arthroscopic knee surgery-recoup time?

[HOGFAN]

DS13 has an ACL tear. not sure how big, will find out Monday after MRI. If you have had this surgery, how long did it take to get over it? I have to give work some idea of when I might be back.
As I posted on another thread, he was hit by a car July 25th. We thank God it was just his knee.

 

[goofy4tink]

DH had knee arthro done about 2 months ago. His ortho surgeon had him up, on his feet immediatly. He could do anything he 'felt' like doing. Mr. Gungho. Until the meds wore off. Anyway...the recoup time wasn't bad. I would say he was walking around, with ibu, the next day, much better in two/three days. I guess they don't want the patients to just sit around anymore. Good luck.

 

[phorsenuf]

A couple of days and he'll be doing ok. I'd say do the surgery on a Wed or Thurs and by Monday you'll be all set to go back to work.

They recover so much quicker than we do.

 

[golfgal]

It really depends on what they do during the surgery. If they are just sucking out cartilage, 24 hours or so, if they are doing more extensive work, a couple days.

If she has a torn ACL, that surgery is the biggy with a couple hard months of rehab (it used to be a YEAR recovery process). The good thing about the ACL surgery is that because of they way they do it now your knee ends up being stronger after the surgery (IF you do your rehab) then it was before.

 

[HOGFAN]

okay, now Im really confused.

 

[phorsenuf]

okay, now Im really confused.

why are you confused? How can we help?

 

[4nana]

Not a dr, but if it's an actual tear I would think it will be a longer recovery with possible rehab. DH has had ortho on both knees, for osteo arth., so his his recovery was much more timely. Good luck and wishing him a speedy recovery.

 

[phorsenuf]

I guess it all depends really on how soon you feel comfortable in leaving him. Who else will be there with him?

My son had this done about a year ago and after a few days he was up and about. Had some pain but was doing ok. The recovery in all is lengthy with PT and all.

 

[momof1princess]

my DH had arthroscopic knee surgery in august, 2004, (a "Lateral Release") and his surgeon told us he'd be good as new in a couple of weeks. unfortunately, that couple of weeks turned into 2 months (and my DH is a very active, healthy man who was totally compliant w/ dr.'s orders) with 6 weeks of physical therapy. of course, now, his knee is better than he can ever remember. he's 100% pain free with complete range-of-motion. best of luck to your DH

 

[HOGFAN]

why are you confused? How can we help?

confused I guess because replies go from a couple days to months.
Thats life I guess, we will just have to see what happens.
I am thankful for all replies and experiences. Might give us an idea what to expect.

 

[brerrabbit]

What timing. I go this afternoon for my pre admission for outpatient Arthroscopic surgery that I will have next Friday. There are four types of knee surgery you can have. The first is Meniscus surgery which is what I am having. The Meniscus is the c shaped cartilage that the bone sits on and rubs against as you bend it. I have tears in the Meniscus and that is what is causing my pain. My recovery will be quick and I will be walking on it the day of surgerty. The second type of procedure is Articular cartilage. Thats the cartilage on the upper or thigh bone that rests on the meniscus cartilage. They shave or remove damaged cartilage and sometimes if bone meets bone they may drill or burr the bone to stimulat cartilage growth. The third procedure is the major one and it is the repair of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament which is the major stabilizing ligament of the knee. It can be repaired or in some instances they will harvest a portion of the patellar tendon to replace damaged tissue. The last procedure centers on the Patella of knee cap which can need to be shaved on the underside to remove damaged or worn cartilage, or clipping bands of tissue for realignment purposes.

These are the only procedures they do with Arthroscopic procedures. The first two are very quick recoveries while the third and fourth can involve repair to a ligament which will require additional recorery time and usually physical therapy.

Based on your description there will be some recovery time and some therapy involved. Good luck to your DS and I hope everything goes well.

