Torn and Repaired Meniscus - thoughts/input - When can i climb again?!?

I know Mt. Proj isn't really the best place for medical advice but after scrolling through the forums there hasn't been to much discussion on this particular injury so thought I'd get one started hopefully.

So I tore my left medial meniscus, no ACL/MCL/PCL damage so I'm lucky in that aspect. I had surgery 2 weeks ago to fully stitch and repair it, which was successful. I've started rehab and am still in a locked brace for at least 4 more weeks. So obviously no climbing for the next little bit but I was wondering who else has experienced this and when they started climbing again. The doc says no climbing for 6 months...but not sure if I can last that long without some climbing in my life. 

Anyways comments, thoughts, and suggestions are welcome 

Yep no Climbing for 6 months you had a repair done much longer recovery You need the time for the repair to heal properly you should be fine if you follow your instructions and do not over push things trying to get back soon

if you only had a clean up of the meniscus you would be down for 4 to 6 weeks so having a repair done takes longer recovery time take it easy follow your instruction and you will be good as new don't follow instructions and you will be back in for surgery 

Meniscus repair in July of 2014. 2 months strictly nonweightbearing, another month of gradually putting the weight on and learning to walk.

 I was told by the doctor that I would be "back to normal" at 4 months. My PT said that it would be about a year before i was truly back to normal. The PT was correct.

The normal that the dr meant was for everyday activities, such as walking. I did start climbing (toproping only) at 4 months. And I was leading at 6 months, and sending within 2letter grades of my best red point. 

But I was not able to jump at that point yet, landing from even couple feet high was impossible, and i was guarding the knee and backing off many routes that had a move that I thought could reinjure me.

 I was doing PT for about 9 months. My personal goal was to be able to get back into doing a one-legged squat on the affected leg. Once I was able to do that, I was able to cautiously start bouldering again. At was a year before I felt that I was able to climb normally, without guarding my knee and thinking about it on every tricky move

For me- right meniscus tear and repair February 2012. I wad foretunate to have a doctor and PT that were very athlete-oriented and were willing to push to get me back to activity reasonably quickly. The doctor said climbing at 4 months, 100% full strength at 1 year. This proved accurate.

My timing was as follows: Tear (high stepping on a route) in early February. Major tear, knee locked. Surgery 2 days later. Non weight bearing for 6 weeks. Limited walking and weight bearing began in late March. Walking improved through the spring, with lots of PT. Regaining range of motion was the main issue. 

Started climbing carefully in early June (4 months). Definitely no bouldering, and had to be careful with high steps, etc. Stuck to steep sport climbs with clean falls. Once I started climbing my knee's improvement really took off. The regular use strengthened it and increased the range of motion better than the PT. My climbing came back quickly too, and by mid-August I did my first 13b, my hardest route at that time. Dropping 8 pounds of leg muscle weight certainly helped. There were still certain moves, like aggressive high steps, tight knee bars, etc. that I had to avoid that summer.

I was able to start bouldering and running again that fall at around 8 months, but still had to be careful with those. 100% back to normal at 12 months. No issues since.

Note that I was 23 at the time of injury. Being young helped the recovery rate. Might take longer if you are older.

Three meniscus surgeries. Do your PT. Ride your bike if it is pain free,  When you feel strong enough to climb, go slow and give it a go.  My experience is more like six weeks, at least for being back on skis. You may want to use a neoprene brace for a while.

Scoop mentioned bike. Bike was really good for PT and strengthening, and also just being able to do something. Was able to pedal a bike about 10 weeks post surgery.

Thanks everyone. Seems like there's no quick way out of this one but appreciate the feedback. I was told the bike would become my new best friend once the brace comes off. So something to look forward to in the short run. glad to know what's coming down the line  

Another yes for a bike. That was a big part of my PT once I was allowed to put some weight on the leg. And I can't stress enough the importance of good Therapist who understands athletes! The PT I was originally sent to was worthless. 

