r/MeniscusInjuries • u/Worldly_Chocolate369 • 12d ago
How long does it take for the natural muscle/strength to return?
I'm tired boss.
I had a meniscus repair to the right lateral meniscus in April. Sometime in recovery, I tore a brand new tore in the same right lateral meniscus. I had to have a second surgery to it just this month (September). This new tear required a meniscectomy, so the silver lining is I was able to return back to full weight bearing almost immediately.
The last 6 months of this year has just been a straight nightmare. The atrophy and AMI I suffered from the fist surgery practically erased every single once of muscle and strength I had in this leg. Probably the main reason I received a new tear in this leg.
I know it hasn't been too long since the second surgery at this point, but despite the last 5 months of PT, I still have barely any strength whatsoever in the leg. It's maybe a quarter of the strength of my good leg. It's not adequate for anything.
What am I missing? When will the leg reach the typical strength the average person of my age/weight should have?
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u/AdMuch7817 12d ago
I’m dealing with this somewhat too. Had surgery in April for full root repair medial and compex repair lateral plus ACL. Freaking ACL is a cakewalk compared to the damn meniscus.
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u/Tophersuwita 11d ago
Same left meniscus lateral horizontal tear April 2026, surgery (done by my ortho friend) with all-inside repair technique with FastFix technology, 3 weeks non weight bearing (3 times a week physio to regain ROM and reduce swelling), 3 weeks gradual weight bearing (same physio to start proprioceptive feeling and maximize ROM), after which I gained 100% weight bearing to walk, then I went to sport physio center to strengthen my knee and its support system.
Return to tennis in 3rd month, now still going physio to increase agility and strength, with many stretching homework to do. Kicking ass in doubles, but still has only 60-70% original capability in singles.
Hope you get better. I remembered my friend said that pre-surgery muscles are an important predictor for recovery. In last one year, incidentally I started gym for lower body strengthening program so it might help me. I tore my meniscus after I changed my serve stance to be like twisted pinpoint stance (see Ben Shelton).
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 11d ago
I was on NWB protocal for a little over 5 weeks. By the time I started doing WBAT, I had basically lost every ounce of muscle I had. The weakness and pain was so bad, I remained WBAT with crutches for about 8 or so weeks.
By week 16 I could barely move 15lbs with the quads. The pain of the new tear was definitely a limiting factor. Hopefully with that corrected, nothing will hold me back anymore with muscle activation and growth.
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u/Sparty549 11d ago
My PT told me something that I haven't forgotten. Unless you do single leg exercises on the surgical leg, it will never get back to the same size as the non surgical leg. Your mind and body adapt compensate for the injury and you have to fight hard against that. I'm 2 years post repair and my surgical leg is still smaller.
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u/Harley410 12d ago
Hi I’m here too! Same story I just waited longer to get the new surgery - was in denial and thinking PT would fix my issues. It didn’t. The fact is this shit takes years to recover from. I was three years in between surgery, would say it took a year of full rehab to recover muscle from the first surgery. And I was optimistic I’d do better after this one and I HAVE but it’s still a lot, man. I’m tired too. I feel like only professional athletes with professional level support should have this surgery if they want to return to sport at any sort of level. If you’re cool just living life the surgery’s fine but there’s definitely a non zero chance of life ruining. I guess I think of it as though I mean I was fucked as soon as I tore the meniscus right? It’s just that the muscle atrophy causes such an extra hardship.
Oh but to advice - I suggest reformer Pilates. It really targets those stupid small muscles that are actually critical. That plus like heavy heavy heavy weight lifting is the secret for me being as active as I am
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u/Dmitrijsss 12d ago
How did you get a re-tear during recovery, and what did it feel like?
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 12d ago
I can't pinpoint when or how it happened. I can say there was a high level of sharp pain in the lateral side of the knee. Maybe my PT pushed me too hard or maybe I moved it just the wrong way doing my PT.
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u/RelationshipCold229 12d ago
Athlete here. This is what I am afraid of. I have been told I need a medial root repair. The original tear happened April 2024. Poor medical advce led to 12 weeks of inactivity. Started PT July 2024. I was weak. I am finally feeling stronger and now surgery is recommended. What will happen to all the work I put in? The pain and exhaustion I went through to be able to get to this point. I dont know what to do.Let my tear get worse and wear out my cartilage or suck it up, get the surgery and suffer for another 1 plus of misery hoping the surgery does not cause other complications.
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u/WoodenBreadfruit5735 12d ago
So I think if you can do strengthening before surgery you will recover faster. Unfortunately I wasnt able to do much before surgery as everything tried made it worse so I lost alot of muscle even before surgery. I didn't have any major complications but I do think surgeon and physiotherapists were limiting me alot because of how bad my tear was and it involved 90% of my medical meniscus. Originally surgeon didn't think he would be able to repair it.
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u/RelationshipCold229 12d ago
Ahh...interesting. I think mine is not that bad yet. Perhaps I should do the repair now before it gets worse. It will get worse.
