. Zacharias doesn't do cosmetic surgery, so we both leave this knee alone, and sometimes it hurts a little, and I'm sure I don't move quite as well as I might.

[gzhpcu]

Have recuperated. Back to playing tennis. Having spoken to some of my tennnis friends and am no longer certain it was a meniscus tear, because my knee did not swell. Maybe a tendon? Anyways, have added leg strengthening exercises to my daily workout routine. And will wear a knee brace for a while to be on the safe side.

[johnyandell]

You are a healer!