JCM wrote:

For me- right meniscus tear and repair February 2012. I wad foretunate to have a doctor and PT that were very athlete-oriented and were willing to push to get me back to activity reasonably quickly. The doctor said climbing at 4 months, 100% full strength at 1 year. This proved accurate.

My timing was as follows: Tear (high stepping on a route) in early February. Major tear, knee locked. Surgery 2 days later. Non weight bearing for 6 weeks. Limited walking and weight bearing began in late March. Walking improved through the spring, with lots of PT. Regaining range of motion was the main issue. 

Started climbing carefully in early June (4 months). Definitely no bouldering, and had to be careful with high steps, etc. Stuck to steep sport climbs with clean falls. Once I started climbing my knee's improvement really took off. The regular use strengthened it and increased the range of motion better than the PT. My climbing came back quickly too, and by mid-August I did my first 13b, my hardest route at that time. Dropping 8 pounds of leg muscle weight certainly helped. There were still certain moves, like aggressive high steps, tight knee bars, etc. that I had to avoid that summer.

I was able to start bouldering and running again that fall at around 8 months, but still had to be careful with those. 100% back to normal at 12 months. No issues since.

Note that I was 23 at the time of injury. Being young helped the recovery rate. Might take longer if you are older.

Just got my diagnosis yesterday and searched MP and was happy to see such a new thread.

I too tore mine climbing I think. Same thing, high right foot. but mine didn't lock, just made a lot of noise. Didn't have much pain for a few months but it would pop and feel like crap while climbing hard. Finally got an MRI and it's a complex tear of posterior medial meniscus.

laaame

these recovery times are scaring me. My appointment with the surgeon is on Tuesday where I"ll find out the actual bad news. If I can I'll postpone the surgery till November so I can just sit out the winter. 

gtluke wrote:

Just got my diagnosis yesterday and searched MP and was happy to see such a new thread.

I too tore mine climbing I think. Same thing, high right foot. but mine didn't lock, just made a lot of noise. Didn't have much pain for a few months but it would pop and feel like crap while climbing hard. Finally got an MRI and it's a complex tear of posterior medial meniscus.

laaame

these recovery times are scaring me. My appointment with the surgeon is on Tuesday where I"ll find out the actual bad news. If I can I'll postpone the surgery till November so I can just sit out the winter. 

If it's been a few months for you already, and there is little pain, the surgery is unlikely to be urgent, and you can likely postpone it. A lot of people opt not to have surgery for a meniscus at all... I certainly was considering that option-- but very happy that i went on with the surgery.

But while winter sounds tempting as a downtime, consider that it is much harder to put on long pants over the leg you can't bend, and it is much harder to hop on crutches when the ground is icy, and traveling over the holidays is not fun with crutches, either.

There is never a good time to have a surgery... Also, depending on the tear, and your age, they might not repair it, just trip the torn parts, or remove the meniscus completely. And in that case, you can be weight-bearing pretty much the day or two after surgery, and the recovery is quicker. (but longterm prognosis in terms of arthritis, etc is better for the repair)

Lena chita wrote:

If it's been a few months for you already, and there is little pain, the surgery is unlikely to be urgent, and you can likely postpone it. A lot of people opt not to have surgery for a meniscus at all... I certainly was considering that option-- but very happy that i went on with the surgery.

But while winter sounds tempting as a downtime, consider that it is much harder to put on long pants over the leg you can't bend, and it is much harder to hop on crutches when the ground is icy, and traveling over the holidays is not fun with crutches, either.

There is never a good time to have a surgery... Also, depending on the tear, and your age, they might not repair it, just trip the torn parts, or remove the meniscus completely. And in that case, you can be weight-bearing pretty much the day or two after surgery, and the recovery is quicker. (but longterm prognosis in terms of arthritis, etc is better for the repair)

Thanks

I'm 37, I should find out what my options are from the surgeon Tuesday. I presume it's going to be cutting out the torn parts. The long term arthritis thing is what I've read about. I hope in 10-20 years they'll have a better solution when I need it. Even today I know a couple people who recently had total knee replacement and were back in business with complete mobility in a few weeks. 

