I took the plunge, Lateral Meniscus Transplant + OATs

[LateralMeniscusIssuesGuy]

@badleftlnee1

You have a great way with describing your life, really engaging, thank you for taking the time to share.

I caveat that my 'heavy' squats are miniscule compared to almost everyone in the gym, I attempted 10 reps at probably a 14 rep max weight and didn't feel great after, so keep my reps and loads to usually 20-30 rep sets at a 60rep max load (the DNA Fit test I took confirmed I have no power genes so no need to attempt low rep work I deduced). Dead lifts feel totally fine and I stick to the incline leg press, I enjoy getting to focus more on the quality of the movement rather than just getting through it, again a notch for lower weight. I self assess that my hip and knee flexibility is good but do recall that the meniscus is more at risk as the knee bends more, and my sport would rarely mean I have to generate power in the range of motion more acute than 90deg knee bend, so I don't venture there with weight too often.

I have done a lot of turbo trainer work, was on it for about 45 mins a night for around a year at one point. Very rare small swelling from it, think again they have all been osteo solved, I really need to get onto it in the evening to shift some weight and up my heart rate, as planning to play in the veterans world cup for GB in a couple of months for my sport, and about 6kg than I have any excuse to be. In summary cycling seems to be good, but I cycle very amateur distance / watts / time on bike.

I cross my fingers that the PKR / TKR will be getting better all the time. I would make Tim Spalding my next step whatever happens. Super happy for you and getting to enjoy your passion.

[LateralMeniscusIssuesGuy]

At the 5 year point and all going well. Still get low level reactive swelling after intense exercise but my stack of high quality Omega 3s (about 1g of TG for DHA) plus Curcumin (Longvida) seems to keep me competing. Off with GB duty later next month. Still curious if I had had my Osteo from day 1 if I would have got injured in the first place or needed surgery, but still Spalding did a good job that I can tell. I have also started using Kinesio tape in fan patterns to attempt to draw lymph to the thigh crease nodes away from the knee, it seems effective and a nice support, so have it on most of the time.

Still see Osteo every 4 weeks, always a new compensation developed, must be running out of those soon. But skating more than the last 5 years and overall knee doesn't impact me day to day. I'm not a poster boy for 100% recovery, but am totally satisfied with where I have ended up, too unrealistic to expect to be 'normal' after all of this.

Hope for the best for everyone out there, will update again in future.

[xink]

Thanks for the updates on this.

I'm 20 years post ACL rupture and have had 5 surgeries now including a meniscal repair ( whch failed as I returned to running) followed by a menisical trim around 7 years ago. At some point I feel im destined for a Menisical transplant as I'm now having difficulties walking following an almost certain menisical re-tear following a walking football session 6 weeks ago.

One thing I wanted to stress/ warn people about is that a return to running/ high impact sport is most likely not advisable after having a transplant - You essentially have a 3rd party mensicus - held in place by stitches which is why you dont see high profile athletes returning after such a procedure.

I sure as hell know I wont even attempt to so much a jog if I go through this procedure - and what appears to be a very tricky 12 months post op

[borisan]

Hi LateralMeniscusIssuesGuy ,
I read all your journey. Thanks for all the details! How are you doing now? Not sure if you'll come back here...
So to summarize you had ~2 years of rehabilitation during which you could not do much and after this period you had a slight better knee than before. But you're being conservative in the sports you do in order to protect your new knee. Is this right?
Did the meniscus transplant help for balance in skating?
Do you think you have postponed or even canceled a future knee replacement surgery? I'm guessing this is the main purpose for most of us going through this procedure.