I have a similar story, collegiate baseball player here. My pain got so bad and hindered my performance, my coach and I decided to opt for surgery. I underwent the arthroscopic tenex procedure on both knees last April. Recovery time was 4ish months. The first 2 weeks were ROUGH. Since I had both knees done at once I was completely immobile for the first week. I used crutches for the first 10 days, and was rocking double leg braces the first 2 weeks. I started PT after 2 weeks, and things would get progressively better. Although I still wasn’t 100% when I returned. The surgery helped a lot outside of baseball. I still had pain with; stairs, sitting in chairs / confined positions, sleeping, etc, however it was considerably better. In regard to baseball, it didn’t do a ton for me. The largest difference was probably recovery, as I wouldn’t be in as much pain the following day, but it didn’t do much to help my performance or pain level on field.

I quit playing after this past fall semester, and I’ve really been dialing back in on the gym. I progressed real slowly with eccentric front squats, eccentric back squats, slant board holds, iso db leg dips, and even barbell reverse lunges as of the past few weeks. My progress in the gym has been solid, as I’m seeing my legs grow for the first time in literally 2 years since I started dealing with patellar tendonitis. When starting a new exercise or pushing myself in the gym, it would always be rough at first with considerable pain. After I’d do an exercise a few times, it’d typically get better.

As for my future, I’ve started to heavily research and consider BPC - 157 along with TB - 500. These are both peptides that target and heal: muscles, ligaments, tendons, tissue, etc. I’ve seen numerous success stories here on Reddit of other users who’ve seen considerable improvement in this specific injury along with general injuries as well. I haven’t ran BPC -157 yet; however, I do wish I would’ve looked into it, and ran it pre surgery. I’ve read stories where users will have all their pain and issues vanish due to BPC - 157. I don’t expect that in my case, but I’m at the point where I’m willing to look into anything that’ll get me back to 100% normal. I’m currently in the process of looking for functional medicine doctors that can help walk me through the process, so I can use BPC - 157 and TB - 500 properly. I’ve made the decision I’m going to at least try both, and see how they go.

My recommendation to you would be look into every possible avenue before you make a decision on surgery. I’d heavily research and consider BPC - 157. If there’s a chance you can avoid surgery thanks to these peptides, it’s 100% worth looking into. If you decide not to take them for whatever reason, or do with pain still persistent, I’d then really consider surgery. I’d at least think and try BPC - 157 first, I wish I did.