Oh, and you assume on an average day I actually bother to put on pants ;)

My experience so far: I had the repair done and was told immediately that I could bear 50% of weight with the brace locked. I wasn't comfortable or strong enough to do this until about 2 weeks after surgery. I walked with the brace locked for 3-4 more weeks. There was lots of swelling and it was difficult to be up for long periods of time with the locked brace (couldn't really work for about 5 weeks). At 6 weeks, I got the okay from my surgeon to walk without the brace. It took me another 1-2 weeks to get comfortable with that. There was still lots of swelling when I was up for too long. I also got the okay to cycle at 6 weeks but didn't really feel strong enough to begin that until around week 7. Once I did begin to bike, my recovery began to really speed up. Biking helped with bending, straightening and all around strength in my atrophied leg. I am now at about 9 weeks and am walking around pretty normal without much pain or swelling. My PT has become much more involved and has included full weight and even small squats. I have been going on mini "hikes" that are about 2-3 miles long and then feel really tired after. In order to stay in shape I've been doing tons of pull-ups, push-ups, crunches, hang boarding, and some other stuff. The cycling has increased my emotional state tenfold. As far as pain goes, the surgery really wasn't too bad. Two years ago I had a plate and screws put into a broken ankle and compared to that, the knee pain has been a cake walk. My ortho said I should be able to climb again around 4 months. It's obviously a long process and not climbing is seriously hell but it seems like in the long run I'll be thankful for having my entire meniscus. I've also actually been able to stick to a training routine for once and I feel pretty strong in my upper body. It isn't fun to feel like you're falling behind but from previous injuries I've learned that keeping your mind right is key to healthy healing. Your body will appreciate the extra love.  If anyone has questions let me know.

Whoa, I had a totally different outcome to my meniscus surgery. My tear was really bad and the surgeon opted to stitch it up. They drilled a hole in my hip and extracted some bone marrow and spun it down to stem cells and injected it into my knee to aid the repair.

I could bear full weight that day but my knee was super stiff. I stayed in bed mostly for a day or two doing ice treatments and physical therapy started on day 3. 

I'm on day 16 now and I could run if I had to but I"m not supposed to.. I walk with a very slight limp still but I get around fine. Still taking it easy. If the PT doctor wasn't very strongly suggesting I not do anything active yet I'd be at the climbing gym and riding my mountain bike. The stitches are what made my recovery super long, I have to give that the maximum amount of time to heal as I can. 

Surgeon said that if he didn't stitch it and just removed it that I'd be done with PT by now and doing whatever I wanted. I am glad he stitched it though, I'll deal with the month of downtime now to put off getting arthritis. 

So you only have 1 month of downtime after a repair? How old are you? I hadn't ever heard of the extracted bone marrow thing but that sounds awesome!

Miranda Serene wrote:

Miranda Serene wrote:

So you only have 1 month of downtime after a repair? How old are you? I hadn't ever heard of the extracted bone marrow thing but that sounds awesome!

Yeah, the bone marrow extraction is awesome. I had a microfracture of my femur at the intercondylar ridge done with my meniscus repair, basically getting to the same thing but probably more painful in the site of major surgical trauma.  It was found that mensicus repairs done with an ACL repair had better healing rates than isolated meniscus repairs. The theory was that it was the drilling of ACL anchors into bone, which blede and weep bone marrow (stem cells and growth factors) onto the meniscus fibrocartilage that help facilitate repair. That's a similar idea behind PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections. 

Sounds like my recovery protocol was a lot like yours.. weight bearing under locked knee as tolerated. Weaning out of the brace with weight bearing after six weeks or so...

To all of you that read this post coming out of a repair, wear your goddamn brace. Even when you're not planing on weight bearing whatsoever. Why? Because accidents happen.

