All the years of being overweight and inactive have caught up with my left knee, and now it looks as though I am going to have to have arthroscopic knee surgery to "smooth" out the bone. Has anyone had this done? I am scared of going under the knife again. LB was my first surgery, and it went fine, but I am not looking forward to another surgery. Plus, I always hear people say that knee surgery really doesn't even help knee problems. Any thoughts, experiences, opinions?

I had knee surgery over 6 years ago. I had a little tear in my anterior cruciate ligament about 12 years ago. My knee started giving me more problems than normal, so I found a surgeon who agreed with me something was wrong with it. He had to totally replace the whole ligament, it was gone. They did have to shave some bone away, something about women having a narrower path for the ligament. He did it with a scope and he let me stay awake so I could watch. It was so cool. It definately helped with the problems I was having. But I did have to go through 4 months of physical therapy. Luckily I was young and healed much faster than they anticipated. I was walking without crutches only a week after surgery instead of the normal 3-4 weeks. I decided to have the spinal block instead of general anesthesia because 1) I really wanted to watch, but more importantly 2) I didn't want them to put me under and not wake up. But it was fine, and all is still well.

Cynthia

I had knee surgery in July of 1996. I had torn all of the tendons in my knee. They also told me I would probably have to have a knee replacement, but to go as long as I could.

The recovery was fast, i.e., could get around, but it took a good year or two to be pain free. It was really a slow process for me. One thing that was bad is they gave me antiinflamtory meds. That caused me to have 6 polups in my stomach which was removed a year later. It was no fun.

I did the hyalgan injections and they did nothing. I appreciated the honesty of the orthopedic surgeon who told me "the knee is gone and all you can do is a total replacement." He told me if I "shopped around" I might get a surgeon to do an arthoscopic procedure but that it would not produce any positive outcome.

You are young so I suspect your knee damage is not yet near an "end-stage" level. Get at least 2 opinions before you make a decision. Also, you might want to hold off now that you're losing weight. Each pound of weigh lost take 3 pounds of pressure off weight bearing joints (hips, knees).

I tore the anterior cruciate ligament and a tendon in my leg. The x-ray showed the knee filled with arthritis. I didn't want to have surgery while visiting in Tennessee. I wanted to be able to go home to Idaho for my surgery....so they did arthroscopic surgery on that knee. If anything it is worse than it was before. It didn't fix one single thing. I am still limping on it, and still planning on getting home with it to have my surgery. I have to get my fills here first though. I too need a total knee replacement, but am trying to hold off as long as possible.

In 2001 I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee to repair some tears in the meniscus, and to do a lateral release of the patella. My kneecap (patella) was being pulled very tight and sliding out of place to the outside of the knee, because the muscle was too tight, so they cut it--the lateral release. I also had a bone biopsy due to a tumor they found in the fibula as they were prepping me for surgery. I was very careful with it for a few weeks, then went to PT on it for several weeks. I made a FULL recovery, no pain anymore, it is so much better!!!

Then I was in a car wreck a year ago, and my left knee was crammed into the dash/door...and the meniscus was damaged. I didn't even hesitate to have it repaired. I had the surgery, again it was fully succesful. Since it was just the "cleaning up" this time, I did not require any PT, I was back to my walking routine within a couple of weeks. In fact my settlement from the accident hurting my knee is how I paid for my band!!!

Both surgeries were done under full anesthetic, in a day surgery setting. As soon as I was fully awake, and able to drink, and swallow pain medication with a couple of crackers, I was allowed to go home. The first, and more invasive surgery, I wore a brace for several weeks, the 2nd, a simple bandage. Both times I went to see the Dr. the following morning for a bandage change, and then 7-10 days later.

I had both surgeries done when I was in my heaviest weight range, and still had no problems whatsoever. They both relieved the pain. I would enter into it again with full confidence, especially now with the weight going down, which was a recommendation by the surgeon both times...imagine!!!

Best of luck to you!!!

Kat

I think the surgery didn't work for me because of the amount of arthritis in the knee. It is going to take a complete knee replacement to fix that. Glad you did so well.