Possible meniscus tear, anyone ever been through it?

I'm definitely not an expert but have been around more than a few of these. here are my lay observations.

If it is a meniscus tear you're probably looking at surgery. There are 2 routes you can go: removal or repair. There's pros and cons to both.

A removal heals much, much faster and PT is minimal. I've seen a local high schooler have a removal done and play in a state championship baseball series 8 days later. He's still playing D1 football (linebacker 4 years later) but the down side is that the removal will lead to issues (and likely more surgeries) with that knee down the line.

Repair has a rehab of several months and can be subject to re-tearing. This is especially true if you're young and active.

With some tears, repair is the only real option, with others they may be able to shave of some frayed ends.

Yes, I was in my early 20’s

I could walk on flat surfaces fine but stairs were brutal and I lived on the 3rd floor of dorms with no elevator . FML

I had a scope done and it was 2 very small Insicions . Luckily my Ortho said I had more meniscus than most people so what I lost with the surgery, wouldn’t hold me back as I started with more

A few days of rehab/stretching/stationary bike and I was good as new

As said, stairs will suck for a while. I still get swelling that I feel in the back of the knee if I only run. Have to mix in cycling to stabilize everything.

Whether if it’s repairable or not depends the type of tear and location(whether if its in an area of the meniscus that gets blood flow). Or they’ll just snip tissue away, not necessarily removing it.
I’ve been in on cases and the doc is anticipating bad tear due to the MRI, ends up being not that serious & vice versa.

Tore mine 3.5 years ago. They were able to repair mine. Like posters said before pros and cons to the repair vs just shaving down/removing part of the tear.

The repair is better long term and help with postponing early onset arthritis. If you get it just shaved/removed then you will be walking in a week, will need basic PT but you run the risk of early arthritis.

I can’t recommend finding a good orthopedist enough. Ask around or if you have any friends in medical community. I have surgery ties to BR and Lafayette and can tell you who to go to if you want. Don’t read reviews online, they can manipulate that stuff to make everyone look good, talk to people who work in surgery or see their patients post OP.

I had mine repaired which has been great. But the rehab is a bitch. You will be put in an immobilizer brace just like the ones they use for an ACL surgery, for 6-8 weeks. Yes, you can flex/extend it after a week or so and are encourage to do so. Sleeping with that brace you will be so uncomfortable but they will give you Percocet and a Norco which will help BIG time. Don’t get behind on pain medication but I only used mine for like 7 days max and trashed the rest, didn’t even finish the full prescription. Don’t be stupid and abuse it, Percocet scared the shite out of me. But I absolutely needed it to knock me out so I could sleep first few nights then I got off as soon as I could. Ibuprofen worked just fine after that. Also, go buy a few good ice packs.
You will need a good PT for sure. Ask if they have a Game Ready machine which will help big time. Rehab is critical, you will have so much muscle atrophy you will feel like a little bitch walking on it for the first time. Only issues now is I have a Bakers cyst which is behind your knee and like once a year or so it might be inflamed and feel tight when I walk. I was told take a 2x normal Ibuprofen for like 1 day and it goes down, which works for me. But don’t skimp on the PT and just embrace it, it’s a process.