16.5 Months Later - I am happy and active

[sandiegosteve]

So, it has been a while since I posted.

Cutting to the chase, my knee feels great, and I am much better than I was before the surgery.

I had a double microfracture with a meniscus repair. The key spot was at the end of my femur in a load bear area. The other was under my kneecap.
Even until fairly recently, I still had a fair amount of pain with the first couple of steps that I would take after sitting for a long time. Now I rarely even notice it.

The hardest part was the rehab in conjunction with my desk job. Rebuilding the muscle and stretching out the tight tendons doesn't happen while at my desk or driving to customer sites.

Doing my therapy, getting in the pool and not pushing it too hard has paid off. I am not riding fairly hard again on my bike and doing some base weights in the gym. I can be stronger, and my fitness could get better, but that is not because of my knee.


Without a doubt, I chalk this one up as a success.

I have gone back to see Dr. Behr a number of times with pain and swelling. He explained it was normal and that I was probably trying too hard. He said it happens to most people a number of times during rehab, and that I would just need to relax a bit.

Cheers and good luck to all.

[madel23]

Thanks for your post! How long after surgery did your knee feel worse than before? I had microfracture of the trochlear groove 3 months ago, and mine is still worse. I can't ride on the bike as hard and I can't do deep water running or do wall sits, though I could do those things the day before my surgery. Basically flexion with any sort of force at all is bothering me. I'm hoping this doesn't indicate failure.

[sandiegosteve]

Thanks for your post! How long after surgery did your knee feel worse than before? I had microfracture of the trochlear groove 3 months ago, and mine is still worse. I can't ride on the bike as hard and I can't do deep water running or do wall sits, though I could do those things the day before my surgery. Basically flexion with any sort of force at all is bothering me. I'm hoping this doesn't indicate failure.

Well, my knee felt pretty grim for about 9 months when I was trying to use it.

It took a good 6 months to get flexibility.
From 6-9 months things would go nice, then I would get swelling and pain. After about 9 months, that cycle stopped. I even had that happen at about 11 months.
I didn't try wall sits for a long time, just too hard on my knee and other weak muscles. Swimming a little with a kick board helped a lot.
Remember, you are doing tow things. Strength and stability. Both take time, particularly if you are not 16 any more and have a job with a desk. Trying to do strength without stability will make things worse.


I'm now very close to two years.
Yesterday I rode 63 km (I switched to KM from miles after the surgery so I didn't so easily see how much slower I am going). Time doesn't lie and my times up the hard climbs were normal. 680 meters of climbing and I still averaged just over 29 kph. That is 18 mph, which isn't bad for climbs over 10% a number of times.
Now that is not a big ride by any means, but it was the first one over 2 hours (2:10) that I've had since even before surgery. The rest of my body was tired before my knee. A very good sign! :-)

[jt10]

Thanks for posting this. I am at just over 4 months post microfracture to the medial femoral condyle and still have pain and swelling with certain activities. I also have a general ache and heavy feeling in the operated knee. By far the worst things are stairs - I just can't seem to get past the pain. My physio keeps pushing me to do stairs as he says it will break down scar tissue, but they are so aggravating and my knee swells up and is very painful after I attempt them.

I have been feeling kind of down and wondering if my knee will ever feel better. Your post has given me hope that if I keep working hard at my rehab things will eventually improve. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
Thank you

[chariotson]

I'm 7 months post now, with an MF on a 12mm medial femoral condyle chip.

I do have some pain in certain situations, but there are at least three types of pain for me, in the operated region (bad), scar tissue (ignore) and knee cap (which I'm able to push through).

Based on what my OS said to me, watch out for the pain in the operated region and don't push that. I can generate a little pain in that region while standing on the operated leg and knee bending, but in general I've got almost no pain in there now.

I was able to start running at about 4 1/2 months, although I limited my running considerably. I started playing soccer about 1 month ago, and played 30 minutes on Sunday and scored a goal!!!!

I would say my operation was a success, but I think the rehab never ends on this kind of injury.

I'm 41 years old, and the OS said the rest of my cartliage was in good shape. I had very little swelling and a bit of scar tissue.

[ski-bum]

Thanks so much for posting longer term post-op stories and comments about how you are all feeling. I am 8 weeks post microfracture to my left medial condyle in a weight bearing area. I was NWB for 6 weks and then instructed to ambulate to FWB as tolerated. I am still struggling to walkwithout a limp and have some pain in the area of the microfracture. I am seriously concerned that I am injuring the microfracture site by walking despite pain. My doctor tells me that this is pretty normal.

Do any of you remember the first few weeks of walking after being on crutches? Did you have pain? How long did it take to feel like you could walk normally without pain?

jt10...I totally hear what your saying and think some of those same feelings about whether this will ever improve. I am trying to be positive and the more I read it seems that these rehabs take MUCH longer than ever expected.

chariotson...I am also a soccer player so I'm psyched to hear that you are back to playing and sored a goal! Keep it up and please keep us posted on your continued improvement.

Good luck to all!