Anyone back to kiting after lateral meniscus tear in knee?

[markchatwin]

I have to have surgery to repair this lateral meniscus tear. I've been kiting since June with it with no pain but recently ripped it a little more while siting on knees playing with kids. MRI shows the tear but don't know exactly how bad or how big a tear it is since I haven't seen Doctor for followup. But in my heart I know it's going to be fixed as soon as they find me a surgery date.

Any kiters out there have this problem and how long to recover, what kind of rehab? etc...
I imagine they'll have to cut it out and smooth out the cartilidge... Thanks

[leapnlarry]

i had my knee scoped a few years ago for a miniscus tear from playing hockey, a year earlier. My knee acts up now and then after long kiting sessions in the surf that pound the knee a lot. If i stay in flat water and control my landings. the knee does well. After surgery, no mater what the surgeon says, go to rehab for at least a month to strenthen the muscles that support the knee. The pictures the doc took of my knee show a lot of cartilaage missing laterally. I do a lot of cycling just to keep the knee strong for kiteboarding. I had to give up hockey and tennis because of the injury, my leg will have to fall off before i give up kiting. I think the key is keep the knee strong with exercise, no pounding like running. Some times i wear one of the neoprene knee brace/wraps when i kite when it feels like it is swollen.

good luck

[markchatwin]

Thanks! Yeh since the first post I have had it diagnosed as a "tiny free edge tear in the body of the medial menscus". I see the doctor on Mon and a 2nd opinion on the following Mon. When it acts up from some hard activity it gets swollen and then the knee doesn't bend properly, the tendons going into the back of the knee tighten up due to the change. This happens a couple of times a year and each time I'm out for a month while it calms down.

I don't want surgery but feel it is the only hope for lessening these occurences. I've already done physical therapy and though the knee got stronger it still acts up and knocks me out of kiting for a month. When it's not acting up I can kite, play tennis, ski, etc. But one wrong move and it freaks out...

[AGK]

I've had meniscus tears repaired in both knees. They have gotten really good at it -- if it is a small tear then you will be back walking normally in a week or less (my experience, YMMV) and kiteboarding pretty quickly. Once it's torn it's not going to repair itself -- you can build up the muscles around it, but if you want to stay active without thinking about the knee all the time, the surgery is a question of when and not if. In general I think avoiding doctors and surgery is a good thing -- but meniscus surgery is pretty minor these days.

Good luck!

[STF]

i had my right knee done twice for a meniscus tear. Second time around they took out the whole menuscus.


Still kiting

[tille]

No problem... just follow the advice above, don't get started to early after the scope and trin up your muscles around the knee......

...I have had 3 scope "surgeries"... 2 in my left and 1 in my right..... waiting for the second in my right knee... I don't play soccer anymore, I don't play tennis anymore and I don't run too long runs on asphalt... but I do kite, both on snow and water

Good luck to you

[markchatwin]

Well against my own orders I went out and kited yesterday and it made my knee feel better. I had a chance to just zen out and not push it and the sheer enjoyment of kiting relaxed everything. Monday's the doctor's appt and I'll know more then but it seems that the only way I'm going to quote "not think about my knee" is to probably opt for the surgery. I have a long history of this knee acting up.

[toyletbowl]

mark,

bob here from madison. i've had 3 meniscus surgeries (2 on one knee and 1 on the other) and I cannot tell which one had 2. both have given me little problems and I even have a partial ACL tear (not repaired) in one. all injuries from playing soccer and over 6 years ago now.

I still play soccer, ski...big air and small air jumps...tennis on occasion and kite with no restraints for the most part. Both winter and summer. i was back on the water about a month or so after surgery, but it will take much much longer to get full range back, but with good rehab, you'll most likely come back stronger and with no swelling.

good luck and let me know how it goes.

bob
www.kiteridersllc.com

[markchatwin]

Thanks Bob - I get the feeling that everybody in this thread is not in their 20's

[hmattar]

I had a meniscus tear and ligament full rupture in the beggining of the year. Had the surgery in june, 3 months of therapy everyday then started at gym. It's been a month now since i'm back at kitesurf(slowly, no jumps and shit).