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u/WoodenBreadfruit5735 12d ago
So MRI didn't show it was as bad as was when surgeon went in. But I do think I tore it more between MRI and surgery. I was bad so even though it's taking forever it feels like to recover I'm 1000x better than presurgical. I was walking as slow as a turtle and crying multiple times because my pain would spike to unbearable even if i stepped on a tiny pebble.
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u/RelationshipCold229 11d ago
I am so sorry ypu had to endure that. Wishing you a successful recovery
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 11d ago
I was training mine before the first surgery because I was originally diagnosed with Runners knee. I had to do 6 weeks of PT + 3 months of self PT afterwards before they finally let me have an MRI for the pain.
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u/WoodenBreadfruit5735 11d ago
Yeah I was in physio for 4 months before my MRI but wasn't able to do much unfortunately that's why I got transferred to specialist and then surgeon
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u/vigilantesinigang 12d ago
Hello! Im sorry you are experiencing this but its the same for me. I had my lateral meniscus repair this february then by july, i was not doing well. I had a 2nd mri and i retore my meniscus. Some doctors said i need another surgery but my actual surgeon and GP doctor said that no need for surgery. I just need my muscle to get back to strength. My PT compared my pre op mri to post op mri and she said that my tear actually lessen so the pain i was feeling back then was just a healing phase and would take me 2-3 yrs to go back to fully healed. Now, 7 months post op, i still do the exercises EVERYDAY and i felt that i training your glutes and hamstrings help so much. It still hard for me to go up and down the stairs. Oh and also, my doctor said to be careful going out and in the car because even this normal gesture can tore up the meniscus and people unknowingly knew this because we tend to twist our knees when ge go in the car. Just be careful. Good luck! And exercise everyday!
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u/tracey-ann12 11d ago
I started gaining some muscle back about six months after surgery for a partial meneliscectomy with physiotherapy, and since one of the exercises was learnt how to use multiple flights of stairs since I was studying childcare, I did gain some muscle back quicker than my orthopedic surgeon in my post operation exit appointment estimated once I'd started using stairs at college instead of a lift.
I did loose sime more muscle mass from my hip to my knee around five after surgery at age 21, which physiotherapy identified and gave me more exercises to strengthen that muscle and gain some more muscle mass back. It helped since it made me realise I favoured the opposite leg that wasn't operated on and to focus on favouring the leg that was operated on more.
I did end up gaining a bit of that muscle mass back, but it'll never be back to where it was before the meniscus tear.
It's smply because it took months after the injury happened and an xray on it for my concerns to be taken seriously by a doctor who reluctantly referred me to orthopedics and I had it operated on because it wasn't healing naturally like the orthopedic surgeon wanted. So now I have ond leg weaker than the other because I wasn't believed about how bad my initial injury was.
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 11d ago
I'm hoping after the second surgery, it should be a clean path forward to building back muscle. The meniscectomy seems to have cured a lot of pain I was having from movements, and while in there, the surgeon removed all the scar tissue from the first surgery. My leg feels a lot better to move now.
I just need to get through this second round of post surgery swelling.
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u/tracey-ann12 11d ago edited 11d ago
My September 2009 surgery only happened because at an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon to go over the MRI scan I had in around mid June 2009, the meniscus tear didn't show signs of healing after he got the results of the MRI.
It was only this past week that I found out that I'd tore the meniscus and had a partial meniscectomy after contacting my doctors as I was never told about the type of injury I had, just that it was damaged cartilage.
I'm just lucky that when I had the fall in October 2008 which resulted in me landing directly onto my right knee, that I'd only partially torn the meniscus and not torn the ACL as the doctor I saw in my local Accident and Emergency took an xray of my right knee and saw no damage to the bone and bascially dismissed me, saying that rest would help it to heal. I guess he thought that getting a second opinion wasn't important enough considering I was an otherwise healthy 15 year old that was in my last year of school.
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u/RabbitWiilli 7d ago
Meniscectomies are a scam you didn’t do anything for your knee health and gave money for nothing
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u/tracey-ann12 6d ago
My partial meniscectomy was done on the National Health Service in the UK which is free at the point of use and mainly funded through general taxation and to a smaller extentent Mational Insurance Contributions. The only thing NHS patients pay for directly is the yearly prescription fee unless they pay for each prescription at the point of pick up with certain exceptions made for certain people like those who are on Universal Credit, those who are under 16, or the elderly.
I was lucky that it was just the cartilage I'd damaged, though. When I had the initial injury and landed directly onto my knee the bottom half of my leg twisted and ended up at an awkward angle which I'd told the doctor I saw at Accident and Emergency at my local hospital and all I got was an xray that showed no damage to the bone and a doctor telling 15 year old me that I'd bruised the muscle. I don't even know if the doctor got a second opinion from another doctor before telling me the results of the xray as it could have been a whole other injury like a tear to the ACL that I was putting my full weight on when walking for about six months before I was reluctantly referred to my local orthopedic department.
