Pending knee surgery

[Bloody Mad Woman (BMW)]

This time next week I will be comma'd (well bloody better be) as they slice my knee open and take the surplus loose bones out. Courtesy of a bike accident Aug 06. Body didn't like hittin the deck at 140kph.

The surgeon has advised I will have 2 weeks off plus not allowed on my bike for 2 months - it's the latter that grieves me the most.

What are people's experience of recovery time from knee surgery - the likes of the above.

When can I expect to be reasonably mobile?? I'm determined to recover as quickly as I can - cos A. surviving on 80% of my income is gonna be tough (yep better than nothing I know) B. I want to get back on the bike asap.

Not sure that I want to know about the pain lol - or should I stash up on some "decent" drugs lol.

Cheers

[yungatart]

Can't give you any advice, but heal well, Shirl, and take care of yourself.
Hope it all goes well for you.

[Joni]

Kickaha has knee surgery fairly similar to what you are describing.... he was on a sidecar swinging exactly one week later (in fact a few hours after the stitches were out).

I felt sick as I watched him put on his leathers…

The moral of the story, yes it is sore, no surgery is pain free… but it’s not the worst you can have!

Also note, not everyone is like Kick with such a high pain threshold….

Good luck, I hope yours goes as well as his did!

[rudolph]

I feel your pain, I am getting the same thing done this month, I am pritty woryed.

How long have you been waiting?

[jim.cox]

For what its worth (not much) my advice would be

Dont push it too hard

Far better to have a good recovery than to do more damage by trying too hard too soon

Unfortunately six to eight weeks is realistic for bone regrowth

[gijoe1313]

Try and have some gelatine or trotter soup, helps out your elastic joint fluids and soft tissues, also juice of cucumbers can help with healing - I should know, I've done my knees in so much with Judo that I've learnt how to heal quickly and efficiently from the damage (my doctors and physios can't believe how fast I can bounce back from the damage! )

Oh yeah, keep thinking positively as well and my own mantra cliched it be ... "Make haste slowly"

Wish you well on the op and hope for a speedy recovery back to riding!

[riffer]

I'll add my $0.02.

I've had four knee surgeries - three were arthroscopies to fix various meniscus tears and one half torn medial and collateral ligaments, and one (a biggie) for an ACL replacement with patella tendon graft.

As regards the arthroscopies I was riding a bicycle the next day to ensure that there was no tightening up of the ligaments. I would give it a week to be safe it is was me at 40 (instead of the 20-something I was when I earlier had the ops).

The ACL reconstruction was a bit different. Because they had to use a bone and ligament graft harvested from the kneecap tendon (six inch incision across front of knee) the knee was very sore for at least a week.

I was on crutches for two weeks and couldn't ride a bicycle. And it took a good 8 weeks before the strength even started to return in the knee.

What sort of operation is it?

[YellowDog]

Nice to hear that it is not just me who's about to be hospitalised with knee surgery (not till 27 Feb).

I have had 2 Arthroscopys before, so I know it is a very straight forward procedure. Removing bone and other squidgy bits is a walk (limp) in the park, so you'll be fine.

They now say it looks like I have arthritis as a result of the previous two ops. Bugger! Probably wrong, usually are!

Anyway, if you can heal without any adverse swelling, just lay there and don't move a muscle for as long as you can. As has akready been stated, trying to get up and about is your number One no-no and will affect the longer term healing and future mobility.

Good luck to you and your knee!

[YellowDog]

Try and have some gelatine or trotter soup, helps out your elastic joint fluids and soft tissues, also juice of cucumbers can help with healing - I should know, I've done my knees in so much with Judo that I've learnt how to heal quickly and efficiently from the damage (my doctors and physios can't believe how fast I can bounce back from the damage! )

Oh yeah, keep thinking positively as well and my own mantra cliched it be ... "Make haste slowly"

Wish you well on the op and hope for a speedy recovery back to riding!

Great Tip - Thanks.

[Macktheknife]

Just follow the advice and take all the drugs you can stand Shirl, best of luck with it.
By the time you are back on the bike it will seeem like no time at all has passed.

[Trudes]

All the best Shirl and a fast recovery!

[Kickaha]

Kickaha has knee surgery fairly similar to what you are describing.... he was on a sidecar swinging exactly one week later (in fact a few hours after the stitches were out).

I actually got the stitches out about an hour after I'd been out on the sidecar, but it was only a cartilage operation thingy

[98tls]

Dont know anything about it but wish you all the best with it and a speedy recovery.

[xwhatsit]

It took me at least a month (can't really remember, to be honest) to get off crutches, but that was a serious operation where they had to pin my kneecap back together with a whole bunch of little unobtanium pins. It was worse, because the dumbarses in the Qld public health system thought it was a simple dislocation, missed the fact the kneecap was in three separate pieces. Meant much more tissue damage was done in the week or two before I got it properly seen to. Also they had to take the kneecap out of my knee to pin one of the pieces behind it back on, which meant they had to cut ligaments/tendons (dunno wot) in order to flip it out of my knee.

Hopefully it goes well and you'll do better than me. I probably needed HTFU like Riffer has (four ops, jaysus :O).

[Jiminy]

I've twisted my two knees a few times (not motorbiking), but never enough to justify an op. I wish you the best of luck, BMW, rudolph and YellowDog.