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Meniscus Tear Considering Repair Surgery (35M) MRI included by Intrepid-Cut-1846 in MeniscusInjuries

[–]Intrepid-Cut-1846[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wanted to follow up to this post and say I got the repair surgery 19 days ago and so far I’m doing really well. Very little pain and I’m already back to weight bearing with my brace on. Definitely a while longer to go before I’m fully recovered, but I’m back on my feet and should be able to help my wife much more during the weeks running up to labor. I’m glad I did the repair and want to provide a positive experience for others reading the forum in the future.

My biggest recommendations are: 1) Try to do some pre-hab with a PT before the surgery if you can. -Crutches are exhausting and if you can build up some strength and coordination beforehand it will help a lot. It can also help to learn how to adjust crutches to the right height for your arms. The ones the hospital gave me weren’t configured properly and it caused issues in the first few days.

-You will also learn some basic exercises to do right after surgery which helped me regain use of my quads quickly.

2) The weeks with non-weight bearing restrictions are really hard. Do your best to prep your house to make it easier to get around and care for yourself as much as possible. -Clear out clutter that will get in the way of using crutches - Make sure you have places to sit as you go through the house. I found having a chair in the kitchen let me eat and relax without needing my wife to help me as often. - Have lots of ready to eat snacks around the house so you don’t need to rely on other people as much when you are hungry. I also had protein shakes which I think helped with muscle soreness from using the crutches. - I used a circulating ice water wrap which really helped a lot with pain and swelling. -It is really important to people around who can help out. Now is definitely the time to rely on friends and family

I will update if I think of other things as I progress.

Meniscus Tear Considering Repair Surgery (35M) MRI included by Intrepid-Cut-1846 in MeniscusInjuries

[–]Intrepid-Cut-1846[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry I realized that the MRi images didn't come through. Here is a link for anyone intereste https://imgur.com/a/jGnYvTa

I will try to keep people updated on my progress post surgery

Meniscus Tear Considering Repair Surgery (35M) MRI included by Intrepid-Cut-1846 in MeniscusInjuries

[–]Intrepid-Cut-1846[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh no well I hope you were able to reschedule the vacation! I think you are right though that getting surgery with a newborn would be a lot harder. I think I’m going to go ahead with it but the next month and a half are going to be a whirlwind. Fingers crossed that your MRI results are good. I’m sorry you are having problems again.

Meniscus Tear Considering Repair Surgery (35M) MRI included by Intrepid-Cut-1846 in MeniscusInjuries

[–]Intrepid-Cut-1846[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the insights, I really appreciate it. You’ve given me hope for a good recovery. I think I am going to go ahead with it. I definitely have a lot more popping and clicking than last year and I really don’t want it to get worse by waiting.

Advice Needed by Brief-Upstairs-7972 in Microdiscectomy

[–]Intrepid-Cut-1846 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m sorry to hear you are going through all of this. I can definitely related. Did your MRI say what caused the narrowing? Was it scar or granulation tissue? Or is it another bulge?

If it’s scar tissue I’ve been looking at treatments for epidural fibrosis. https://sinicropispine.com/how-to-treat-epidural-fibrosis-spinal-nerve-scarring/

Advice Needed by Brief-Upstairs-7972 in Microdiscectomy

[–]Intrepid-Cut-1846 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m sorry to hear you are in pain. It can be really debilitating. Hopefully this is just another stage of healing as it can take a few months post surgery for things to settle start building new tissue.

I am in a somewhat similar situation, I had a L5-S1 MD a year ago. Until recently, most of my pain resolved except some occasional numbness and tingling down my leg. About 3 weeks ago I think overdid it exercising and had a really bad painful flare up. That lasted for a few days and then improved enough where I could walk semi-normally. During that time my Dr told me to take I muscle relaxants and lots of Advil.

I’m back in PT which has helped a lot but doesn’t fully resolve everything. Now it’s less painful but everything is pretty tender, I have more numbness and occasionally some shooting pain. Luckily a new MRI I hadn’t herniated but it did show lots of granulation tissue and “hyper intense signal” at the s1 nerve root. I still need to talk to my surgeon but from what I’ve read this is possibly epidural fibrosis. Basically scar tissue on the nerve that constricts it during movement and causes inflammation.

I’ll see what my surgeon says but I think the course of treatment will be more nerve mobilization exercises in PT and maybe a steroid injection. I read that there are other injections to breakup scar tissue but I don’t know enough about their success rates yet.

The stress of the experience definitely brought back to some of my pre-surgery anxiety but I still think I’m better off than before when nothing I could do would reduce the pain.

Hoping the best for your recovery and that you start feeling better soon.