Torn meniscus in knee, first told it was osteoarthritis

Yes, I have torn the meniscus twice in the left knee. It is really not that hard to do either. In my case I twisted my knee both times. The first time it was months before they could figure out what was going. The orthopedic scoped it & could not find a tear. My knee continued to swell, he would take fluid off of it nothing worked. He ended up referring me to a knee specialist & he scoped my knee again & fixed the problem. I highly suggest you get in either with a knee specialist or sports medicine dr.. My first ortho was great & I truly liked him. At least he didn't have an ego for me to deal with & he knew there was a problem.

My last 2 surgeries were in 06 on both knees. Things have really changed now with treatment of knees. Not all meniscus tears require surgery. Depending on the tear a lot time the drs prefer to let them heal on their own & put the patient in PT. My neighbor did this a few years ago. His dr wanted him in a pool doing his exercises. It was summer time so he used my pool for rehab. Even when surgery is done no more putting people on crutches, I was glad I was terrible with crutches. Odds are good that you are not doing any further damage to the knee walking on it.

If a scope is needed its done as an outpatient. You keep the knee iced & elevated & you are allowed to walk on the leg. Things are much different as I said.

I hope all goes well with the appt, but I urge you to consider the two types of drs I mentioned. Take care.

Just checking to see how you are doing with your knee. Were you able to get the MRI & see a knee specialist?

I would obtain a copy of the written report of the MRI. There should be a written report available now. Tell them you have the CD, but you are not a radiologist & cannot read it. I would call the facility where it was done & ask for medical records dept.. All you have to say is you keep a copy of your medical records.

Drs usually leave a Baker's cyst alone because if they remove one they tend to come back. My son has had one for years & two different drs said it is best to leave it alone. Hopefully the PT will help your knee. Depending on the severity of the tear they can heal on their own. My neighbor when he was in his 20's was into racing motorcycles. He crashed, broke both arms & had a tear of the meniscus. His dr did not want to scope his knee. Instead he recommended water therapy. The dr gave him a sheet of exercises to do & he did them in my pool faithfully. It was summer time so there was no need to spend money when he had access to a pool.

Take care.

Hi, jeanneac,

A few years ago, I fell on both knees and injured them, the right knee the worst. I went through what you have, going from doctor to doctor. I finally found an Orthopedic specialist who examined my knees and then did xrays and said that I have osteoarthritis in the backs of my knees and that I have a torn meniscus in my right knee. We went through all of the treatment offers and we decided that I would do the Physical Therapy and keep my knees wrapped with an ace bandage and keep my legs up and resting as much as I could.

I decided to use biomagnets on my knee (the north side against my skin) wrapped in my ace bandage. I have used biomagnets before on my lower back from a car accident with an bulging disc. I only use biomagnets from a USA company and would never buy from an mlm/networking company.

Within a few months, my knee was much better, about 75% better. Torn meniscuses take a very long time to heal. Within another 6 months, I felt it was pretty much healed, except that over the years since, my knee would act up and I would feel pain. Then I learned about an herb that I have heard heals torn ligaments and repairs fractured bones and that is Comfrey. A few days ago,. when I felt a burning pain in my knee, I rubbed Comfrey Salve into my knee, front and back and all around the knee area, up to 4 inches above my knee and also below my knee. Within a few minutes, almost all the pain was gone. Everytime I felt the pain again, which was about every 4 hours, I massaged the Comfrey in. After 48 hours of using it, I have no pain! Incredible! I wish that I had known about Comfrey when I first injured my knees! Of course, I would have had to use it for a longer time back then. Right now, I am going to keep using Comfrey on my knee for awhile longer.

The brand I am using is HerbPharm Original Salve which has Comfrey, St. John's Wort, Calendula and Chickweed in it...all healing herbs.

(I also have fibromyalgia, hashimoto's, and, suspect that I have RA)