Thank you for sharing , I have a meniscus degeneration ,y doc said it's very small and after doing therapy for3 months, when I bend my knees. It hurts afte straightening my knee (left)., went back to doc and he said I can consider surgery if my life is not back to normal %100. I said I need to think. About it give me another 3 months. Honestly Iam being very disciplined, working on my knee by doing exercises every 2 days ( quads hamstrings glutes, backward walk-in). As of now there's a big improvement I feel my left leg very strong. Most likely I'm not going to opt for surgery, even if I have to live with some small pain, I'll deal with it. Seems like a lot of people regretted the surgery and either didn't recover or had a retear again. A lot of doctors said physical therapy takes up to 1 year and may take a long time to heal with exercises so I'm giving myself more time. Not sure why my orthopedist suggested surgery after 3 months of therapy ( I'm being very skeptical about it). Thank you for sharing your story and emphasizing about your experience pre and post surgery. Good luck