Meniscus injury, can I come back from it

Koya

Koya

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I have a meniscus injury (seriously. I had everything and this always evaded me. And now I've got it too) because of an accident. Long story short I was on my bike and a small truck hit me.

Did an MRI and the "internal meniscus" is damaged. Been told I need to do a second MRI because some problem with the first one I don't get exactly what. Anyway my knee hurts a lot since. It's been a month. I had a lot of knee problems but seriously this one is the worst of the worst.

I'm kind of bummed as I was getting back into jiu-jitsu despite the injuries and I planned to keep boxing which I've been doing since last year (I posted my smoker fights in the standup forum).

My goal was to have an MMA fight before I turn 40 (I'm 37).

I wanted to know if you guys had experience with meniscus injuries and if it ever heals ? I hope you don't have any experience of it yourself but maybe some of your training partners ? And you saw how it affected them ? Were they able to ever fight again after ?

I need hope. Feeling very down right now. Thanks.
 
There are different types of meniscus injuries, it depends on which one you have. Bucket handle tears usually require surgery. I had one but I was able to return to training after 4/5 months
 
Yeah, there are different kind of injuries there. I have a small one, blew It stepping down from a box ( the same knee already had an ACL surgery from a decade early).
In my meniscus injury I Iimped for a couple of weeks and Felt pain for a couple of months.
I did about 60 physiotherapy Sessions to get the knee right.
I can train all right, but I do avoid some positions (If a Guy gets me on a single I May Give up the TD to avoid change of directions on the bad knee). I Also avoid lifting too heavy on squats and leg presses pass 90°.
You gotta take a futher look tô see If you can manage It without surgery (and what kind of surgery matters too) and a Brace always help. Now, your side tô side movement May be compromised on boxing/MMA.
Is It possible to get an MMA fight in? Yes. Is It worth It? It's UP tô you.
But you should get a new MRI and look UP with doc First, try tô look for a knee doc that's especialized in sports. I simple knee doc May threat you like a senior Citizen who isnt willing tô deal with some pain and say you cant do sports anymore ( I went tô one that Said It to me, fuck him).
 
TheMoa said:
Yeah, there are different kind of injuries there. I have a small one, blew It stepping down from a box ( the same knee already had an ACL surgery from a decade early).
In my meniscus injury I Iimped for a couple of weeks and Felt pain for a couple of months.
I did about 60 physiotherapy Sessions to get the knee right.
I can train all right, but I do avoid some positions (If a Guy gets me on a single I May Give up the TD to avoid change of directions on the bad knee). I Also avoid lifting too heavy on squats and leg presses pass 90°.
You gotta take a futher look tô see If you can manage It without surgery (and what kind of surgery matters too) and a Brace always help. Now, your side tô side movement May be compromised on boxing/MMA.
Is It possible to get an MMA fight in? Yes. Is It worth It? It's UP tô you.
But you should get a new MRI and look UP with doc First, try tô look for a knee doc that's especialized in sports. I simple knee doc May threat you like a senior Citizen who isnt willing tô deal with some pain and say you cant do sports anymore ( I went tô one that Said It to me, fuck him).
Click to expand...

Thanks. I had a second MRI yesterday waiting for the results. Took an appointment with a sports doc but it's in December couldn't have a better one.

It sucks man as I have a very mobile style in boxing (despite sucking), I move side to side a lot. Also always trained leg day with some athletic movement like box jumps, one leg side to side jumps etc. Looks like it will be out too
 
I had a torn meniscus. I would run and lift weights, and it wouldn't be a problem. However, it would lock up multiple times during BJJ sparring, then I'd have to unlock it which would damage it. One day while running it locked up mid-stride, and my knee exploded. I couldn't walk, so I had to get surgery. They removed about 30% of my meniscus. I had to take a little time off, but I've been back training BJJ for about 3.5 years. It's sore most of the time, but it never locks up anymore.

I think if it's locking up, you are probably looking at surgery. But if it is just sore, you can probably get by doing rehab and strengthening your legs.
 
I absolutely fucked up my knee and had my ACL replaced and meniscus stitched.

Recovery was like 6 months until heavier physical activity and almost a year till it felt normal but it's definitely doable. Depending on if you get your meniscus stitched you might have some mobility issues initially with bending your knee. I'm not going to lie and say it's easy to work out because it sure as fuck wasn't but I've gotten to the point where I can take my penetration steps with my bad knee again.
 
Last edited:
Koya said:
I have a meniscus injury (seriously. I had everything and this always evaded me. And now I've got it too) because of an accident. Long story short I was on my bike and a small truck hit me.

Did an MRI and the "internal meniscus" is damaged. Been told I need to do a second MRI because some problem with the first one I don't get exactly what. Anyway my knee hurts a lot since. It's been a month. I had a lot of knee problems but seriously this one is the worst of the worst.

I'm kind of bummed as I was getting back into jiu-jitsu despite the injuries and I planned to keep boxing which I've been doing since last year (I posted my smoker fights in the standup forum).

