My knee heard that I turn 30 this year
Yeah feel you. I am an immigrant but anytime I get sick or even for things like dental my instinct is still “don’t even think about going to a hospital.”
Hell,even my work-assigned medical checkup had me sweating. Not the results - I’m quite healthy - just wondering if a massive bill would come out of nowhere later on.
Knees are hard. It seems like surgery should be the answer but it doesn’t always help much, so then you’re stuck with meds/shots which are also only moderately effective. I had three scopes, several years of meds (biking, PT, and celebrex were more effective than the shots), and finally had partial replacements on both last year.
Preface: the American healthcare system is a broken racist, inefficient, and profit driven mess of ineffective care.
Take: Meniscus injuries are very difficult to identify in some cases anyway. Even if you were in a healthcare system that works well, it might not have been identified. The special tests for meniscus tears are not very reliable. The best ones rely on a patient’s own subjective assessment of stability. So as a clinician, I have to rely on subjective information in the special tests and my own subjective opinion on the signs and symptoms a patient provides. The gold standard for diagnosis is MRI and due to limited resolution I’ve had multiple patients with torn menisci not have anything show up in MRI results.
Now, if you correctly identify a torn meniscus, surgical interventions aren’t great either depending on location, extent of damage, and type of tear. Sometimes the best thing the surgeon can do is remove damaged tissue and clean up the area. The lack of blood flow means that reparability of tears isn’t great. Sometimes you’re fucked if you do and fucked if you don’t. Fortunately, there have been advances in outcomes lately and hopefully that continues. But for now, sometimes the best option if you’re not overly active is delaying surgical intervention until a knee replacement is a viable option.
Sad to say I agree. I had a serious knee injury this year (ruptured patellar tendon) and after a few months I started getting sharp pains in that knee. The consultant said it was probably a torn meniscus - “It might get better, it might not.”
I’m 73, so yeah, it might not. I can walk unaided though, so I’ve got that going for me.
Word of advice. At 73 you might not want to be too patient. If it starts to affect how active you are, address it. At your age, once mobility is gone it doesn’t like coming back.
The saying I’ve heard from the ortho I work with is, “if they roll in(in a wheelchair or walker), they’ll be rolling forever.”
It’s not just strength that goes, it’s the will, balance, and neuromuscular function.
Yes, thanks, I’m aware. I’m very active, fear not (mainly walking, rowing, swimming, gardening, DIY). Healing takes significantly longer. But I’m not sitting around waiting to get better - the reason for the torn meniscus was doing the post-surgery exercises a bit too vigorously. It does seem to be healing ok.
You sound like awesome! I hope to be as active as you at 73 and beyond. Already a pretty tough road for me going forward though. 30 years old and 2 knee surgeries in, but thankfully I’m in the health field and can manage my own rehabilitation. Keep on rocking!
My friends and I call it “sniper’s alley” - you keep moving, people are dropping around you, falling to cancer, heart disease, accidents, and you keep going, hoping not to catch a bullet. It’s easy to get downhearted - so many bloody funerals! - so we make sure to have fun too. My friend group is fantastic, I’m very lucky.
Good luck to you going forward!
There’s no American Healthcare System - there are numerous medical systems, insurance approaches, etc.
I say this as someone who’s used numerous healthcare insurance models.
The worst are HMO. Those are the kind of systems most people rail about.
If you have PPO insurance, getting something addressed is much easier as those doctors are independent and not beholden to a bureaucratic system, so can operate as scientists, not party-line holders.
Edit: If you’re young and healthy, look into high-yield health saving accounts (not the HSA everyone gets from work, this is a different thing). The idea is you put money into the account, and whatever you don’t use that year remains in there, with the interest.
You pay for stuff out of pocket (from the account) up to a max, then insurance kicks in.
Wish I’d done this through my 20’s and 30’s, where I spent very little time at the doc.
Can confirm.
I had a minor medial meniscus tear. One surgery (small trim, not repair) and almost 2 years of post-surgery PT later and my pain is finally on a path of improvement. My ability to walk long distances was very limited, but finally it’s back. I am in my late 20s.
Yea, I’ve been thinking about when it could have happened, and I still can’t figure it out. I probably tore it and didn’t know. However, I’ve had a minor knee pain for a couple weeks and the pain just started ramping up a few days ago
I am 31 and dealing with the system over a repetitive strain from my current job.
Oof, good luck. I can send you info about the ADA if you think it would help
Where have you moved to?