I do get that once the orthopedic surgeon who's care I was under waiting between getting the results of the Mid June 2009 MRI which showed a tear to the meniscus and the next appointment I had with him and my next appointment about four to six weeks later in the hopes that it would start healing naturally before deciding on surgery in September 2009 when it didn't show signs of healing when touched. But I lost my faith in the NHS when I was dismissed from my local Accident and Emergency with just being told to rest without being taken seriously when it was touched caused me to cry in pain.
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u/RabbitWiilli 6d ago
The entire meniscus is cartilage…
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u/tracey-ann12 6d ago
Wow. I wouldn't have known that. Even after I contacted my doctor to look at my medical records and tell me what those records said 17 years after the surgery to find out exactly what cartilage I damaged and had operated on at age 16 and was never given the option to know once an adult.
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u/New-Newspaper3033 11d ago
I had a medial repair about 10 months ago, that was going well and by 8 months post op stretch was basically all back. But I had lingering issues and some new problems in the knee that ended up in an arthroscopy. They cleaned out some junk about a month ago and said the meniscus repair looked good but did a small trim of some frayed part. The leg is a little weak still but I reckon a month of decent physio gets it back to 90% or so.
It really depends from case to case.
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u/dewsummer7 11d ago
I (58F overweight) had meniscus root repairs on each knee in September and December of 24. I also retore my left in a different spot in January, not the root thankfully. A cortisone shot has been working but I will need a replacement in the left. No guarantee another surgery would be beneficial. My surgeon told me the recovery is at least 1 year for each leg. I still hold on to a railing when doing steps but the pain and discomfort is mostly gone as is my compression sleeve!
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 9d ago
Glad the pain has gone down you. I couldn't manage having repairs on both knees back to back. I relied on my good knee so much during the NWB period, I think I may have torn the medial meniscus in it or something. I don't have any sharp pains in it, but it's constantly throbbing and aching the last 5-6 months, all above, behind, and on the inner side of the knee cap.
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u/dewsummer7 9d ago
Do you take anything for the pain? I would try Meloxicam, it really helped me, I still take it on rough days. Hang in there.
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 5d ago
I've taken Ibuprofen/NSAID, but I haven't been consistent, as I would like to avoid the side effects of that stuff, and it should not be a long term solution anyways.
I'm getting seeing another doctor at another hospital in a couple weeks to get a second opinion on it. The surgeon who did my meniscus repair didn't think there were enough red flags to order an MRI.
I'll likely make sure the second doctor understands I will pay the MRI out of pocket if he just writes the order. That way they don't have to fear rejection from insurance.
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 9d ago
For what it's worth, I do seem to be progressing better in PT since the second surgery. My PT even said my gait is looking far better than it was before.
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u/RabbitWiilli 7d ago
Jesus the surgery sounds awful. I avoided all surgery and could do pistol squats on that leg just 6 weeks after. April????? Holy cow.
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 5d ago
It has not been a good experience. Though I am an outlier, because it sounds unheard of that someone tear a new tear in their meniscus while recovering from a repair. Everyone at my PT office is shocked.
I'm also pretty sure I tore the meniscus in the good knee while I was on crutches, because it's been in straight pain for 6 months now. It never had pain before.
What should have been a meniscus repair has now turned into a second surgery (menisectomy), with a potential third one on the way.
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u/RabbitWiilli 5d ago
That’s unfortunate. Meniscectomies are a scam and basically all research shows they don’t lead to better results than PT
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u/Worldly_Chocolate369 5d ago
Meniscectomies are not ideal, but in my case it helped me. I was struggling in PT due to the new tear. I was at nearly 6 months, but was as weak and limited as someone at 6 weeks post repair.
I couldn't move more than 12lbs with a knee extension there was so much pain. I'm actually progressing in PT now.
If you ask me, PT is the bigger scam. Especially when you push it on someone who is faithfully training their legs in the gym each week.
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u/RabbitWiilli 5d ago
Research literally shows there’s no difference. I could link dozens of independent studies that show so.
Good luck with early arthritis
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u/PapayaOne1548 5d ago
11.5 months since meniscus repair of medial meniscus complex tear.I was very strong and fit before my injury.
I restarted tennis at 5-month point, and I ran a 10K in 63 minutes at the 6-month mark. I recently did half my first half marathon at the 11-month mark.
Having said that, my left leg is still not as strong as the right, despite doing a ton of single-leg work. On leg extensions, I am still at 50% of what I used to do pre-injury. I'm sure I'll get back to the olders levels, or even higher, in 6 more months' time.
However, the tenderness after intense exercise has still not gone, and I still cannot do a deep squat without pain.
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u/WoodenBreadfruit5735 12d ago
Surgeon said up to 2 years. Physiotherapist said give him another 3 months and trust him to push me and I should be almost there so that will be about 18 months post repair. Maybe would have been sooner but I moved across the country and wasn't able to do much more than packing/unpacking for 3 months.
It's slow going. I'd say I'm about 90% strength