My recovery has been coming along super well three weeks post op. I was back to work (on crutches) three days after surgery and pain had largely subsided. I was flying down a hospital hallway where I was on a rotation to go admit a patient from the ED, when my crutch found a little puddle of standing water. I came down forcefully onto my surgical leg and completely loaded my knee in as deep of flexion as it would go. The #1 rule of my recovery protocol right now is no weight bearing past 90 degrees... So I broke that rule in a big way. Anyway, I laid on the flood writhing in pain for a good couple minutes, and now I have no idea if I've just stressed or completely compromised my repair, and neither does my surgeon. There's basically no "test" to see which if any of my dozen sutures holding my meniscus together are intact. An MRI will not be very sensitive. The only real thing that can be done is to re-scope it and see what's going on from the inside, with a back-up plan to revise the surgery, but of course with a tissue that would have much less integrity given the tears from sutures. the question would be, where can the surgeon anchor the new sutures without going through blown out/torn through meniscus? UGhhh. The lesson; wear your brace till you have regained full control..

OP-Dude, if you're going to get randos off MProj to give you sketchy medical advice, we obviously need to see your MRI. Duh.

Ryan, the microfracture sounds pretty wild. So they fracture down to the marrow? I wonder what the advantages are compared to typical autologous stem cell injection harvested from bone marrow.

Just gonna revive this thread for anyone google searching 'meniscus repair and rock climbing' or something similar. I had a repair of a large bucket handle tear of my lateral meniscus 9 weeks ago. I was told by my surgeon that I would not start climbing for 6 months because of all the twisting etc that is involved, and not back to full-on bouldering for 9 months. Today, I began bouldering in the gym again. I have essentially scrapped all the advice my surgeon gave me and have instead used athletic post-meniscal-repair protocols, advice from my PT, and common sense (using pain as my guide) instead. Surgeons who do a meniscal repair have personal interest in it being a 'successful' outcome, meaning the sutures take and hold and the meniscus heals. Because of this, they will give you extremely conservative timelines for everything. My doc said 6 weeks in the brace, I did 2. He said start PT at 6 weeks, I started at 2.

If you wait too long, your leg will atrophy and every step of the process will take longer and be more painful. Do your PT, use pain as your guide, and do not put your knee in any stupid positions that could cause the sutures to tear, especially in the first 6 weeks. With how I felt bouldering in the gym today, I'd say it will probably take another 2-3 months to be back dropkneeing, high steping, and intensively heel hooking. This would put my timeline at: 2 months, rather than 6, to begin climbing, and 4-5, rather than 9, to be back at full strength. Listen to your body over your surgeon, or anyone else for that matter. And good luck

Since this type of injury takes a long time to heal, it seems appropriate to revive an old thread and ask how people are doing?  Still climbing hard?  Have the repairs held up?

I was climbing a 45 degree wall and doing a heel hook with my knee at 90 degrees and the heel locked between a jug and the wall.  Reached up for a bad undercling, and didn't hold it.  Fell backwards, loaded the knee, and heard a POP.  No immediate pain or swelling, just minor pain the next day.  Orthopedic doctor said minor LCL sprain and possible meniscus tear.  Opted to wait a few weeks.  It seemed to get better on it's own.  I kept climbing on it, mountain biking, skiing, for about 3 weeks until I noticed it hurt just to hike and hurt just to do simple highsteps, the knee started to swell up, and deep squats caused sharp pain.

I've spent hours reading too much about meniscus surgeries, meniscectomies, and recovery times, and am about to go back in for that MRI.

I'm pretty well healed. I year after my surgery I went back for 6 more weeks of PT
I wasn't stretching my knee enough, and was subconsciously and consciencely protecting my knew so I developed a muscle imbalance and knee pain in both knees. They stretched me out, got good deep movement in my knee and strengthened the muscles I wasn't using. Knee pain went away after 2-3 weeks of PT, I'm way less afraid of using my knee and I try to be more diligent with stretching.
I'm climbing harder than I ever have, I'm still a little worried about weird movement like hard crack climbing with twisting my foot and pushing up super hard but I live on the East coast so it's not really relevant.
In summary having a GOOD pt Dr and doing what they say is super important. 

5 years out for me. The knee is normal, I don’t think about it, no limitations  I can heel hook, kneebar, dropknee, heel/toe cam, do pistol squats... basically, everything I need to.