Any vet rowing after a meniscectomy?
Henry Law
anterior meniscus (sometimes caused by the disease TMB* from which I
suffer, but in my case possibly the result of an accident), and says he
can sort it out. Day patient, general anaesthetic, small holes in the
knee, all that.
He tells me that the patient can put load on the knee immediately (i.e.
can walk out of the hospital, maybe with crutches for stability), couple
days off work, and back to non-impact exercise in maybe three weeks.
And I did confess to being a rower...
Are there any other-than-young rowers in the group who have had this
procedure? How does it affect rowing/sculling?
*TMB: Too Many Birthdays; 58 in my case.
--
Henry Law Manchester, England
Alexander Lindsay
"Henry Law" <ne...@lawshouse.org> wrote in message
news:v9adnbjj_Pm_1ZHW...@giganews.com...
Henry
Fear not. From my experience, it's not a problem. I had one kneed done
(both sides) about 30 years ago, and the other (one side only) about 10
years ago, and am still rowing regularly and competitively, but usually
unsuccessfully, aged 73.
Complete recovery after the first one, and after the second I can do almost
anything I want to except run, which is quickly seriously painful. But that
may just be age.
What was remarkable was the difference between the two ops. For the first I
was in hospital for about 10 days, had a lot of pain and was on crutches and
off work for about 3 weeks. The second one was exactly as you describe. In
hospital for about 4 hours and walked out carrying the crutches that they
said they had to give me.
So there really is some progress in this world.
Alexander Lindsay
Anne Rogers
experience, have you had an MRI? I had knee surgery 9 years ago, aged
21, so TMB wasn't my problem, ortho said torn meniscus or damaged plica
(not sure if I spelt that right), the first would show on MRI the 2nd
wouldn't, so he should just go in and look and sort it out, so I agreed.
Turned out to be a case of him saying it could be A or B and it actually
being C, which I can't even explain very well, but the surgery was a
lateral release, which is much more significant surgery, lot more rehab
etc. when I've had to go through my medical history with a physio or
orthopedic doctor I always get nods about that being a bad one!
If the diagnosis is right, this really does seem to be one of those
surgeries that is pretty straight forward and easish to recover from,
even for the more advanced in age. It seems to me with knee surgeries
that the problem isn't so much the surgery itself, but getting the right
diagnosis, sometimes you find things "wrong" which surgery can fix and
unfortunately find that isn't the cause of the pain. If you can get a
recommendation for a good physio I'd definitely consider an opinion from
a non surgeon as well (sorry if you've been through all this and I'm
just sticking my nose in, but I figured 5mins for me to post this and
maybe it will help someone!).
Cheers
Anne
david.h...@aea.be
Sounds like what I had three or four years ago. My GP told me I
probably wouldn’t row again, the X-ray man told me I definitely
wouldn’t row again, but I found a surgeon who had been an oarsman and
he told me that not only I could, but I must: folks with dodgy knees
(I also have a kneecap problem, but I have to live with that) can only
do three forms of exercise to keep their weight down – rowing, cycling
and swimming. And keeping your weight down, he said, is far more
important for your knees than the odd bit of exertion.
Like Alexander I was in & out of the clinic and didn’t see the need
for the crutches. Rehabilitation was a lot longer than you describe,
though, I think it was three months that I was banned from boat and
ergo, may even have been four (‘younger people recover much more
quickly’, said the Doc). Because I’d been out of the boat for a while
before the op, I had no exercise at all, apart from the rehabilitation
physio, for seven months and lost all my fitness, as well as putting
on a fair bit of weight.
Right now I’m fine again. The other knee gives me the odd twinge and
I fear that I’ll have to have the same done to it one day. But I’m as
fit as I was before and as of last Saturday my 2k erg score is ten
seconds better than just before the op.
I’ve had 2MB than you, by the way.
Good luck,
David
carolinetu
and stiffness. Recovery took about 6 weeks, but the knee now seems to
be as good as new.
Having achieved the requisite number of birthdays, he expects to be
spending a lot more time with his boat in future....
By the way, Alexander - why on earth would you WANT to run?
Caroline
Zbigniew Andruszkiewicz
> he told me that not only I could, but I must: folks with dodgy knees
> (I also have a kneecap problem, but I have to live with that) can only
> do three forms of exercise to keep their weight down – rowing, cycling
> and swimming. And keeping your weight down, he said, is far more
> important for your knees than the odd bit of exertion.
My doctor told me many years ago that all people who are tall have problems
with the spine by default and all people who are heavy have problems with
knees. How's about ex veteran rowers who are tall and heavy?
Swimming -- YES! BUT STAY AWAY FROM BREAST STROKE!!! During breast stroke
there are lateral forces trying to bend your leg sideways. It puts a lot of
strain on side ligaments. When I had serious troubles with my knees by the
end of my elite rowing career so I couldn't run anymore, I started swimming
instead, up to 5 km on one session. I swam breast stroke cause it was the
only style I could use for endurance training. That made things even worse.
Much worse.
Both rowing and cycling are excellent cause they are impact free and the
weight is supported by the seat. Actually, very often cycling (on a
stationery bike) is used for rehabilitation after surgery.
