Hey knircky,
I have torn the meniscus in both of my knees over the past 8 years, with the right medial tear being far more serious than the left. I just wanted to share my perspective on why I opted not to get surgery.
Background about myself, I'm a hip hop dancer and I consider continuing to dance in the future as very important to my mental health and only partially important to my financial security (income from teaching dance is only about 5% of my total income.) I'm only physically active with dance, I'm not involved in any other sports or physical activity other than walking or occasionally cycling in the warm months of the year.
The injury first happened when I was preparing for a dance competition when I was in my early twenties. I felt an immediate pain, as I had simultaneously strained / pulled two ligaments in the same joint (MCL and PCL). Being young and dumb as I was, I decided to continue preparation without much needed rest.
Afterwards, I had an MRI done on the joint. The first doctor suggested surgery, the second said to complete physical therapy and strengthen my muscles around my thighs instead. In short, the surgery option would mean I would be out of commission for months, I would still have to complete physical therapy, and despite the surgery, my knee may still not fully recover. The upside would be that getting surgery done while young is better than waiting until the joint becomes weakened when I'm older when recover is more difficult.
Even today, about 8 years later, I do occasionally feel pain in my knee, particularly when I bend my knees to a very acute angle (anything smaller than 30 degrees results in pain.) I always sleep with a flat pillow underneath my right knee to prevent the joint from hyper extending in my sleep. When this happens, I wake up and it feels like my knee is "locked" in place, and when I walk my joint feels unsteady. I can alleviate this problem by popping my knee - I usually do this by lying down on my back, bending my knee and bringing it close to my chest, and while keeping my thigh close to my chest, I'll slowly extend my foot outwards while letting my leg come back to the bed / floor. Sometimes it takes a couple tries, but once it pops, my knee feels good for the rest of the day. I had to do this many times a day within the first year of my injury, but after that it only happened on rare occasions, maybe about once a month or if I don't sleep with my knee bent at night.
I'm sorry to hear of your injury, and I know how aggravating one of these injuries can be. Best of luck with your decision.
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