Any advice for a torn meniscus?

**Rivamus** · Posted On: 1/29/2011 3:01pm

New to these forums, but I just wanted to see what type of advice I could get from people with any similar experience. Last year in January I tore my meniscus but did not know of it (decided not to get MRI), continued to wrestle and train. The swelling went down and the pain went away. But in December, I injured the same knee again and had similar symptoms. Got the MRI, the torn meniscus was confirmed. I didn't wrestle for a month, but I kept weight training and doing smooth cardio (bike, elliptical, swim). Doctor told me explicitly no running. Started wrestling again about 3 weeks ago because I felt I was ready to go and I injured it even worse at a tournament last weekend. Districts is coming up this week and its my senior year. Doctor told me I need to stop wrestling and get the surgery, but its ultimately my choice. I would rather not tear it even worse and have even more cartilage removed, but this is 4 years of work here. If anybody has had a torn meniscus before, please let me know what route you went or any advice you have. Thank you.

**Neo Sigma** · Posted On: 1/29/2011 5:50pm

New to these forums, but I just wanted to see what type of advice I could get from people with any similar experience. Last year in January I tore my meniscus but did not know of it (decided not to get MRI), continued to wrestle and train. The swelling went down and the pain went away. But in December, I injured the same knee again and had similar symptoms. Got the MRI, the torn meniscus was confirmed. I didn't wrestle for a month, but I kept weight training and doing smooth cardio (bike, elliptical, swim). Doctor told me explicitly no running. Started wrestling again about 3 weeks ago because I felt I was ready to go and I injured it even worse at a tournament last weekend. Districts is coming up this week and its my senior year. Doctor told me I need to stop wrestling and get the surgery, but its ultimately my choice. I would rather not tear it even worse and have even more cartilage removed, but this is 4 years of work here. If anybody has had a torn meniscus before, please let me know what route you went or any advice you have. Thank you.

Do you see a pattern here? "4 years of work" is nothing compared to ruining your knee for the rest of your life. Listen to your doctor this time. Looking at the cost-benefit of actually wrestling, what do you get out of it? The ability to talk about "winning the big one back in the day" twenty years from now when you can't walk without a cane? It's just not worth it.

And let's be real, this is high school. In four more years, whether you crushed everyone in sight or lost every match, you're really not going to care that much. Don't **** up your chances to continue having an active physical life after high school, because you haven't even come close to hitting the best part yet.

**Lindz** · Posted On: 1/29/2011 6:06pm

I just had my meniscus done. Sadly they had to grind it down rather than repairing the tear. They threw it in with my acl graft. It was literally a week ago so I can't tell you about the long term results yet.