Ongoing Knee pain after arthroscopy

[jodie1973blue]

On Jan 13th 2011 i twisted my knee...had MRI showed tear in meniscus and patallae tendon strain. Had arthroscopy in feb to repair the tear. I have been attending physio n hydropherapy ever since up to 4 times a week. Returned back to work on light duties BUT have had ongoing pain everyday...pain is highly increased depending on how much i use the knee...just walking on it sometimes is enough to cause bad pain and sometimes it swells bad. Have recently noticed pain in bottom of foot like stabbing pain and is also swelling jsut above the knee cap. I am sick of hearing from doctors n other treatment people that it will take time....would just like someone to give me an answer to why does it get sooo painful n swolllen when i use it??? Please help!

[kennedyronna]

Actually I was also struggling from the smilar kind few months ago. Then a friend of mine who is a doctor suggested me to wear a jumper's knee on the knee and keep my knee compressed whenever i am required to any sort of jumping activity or any such activity. he also asked me to apply ice in every 5 hours. This may also help in reducing pain.

[smurphy8]

I am keen to find out what happened in your situation as am going through exactly the same thing- 6 months post op- any advice would be much appreciated- thanks Sue.

[namnam46]

Oh Jodie!! Your "old" Doctor sounds exactly like my "bad" Surgeon did.  No matter what the other Doctor's pointed out to him, there was "nothing wrong" with his surgery and he always had another reason for my pain.  It always had to do with me!!  Why is he just now telling you that the "muscle mass" around your knee was "really bad", practically no muscle functioning which will cause the knee to track in the wrong way!!  Is this the first time that you have heard him express these sentiments to you?  

I can't believe how far "off" your Physio was!!!!  Your Doctor should have been right on top of them and making sure that he was directing them in your PT.  My "wonderful" Surgeon, that did my corrective surgery last September, was checking in every week with my Rehab Facility to see what exercises they were doing with me and checking on my progress and never faltered in his due-diligence in my treatment.  He was, truly, a "hand-on" type of Surgeon as he didn't want me to fail in being able to be rehabilitated.  I hope that you will get everything corrected and taken care of once and for all!!  I'm so happy that you have a GP that won't allow this to continue and is finding you "another set of eyes"!!  

I can hardly wait until you see the "new" Doctor and get to hear his opinion on what is going on.  For your "old" Doctor not to be able to "see" the swelling from that picture is incomprehensible!!!  It was definitely noticeable to me (of course I'm not a Doctor) but also to your GP!!  

I'll be anxiously waiting for your update after your visit to your "new" Doctor!!!........Sherry :)

[Totie]

Oh my....sorry to hear what you are going thru.

My BIL knees swells, BUT he had a shattered ankle & has many rods & pins in it due to a car accident.

I have known many people with your type of injury, and I can say, NOT ONE has ever had your issues, NOT ONE....They all did their excercises, like physical thearpy & ridding a stationary bike and stuff, but they never had this issue. Now some football players did, but that is because of playing to early...and not letting it heal.

I will say, their recovery time was 8 months....so your not quite there yet.

[jodie1973blue]

Hi Sherry...Good news...he listened and the picture did tell a thousand words....he rang my specialist n got me in to see him straight away. My GP explained to my specialist that my knee is swollen n that i had an impressive picture. But when i got to the specialist he kinda wouldnt or couldnt see the swelling...i was dumb founded that he couldnt see it as everyone else could. He did say thou that he thinks my muscle mass around my knee was really bad practically no muscle functioning which will cause the knee to track in the wrong way. Which is why when i do any activitie my knee becomes very sore n inflamed. So he recommended exercise....i was devastated in one way because for the past 6 months ive been doing two physio sessions two hydropherapy sessions and daily exercises at home. So i asked him how could i lose soooo much muscle mass if ive been doin all this for 6 months and he's response was they have been doing the wrong exercises.  I cryed n cryed n cryed. Went back to my GP n we have arranged for a second opinion as well as a new physiopherapist. So in one way it makes sence wat the specialist said but was devastating to hear ive been recieving the wrong treatment...my physio would have me lay on my tummy n force my knee to bend so my foot would touch my butt and i would scream cos it hurt so much and the specialist said he should not be bending my knee more than 5 or 10 degrees!  Ive decided to put the past 6 months behind me and concentrate on my new treatment plan...ive been warned its going to be another long road ahead of me but at least i can prepare myself mentally as well as physically.
I see the other specialist on the 21st of this month...even if he tells me the same thing at least ill know and rule out anything else.

Thank u for being here for me Sherry and i hope all is going well with your hip :)

Thanks again Jodie

[namnam46]

Jodie - I'm so sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner!!!  

Please tell me what your Doctor told you yesterday.  I hope that he listened to you and payed close attention to the pics that you took.  I still think that it was a brilliant idea of you to take those pictures as - "a picture is worth a thousand words"!!  

There's nothing more frustrating than when a Doctor won't or can't give you a diagnosis.  Just ask our CL - Tuckamore.  She went for years without ANY diagnosis and suffered, needlessly, in horrendous pain just because "no one got it"!!

There definitely is something wrong with your knee, just as I knew there was something wrong with my hip, and sure enough I was right.  Keep pushing and don't take silence, or "I don't know" for an acceptable answer!!