 

[almacdonald]

My boyfriend tore his ACL playing ultimate frisbee 2 summers ago. He had surgery about 3 weeks after the fact (couldn't put ANY weight on it because he had a piece of bone lodged in the knee joint.) He felt like a super hero after the surgery.. til the drugs wore off. His leg was in an immobilizer (which he had to wear 24 hours/day for a few weeks except for icing. He was on the couch for about 5 days after the surgery. He had to use crutches for stability for a couple of weeks. About 2 weeks after surgery he started physio 3 times/week. The surgery caused some numbness which made him, even a couple of months after surgery, feel nervous doing regular things like running or kneeling on his knee. The ACL repair ended up being less than perfect so the next summer the doctor reccomended a complete ACL reconstruction (they use a part of another ligament in your knee to replace the damaged ACL.) This surgery was A LOT more painful for him but he now has a lot more confidence in his knee's strength. Since then he has been wakeboarding, running, playing baseball and all sorts of other things. The ligament is still loose and the DR is keeping an eye on it but has pretty much given the green light for whatever he wants to do.

So, basically, I don't think there is a set in stone recovery time. It all depends on how much "work" they have to do. The first 2-3 days afterwards will be a write off for sure. Make sure he keeps on top of pain meds because once they wear off it's difficult to get the pain under control again. He should be able to go back to school in about a week and should be completely back to normal in a couple of months.

Wish your son good luck. Thankfully he's alright (other than his knee) after the accident.


ETA: DUH! If he's 13 i'm sure he doesn't have a desk job! And kids can generally heal better than adults. Hopefully that's the case here. *note to self, read carefully next time!*

 

[golfgal]

confused I guess because replies go from a couple days to months.
Thats life I guess, we will just have to see what happens.
I am thankful for all replies and experiences. Might give us an idea what to expect.

While it sounds confusing it really isn't. Arthroscopic surgery is used for many things and recovery depends on what is actually done. When I had my knee scoped about 20 years ago it was same day surgery, put to sleep, woke up with a big bandage but not much pain. I went dancing the next night. This was just to suck out some floating cartilage. DH had his knee scoped a couple months ago for the same thing, used a local anaesthetic in the dr's office, in and out in about 10 minutes, DH was back to normal that night.

If they are going in to survey the damage to her ACL and not trying to do any repair work, he might have a little discomfort from the surgery for about 24 hours, no big deal. If they do some repair work, he will be a little more sore for a little longer.

If they have to open his knee and repair the ACL, this is where the recovery gets more difficult and longer. No one can give you a definite on that. I have had athletes recover in a couple months and others take a year. It really depends on the person and how fast they heal, how much work they put into their rehab.

 

[Figment2]

I agree with Alma. I have had both my knees done. They want you in Rehab as soon as possible. Both turned into being home for 2 weeks though for different problems. One surgery was on Wed. and I was at Rehab on Fri. My right knee kept bleeding (so I had to stop rehab for a couple of days). Originally I was due back at work the following Monday but couldn't because of the bleeding. In my left knee, not only had I torn my meniscus, but also there was a chipped bone so he had to drill to bring blood to the surface. My left knee put me on crutches for two weeks.

It just depends.

Cyn

 

[phorsenuf]

my DH had arthroscopic knee surgery in august, 2004, (a "Lateral Release") and his surgeon told us he'd be good as new in a couple of weeks. unfortunately, that couple of weeks turned into 2 months (and my DH is a very active, healthy man who was totally compliant w/ dr.'s orders) with 6 weeks of physical therapy. of course, now, his knee is better than he can ever remember. he's 100% pain free with complete range-of-motion. best of luck to your DH

My son just had that done too a few weeks ago. I think he's a little bummed out because he's not 100% yet. It doesn't take much to aggravate it.
So his was a sucess? I heard it only has a 60% success rate but we were willing to take the odds.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

My fiancee tore the ACL in his knee a few weeks ago playing volleyball. He is going in for surgery in a few weeks. The info we have found looks like recovery for this is pretty extensive, including physical therapy. I think the doctor said something like 6 months before he is pretty much back to normal. He is also getting a continous passive motion machine for use at home after the surgery. It doesn't look like it is going to be fun. But on the other hand I had arthrospopic surgery on my knee when I was 13 (torn meniscus) and I walked out of the hospital. It really depends the extent of work which is done. Good luck!