When I was close to finish of my semi professional rowing career (finished
at age 25), one of the best knee surgeons available in the country said that
I must operate ASAP, otherwise I might not be able to walk at all, pretty
soon. Yet I never let anyone to touch my knees with a scalpel! I would never
trust a surgeon -- they insist on operation cause otherwise they are not
needed! :-))
And that was more than 25 years ago!
Some years later I had a period that I couldn't drive a car more than 15
minutes at the time without unbearable pain. So I took cycling. Despite my
weight totally unsuitable for MTB , after few years I was one of the best in
Poland in Masters category, with races up to 220 km. Since then my knees are
not so much of a problem anymore.
However, being heavy, watch out for your prostate! Buy yourself a good seat!
--
Yours Virtually, Zibi
Alexander Lindsay
"carolinetu" <carol...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:4fc8a6d7-a7a5-4d72...@c3g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
Caroline, why on earth would you want to row?
I loved running. Its natural, free, solitary, and can be in lovely
surroundings.
As a young man (i.e < 40) I raced middle distance and cross country. As I
slowed up I changed to orienteering (= slow runnimng + tired thinking) at
which cunning defeats mindless speed. Then in middle age beagling. And at
59 I did a marathon, just for the hell of it. Horrible.
The only running I have really hated is Remenham Hill before breakfast.
But running is great. Try it one day.
Alexander
Henry Law
> Painful knee, saw orthoman this morning
Thank you all for informative, interesting and hopeful replies. I'll
try to remember to post on this thread after the event, for future
reference. One way or another ... ahem.
Henning Lippke
> However, being heavy, watch out for your prostate! Buy yourself a good seat!
carolinetu
wrote:
> "carolinetu" <carolin...@aol.com> wrote in message
Only joking! Lots of my friends enjoy running, and maybe I would too
if I was better at it (which undoubtedly involves losing a fair amount
of weight!).
Zibi's comment about knee pain when driving a car is interesting -
that was my husband's experience too. Rowing (even on an ergo) seems
to alleviate it.
C
Robert Treharne Jones
just wanted to add my two penn'orth - overall the advice given already
sounds reasonable.
Trimming a meniscus really should be no problem these days - all the
surgery is done arthroscopically, unlike the old days of open surgery
when it really did cause major disruption to the joint to have the
(entire) cartilage removed - a procedure which was often followed by
premature arthritris of the joint itself. A plica, by the way, is
simply where the lining of the joint has become folded and thickened
and starts getting trapped between the bits which are moving as the
joint flexes and extends. Again, it can usually be trimmed without
causing problems to subsequent knee function. A lateral release, on
the other hand, is where the patella (kneecap) is not sliding straight
up and down the groove on the front of the lower end of the femur, but
is being pulled sideways, causing pain where it rubs excessively on
the outer margins of that groove. By dividing some of the lateral
fibres of the quadriceps muscle which are wrapped around the entire
kneecap, it allows the patella to assume its (hopefully) midline
position.
Knee pain when driving a car, whether or not you have pre-existing
knee pathology, is often the net result of a driving position in which
the pedals are offset sideways from the midline. Try a different car!
(Dr) Robert
Zbigniew Andruszkiewicz
While cycling we have to seat on a groin, there's no way around that.
I'd look for a seat that provides support more on its sides, not only in a
middle. Most of the saddles with so called "anatomic hole" are like that,
provided they are not too narrow.
I've got several seats, some expensive some not, but none of them is as good
as cheap no-name seats we have in stationary bikes in the club. :-)
The one I use most these days is model "Zoo" from this collection:
http://www.sportourer.com/eng/
--
Yours Virtually, Zibi
freeheelfunhog
> Painful knee, saw orthoman this morning, he says it's a tear in the
> anterior meniscus (sometimes caused by the disease TMB* from which I
> suffer, but in my case possibly the result of an accident), and says he
> can sort it out. Day patient, general anaesthetic, small holes in the
> knee, all that.
I just had this procedure less than 3 weeks ago and was cycling on a
trainer on the third day and rowing within a week. In fact, the doctor
said I could do just about anything, to use pain as my guide. Getting
in the boat was the hardest at first, and also lifting the boat out of
the water. My neighbor, a cyclist and rower, was on the bike trainer
the very next day.
My knee is considerably better already than it was before the surgery,
though I wouldn't play an aggressive game of basketball. The scars are
tiny, barely visible.
Torsten
PS Do not schedule a colonoscopy within a few days.. (too much
information)
Anne Rogers
> Zibi's comment about knee pain when driving a car is interesting -
> that was my husband's experience too. Rowing (even on an ergo) seems
> to alleviate it.
That's interesting as when I had my knee problems I didn't have a car.
I've recently been having problems with the other knee and the main
problem is climbing stairs, it comes and goes, so from time to time I
have an embarassing moment where I'm out and about, go to climb stairs
and yell involuntarily from the sudden sharp pain. Not noticed any
problems driving though, but then it's my left knee at the moment and we
have an automatic, so it's not having to do anything!
Cheers
Anne
Henry Law
> just wanted to add my two penn'orth - overall the advice given already
> sounds reasonable.
The usual magisterial material from RTJ. I always learn a lot from what
you write: thank you.
My ortho-man knew a little about rowing and rowers - that it was
non-impact and good all round exercise; and that top-flight rowers were
awesomely fit!