Torn meniscus. . . am I crazy

[Eventer55]

I went to my doc yesterday and then to the xray dept and I have a torn meniscus (not serious, but not great) My doc recommended that I not ride at VHT, so I cancelled. She was concerned that what if something happened while jumping and I twisted my knee and the pain (which can be excruciating) would cause me to not recover and have a bad fall. BTW my doc is a serious dressage rider. So, am I crazy for cancelling and not risking more damage??? Or should I have gone and risked it?

Riding itself does not cause problems, but a wrong twist or something else is the risk I would have taken.

I haven’t heard back from the ortho people yet on how to proceed, I’ll probably hear on Monday. I hope I did the right thing in being cautious, it’s hard when you’re a serious competitor :((

[littleum]

You are not crazy and your doctor was probably right: if you are in so much pain you might not be able to save yourself in a bad situation, then you should not risk being in a bad situation!

You can also really wreck the rest of your knee favoring a tear. A tear can be fixed in a quick surgery and has a quick recovery. If you tear an MCL/ACL or rip up the inside of your knee, you are looking at months of rehab, your knee possibly never being quite right again and ongoing pain/instability. I imagine it was probably the fear of you taking a bad step and REALLY doing a number on your knee that’s the actual overriding concern.

[Donkaloosa]

You are not crazy nor is the doc. If a piece of the meniscus gets caught in the joint, believe me, the pain is excruciating and you probably wouldn’t be able to recover and could have a nasty fall.

[HannahsMom7]

wow! i have had all kinds of pain in my knee from a cyst on my meniscus. the cyst indicates a tear in my meniscus.

I cannot go up and down stairs except by 1 step at a time.
I am planning on having the Arthroscopy surgery done in mid Dec.

If I twist that knee, the pain is incredible. I don’t know if I could ride at all.

I think cancelling is a good choice. I am 59 and used to ride.

[romewhip]

I have a torn meniscus and a torn tendon in my knee right now, and will have surgery in a couple of weeks. I would certainly agree with your doc on not riding- not because it hurts that much now, but because the chance of doing far worse damage is high and because you’ll put it under stress just the right way and be in a shocking amount of pain all of a sudden that could lead to inadvertently moving that then throws your horse off at a critical time such as taking off at a jump or a transition.

[ryansgirl]

The pain from a torn meniscus is excruciating :eek:. I swear that hurt more than my completely torn ACL. I had surgery to fix both but my meniscus was shredded and the surgeon had to remove all of it (anything of high impact is not on my list of things to ever do again!). You were smart to cancel - its not worth the risk. I really wouldn’t do anything until you meet with the specialists. Hope you heal fast!

[2DogsFarm]

Agree with everyone - the pain is truly like nothing else.
BUT:
I tore one of mine over 5yrs ago and (after seeing my MRI) the orthopod told me arthroscopic surgery was recommended, but not immediately necessary.
He told me I’d know when I needed to have it fixed.
So I delayed…and delayed…
And somehow it managed to heal itself to the point where it is no longer a problem.
I even have trouble remembering which knee.

So while I’d certainly not ride in an event when pain was present, hopefully with rest you could “Get lucky” like I did.
BTW: I’m now 63 and riding is a total non-issue.

[judybigredpony]

Agree, just recovered from a severely torn Meniscus…driving was excruciating…and once you get the surgery it’s gone…I was back riding in 6 days…best surgery I ever had!!

Get surgery now and move on with your riding career.
I waited way to long and lost a lot of riding!!

[vali]

I had the triple whammy of knee injuries last winter - torn ACL, torn lateral collateral ligament, and bad meniscus tear. The weird thing was that it hurt on impact, but I was able to get up and skiing, and walk around. It felt weird and somewhat unstable, but not excruciating. I had surgery in April and it’s doing well now. DH just had a bad meniscus injury, a displaced bucket handle tear across almost the entire meniscus, and he also didn’t have that much pain or swelling. It was also somewhat unstable and he couldn’t straighten his leg entirely, so I insisted he see a knee specialist after the first doctor blew him off and said it was most likely a strained MCL. Knee specialist saw him and immediately saw what it was, then operated on him the same week after doing an MRI. If he had waited and walked around on it for a few weeks then they probably would not have been able to repair it and would have removed it instead, so you need to be cautious and see a knee specialist.

[Eventer55]

Thanks everyone, I’m going to the ortho/knee Doc Tuesday and am hoping for the best. I’ve been wearing a brace and taking care of it. The biggest part is the not doing anything although I have almost no pain now. . . I’m behaving myself.