You know that we are here for you even if you just want to vent or whine!!  :)  We're excellent listeners!

I promise you that I won't miss your next update for such a long period of time.  So sorry about that.

I'll be looking forward to hearing about your visit with your GP and hoping it was "Good News"!!.........Sherry  :)

[jodie1973blue]

Thank u both for your responses. Helps just knowing someone is listening. So i truely appreciate it :)

I see a doctor regulary as it was thru workers comp so it is constantly monitored but no one has any real answers for me as to why it swells and becomes so painful...this is why i decided to take pics of the knee when swollen...i honestly dont think anyone believed me because of course when i see the doc or specialist it was never at its worse...usually swells most in the evenings after being on it all day...i work at a supermarket as a service assistant so normally i would be on my feet 9 hrs a day 38hrs a week. But the light duties im on only allows me to stand for half hour at a time n my knee isnt even handling that :(

Ive had another MRI which didnt show much....just said the tear was noted as repaired but no mention of the patallae tendon.

Last wednesday it was at its worst (thats wen the pic was taken) i went to see a different doc cos my regular GP was away and he said there was inflammation under the knee cap but he too could not answer why. This is where i get sooo frustrated as no one can tell me why it does what it does. I have sent the pic to a few different people and have requested to re visit the specialist or see a different specialist for another opinion but i am still waiting to hear back. Since wednesday thou i have completely rested it...i have done absolutely nothing on it not even physio or hydro and it has settled down alot with minimal pain...problem is i cant sit on my lounge all my life.

I go back to my GP on wednesday and i plan to show him the pic...fingers crossed he will start hearing what im trying to tell everyone....something is not right and there is definately something wrong with my knee.

Thanks again...helps just to talk about it...after 6 months of complaining to family and friends u kind of stop whinging to them cause i know if im over complaining im sure theyre over listening. xoxo

[kayla440]

I KNOW WHAT UR GOING THROUGH GIRL I HAD THE SAME SURGERY. IT SUCKED BIG TIME ESPECIALLY THE HEALING PROCESS. BUT IT SEEMS LIKE U SHOULD BE BACK ON TOP BY NOW! I REALLY FEEL  U SHOULD GET THAT KNEE LOOKED AT AGAIN, MAYBE ANOTHER MRI EVEN. THOSE PICS LOOK SUPER PAINFUL I FEEL SO BAD FOR YOU. MY SURGERY WAS ABOUT 6YRS AGO. I AM BEGINING TO FEEL LITTLE SORENESS BUT NOTHING MAJOR. BUT YOU MY DEAR NEED TO GET A SECOND OPINION FROM A DIFF DOC!!!!

[namnam46]

I wanted you to know that I looked at your pictures of your knee and I feel so very sorry for you!!!  I can only imagine that pain that you are suffering!!

Thinking of you............Sherry :)

[namnam46]

Hi jodie1973blue,

First, I want to welcome you to the PM (Pain Management) Forum and let you know that we are glad you found this Forum. We are all CP (Chronic Pain) Patients that help each other with our own expertise and experiences that we have developed through our own CP Issues.

Oh my, I'm so sorry to here of your extremely painful injury!!  The injuries that you sustained are extreme to say the least.  The fact that you suffered a "double" injury will make it that much longer and more painful a recovery for you!!  Bless your heart!!!

May I ask what type of work you do?  Are you on your feet most of the time?  It very well may be that your job will hinder your recovery.

You definitely need to contact your Doctor and let him/her know exactly what is happening with you leg and especially the new "stabbing" pain in your foot.  This is nothing to take lightly as you don't know what is causing this.  You need to be sure that you haven't re-injured your knee in some way or caused a complication to the surgery that was done. I'm hoping that you will call your Doctor immediately tomorrow morning to be sure that you have covered all of your bases so that you don't cause yourself a more lengthy recovery period.

When you have had surgery, on your knee or your hip (like I have) you must follow your Doctor's instruction, as well as your Physio and Hydrotherapy Therapist, instructions to the letter.  Now, please understand, I'm not saying that you haven't, I'm just re-interating how important it is.  I, also, know how easy it is to try to do more than you are because I did just that and I will be 65 on the 12th of this month. So, it just goes to show you that common sense doesn't have anything at all to do with age.  LOL  I felt so good after my THR (Total Hip Replacement) that when I got home 3 days after my surgery, I walked too much on it and caused my Femur to break!! :(  I wound up in re-hab for almost 2 months and couldn't put any weight on it for 2 additional months!!  Please,  know I'm truly now implying that you have done anything that you weren't supposed to do, I'm just letting you know what could happen if you did.

Be sure that you keep your leg propped up on a pillow to help with the swelling.  It's so very important.  I had problems with swelling for about 6 months after my surgery.  It can take a very long time for you to be able to recover from your surgery.  Unfortunately, that's just one of the problems with any type of knee or hip surgery.

Please keep us informed on what you find out from your Doctor.  If they don't suggest it, ask for an x-ray to be sure that there is nothing new going on with your knee.  

Again, I'm so very saddened that this has happened to you and especially all of the increased pain and side-effects that you are having from your surgery!!  

I'll be looking for your updates and I hope and pray that you get some really good results so that you won't have to suffer anymore than you already have.

Sending some "good thoughts" your way...........Sherry  :)