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Toren Meniscus. =(

I just found out that i tore the meniscus in my right knee. Iam pretty scared and upset by this being am a three sport athlete in highschool. I was wondering what anyone can tell me about this. =( thanks in advance
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697839 tn?1228064788
  I have a meniscus tear and was told by my doctor to get an injection of SynVisc.  Below is the story on how THAT went -- very badly.

    But my next question is about the artoscopic surgery.  After having been burned (probably literally) by SynVisc, I am totally wary of any other medical proceedures.  Suggestions?  Insights?  What are the rates of success?

****

  I wrote a blog entry (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com) recently with regard to my initial nightmare experiences with SynVisc.  That was ten days ago.  Since then, my left knee has swelled up to twice its size, my calf muscles have become hard as a rock, I experience terrible burning pain below my knees because apparently the hyaironic acid has escaped my knee joint and seeped down into my legs, my ankles have doubled in size and I can barely walk from the bedroom to the kitchen.

    Does anyone have a class action lawsuit I can join?

Here's my blog entry on the subject:

"Jello Shots": From healthy Woman Warrior to old lady crip in just one day....

(Photos are of my father and mother on their wedding day and a birds-eye view of my knees when they first started to swell)



Boy, old people are my absolute heroes. Those people are truly BRAVE! I used to think that I was being all fierce and courageous to go off to Iraq and Afghanistan -- but that was a walk in the park compared to facing down the terrors of old age. I found that out last Saturday.

Recently I went off to a knee doctor to ask him if he could do anything to relieve the minor discomfort in my knees, and he replied, "We can inject gel into your cartilage area and that will help you a lot -- it will lubricate your joints and keep you pain-free for approximately one year."

You are going to inject gel into my knees? "Jello Shots!" I cried. "Go for it."

Well, I got a reaction to the SynVisc hylan and suddenly my left knee was all swollen, my right knee was the size of a cantaloupe, I was in incredibly intense pain and couldn't even walk. Was I now going to have to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair? It looked that way.

"Jane, that's really a sad story," you might say, "but what's your point?"

My point is this -- do you have ANY idea how hard it is to not be able to walk, to live in constant pain, to have whatever active life you may have had suddenly disappear, to depend on others constantly for help and to get sympathetic looks from strangers at first and then suddenly completely disappear off their radar?

You have no idea how scary this is.

It took me a half an hour to shuffle across the street to the Berkeley Bowl to buy food because there was nothing left to eat in my apartment. One-half hour. They had to hold up traffic for me.

Once at the store, a clerk put me in one of those electric wheelchair cart thingies that the Bowl provides for little old ladies. "This isn't the REAL me!" I wanted to cry as benevolent shoppers got out of my way.

I filed a drug-side-effect report on the FDA's MedWatch website, but would doing that bring back my health? Probably not.

Then I shuffled off to my doctor's office and sat in the waiting room and cried. "Two years ago I was teaching school in a former bantustan in South Africa," I blubbered, "and now look at me!" I looked like all my doctor's other REALLY OLD patients, with walkers and crutches and aides and wheelchairs and canes.

I have just entered the Home of the Brave.

PS: Today would have been my mother's 96th birthday. She died in her sleep from a stroke at age 79. One day she was as healthy as a horse and the next day she was dead. Not so with my father. He died a long, lingering, painful death -- but during all the time that I watched my father suffer so much from prostate cancer and congestive heart failure, shrinking from a robust 6'1" to a tattered and grey 5'7" in less than a year, I never heard even one word of complaint cross his lips.
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Avatar universal
Do you think i will need surgery? my knee has been locking in the bent position and it painfully pops. and if so do you think i will still be able to do track in the spring. iam a jumper triple long high pole vault. thank you so much for your help
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Avatar universal
Hi,
     Thanks for writing in. There are two menisci in your knee; each rests between the thigh bone (femur) and shin bone (tibia). The menisci are made of tough cartilage and conform to the surfaces of the bones upon which they rest. These meniscus functions to distribute your body weight across the knee joint.The two most common causes of a meniscus tear are due to traumatic injury (often seen in athletes) and degenerative processes (seen in older patients who have more brittle cartilage).

It is not uncommon for the meniscus tear to occur along with injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the medial collateral ligament (MCL)-these three problems occurring together are known as the "unhappy triad," which is seen in sports such as football when the player is hit on the outside of the knee. Almost any knee injury can initially be treated acutely with ice packs, rest, and immobilization.

Many people live normal lives despite having a meniscus tear. It is only when the meniscus tear becomes symptomatic, and interferes with activities, that surgery to treat the meniscus tear should be considered. It can be done by two methods one is repair and the otehr is removal of the damaged part of the meniscus.With a meniscus tear (torn cartilage) in your knee, the shock absorbing capacity of the joint is threatened. Because of this, there is an increased risk of developing damage to the articular cartilage surface of the knee joint bones.

Therefore, any lifestyle changes to decrease your risk of developing arthritis can improve the prognosis after having sustained a meniscus tear. For example, weight loss, low-impact exercise, and prevention of further trauma to the joint will all improve the long-term prognosis.
Best.
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