questions about my meniscus tear

Miltk,

Sorry I just saw your posting for the time now.

I am not a medical professional. This is a layman speaking.

(1) Make an appt with your ortho. You could have reinured the meniscus

(2) Aske your doctor to show you and explain the MRI image to you. Where is the tear? On the inside or outside of the knee? What kind of a tear is it? Is it near the surface of the knee or close to the interior of the knee? There are blood vessels on the outer ring of the meniscus but not the interior. Blood supplies can bring about healing. Interior of the meniscus may not heal.

(3) What the treatment is depends on the type of the tear. The ortho would know that. Please note shaving off the torn part means you have less total meniscus area to support the upper leg bone. Whether this is the best option depends on the type of the tear, whether the tear can heal on its own. Over decades, the cartilege on the upper leg can wear out faster if there is less meniscus to cushion it, leading to arthithritis.

(3) Pain means your meniscus is injured. No pain and the knee buckles is not necessary better. The knee bucles or the leg "feels weak" could be a sign of meniscus tear.

(4) It's very normal (but not a good sign) that the pain comes and goes, or even migrates to different parts of your knee. That does NOT necessarily mean your meniscus has healed in between the episodes. Meniscus could take months to heal, if it heals.

Please take care.

i got an mri and the ortho surgeon said i have a meniscus tear. he said i should get it fixed before a possibility of my knee buckling and making it worse. i have some questions.

history: i happened a few months ago, it started out slight and got worse" it was painful to stand up after sitting, but once i did i could "walk off" the pain. getting up was always the rough part. the pain started to subside, and after a couple of weeks i had no issues standing though my knee still bothered me. after a longer while the pain totally disappeared. all this time i was using the recumbant bike.

when the pain was gone i found i could do my power walks again so one day i decided to try the treadmill for 20 minutes. everything was ok, but the next day the pain came back, only not as intense as the first time. the recovery period was much quicker and in less than two weeks i was ok again. i started doing elliptical training and biking.

i went another two months with absolutely no pain...and then two weeks ago it came back,,this time as intense as the first occurance. this is when i had an mri and the ortho surgeon said i had a meniscus tear. he said i should get it looked after soon, but i could still do the elliptical training and biking.

note: a characteristic of my problem is that sometimes my knee kind of locks or cracks(as one would crack one's knuckles). it doesn't hurt but the sensation is one of instability.

questions:
1...if i have this tear that should be cared for as soon as possible, then why am i cleared to do biking and elliptical( i realize they are non-impact, but i do them very intensely.

2...does getting the tear "shaved down" or whatever, eliminate this sensation of instability, this cracking/locking? i would think not.

3... why do these pain episodes have a pattern, ie they occur, they get better,,,rather than being random?

4...if there is this tear that is causing the pain, why isn't the pain always present? why does it go away, heal, come back, and heal again.

i would like to know what is happening. btw,,,the ortho surgeon never told me if it was severe, never told me what kind of meniscus tear i had. at that time i was at a loss for questions. the pain is near the front, slightly inside and below the kneecap, at the bulge which i believe to be the rounded top of the tibia.