My goal was to have an MMA fight before I turn 40 (I'm 37).

I wanted to know if you guys had experience with meniscus injuries and if it ever heals ? I hope you don't have any experience of it yourself but maybe some of your training partners ? And you saw how it affected them ? Were they able to ever fight again after ?

I need hope. Feeling very down right now. Thanks.
Click to expand...
I didn‘t have one but it is very prevalent in many combat sports. As far as I know it is not a career ending injury.
 
It's doable but make sure you rehab it extensively (like 6+ months twice weekly) with a physio who knows what he's doing

Did my MCL and meniscus way back and failed to do this, felt the effects for years. Did my ACL (only a sprain, thankfully) earlier this year and made sure I threw the kitchen sink at it, it's like I have a new pair of legs now but it took a lot of work
 
Tore my left meniscus playing hockey at 24, I had surgery to repair it, with an expected timeline of couple weeks on crutches, and about another month of light (if any pain) after that. Now, I'm not sure if anything else was wrong and missed, but I was on crutches for right around 4 months. Tore the same meniscus again exactly 363 days from the first time in a freak accident (my own stupidity), with no options but removal the second time around.

Walked out of the hospital on my own two feet 100% pain free. No more spinning shit with the left leg as a base, probably more of a mental block, but it didn't really hinder me all that much back then. Recovery at 37 will be different. Probably a little slower, not much.

For me... cold damp weather fucking sucks balls now though (over 2 decades later). Was still able to play ball hockey into late 40's, until the length of recovery time after games became not worth the amount of fun I was getting in return. Ice hockey is still no problems, and I still play in the annual Boxing Day ball hockey game though.

I imagine I'll be looking at knee replacement surger(ies) in about 5 years if I stay on the labour side.
 
I have a student that has been training 4 years and had 3 bucket tears in 3 years. Kids already back and winning tournaments. It won’t be easy but you can come back.
 
I'll have surgery on my meniscus the next tuesday. I'm not really looking forward to spend the holiday season at home, on crutches.
 
I blew my knee out 2016 doing knee ride drills and got misdiagnosed basically stopped my training, the mental side of trying to train with no trust in my leg sucked (I actually would train muay thai with a locked rear leg trying to protect it) Anyway my ACL is non existant and this year got all the junk and some of the meniscus that was grabbing cleaned out/cut out and Im back training, jumping on the trampoline with my kid all that without a care in the world. The only suggestion I have is at my/your age whatever warm up stretching drills time-wise your gym does double it for your legs and lower back
 
My experience was different. Have had two meniscus surgeries. Both I was back training in about a month. Took it slow that first month back after. Continued to compete and train hard years after. Surgery is kinda a must if meniscus is torn if you plan on being active, especially in martial arts. I had doc explain it this way " an unaltered piece of paper won't tear easily with gentle tugs on it, but once there is one little tear on the edge the paper will be torn with just gentle tugs from two fingers" then he demonstrated what he meant.

Major downside isn't recovery time after surgery. It's the slow degradation of knee and arthritis continuing down the road with age. My knee now has a nice bone spur growing off it I am having surgery for soon, probably arthritis related I'm told.


My advice would be to take the physical therapy very seriously once you are done with surgery
 
Don't worry, you can still have bar fights!

In all seriousness I've dealt with a meniscus injury and it's funny I was just messaging with a buddy that I've been off the mats for a couple years with it and I need to take care of it.

For whatever reason the new format wouldn't let me post the screenshot but whatever.

Anyway here's some information on some therapies that might be helpful. Please excuse the typos because I was using voice to search.

 
100% you can recover from it. There are many tools at your disposal. Medial meniscus injury is usually the worse one bc of the proximity to the ACL origin but even with that it's totally doable. Look into everything before going for a surgical repair bc meniscus have poor blood supply and are notoriously slow to heal. If they can just scope it and shave off the jagged parts that's a pretty good route and minimal downtime.

But if there tear is not too bad look into prolotherapy, PRP, and the injections of synthetic synovial fluid to keep it lubed up and pain free/mobile. And I'm all seriousness, knee replacement surgery has gotten so good that even that isn't a total deal breaker.
 
I am currently recovering from a meniscus surgery which I had last tuesday. I can already walk without crutches and I can even do the stairs without them. Recovery goes surprisingly smooth. I expect to start training again in the beginning of january if things go so smooth.


edit: But I've been training muay thai, I am aware that grappling is a different story.
 
Boomb said:
I am currently recovering from a meniscus surgery which I had last tuesday. I can already walk without crutches and I can even do the stairs without them. Recovery goes surprisingly smooth. I expect to start training again in the beginning of january if things go so smooth.


edit: But I've been training muay thai, I am aware that grappling is a different story.
Click to expand...

It's slowly getting better for me too. I do a lot of strengthening. I may have PRP injections soon. Will keep you updated.

Thanks to all of you that answered and gave me advices.
 
On Monday I'll probably return to the gym and I can't wait. Fingers crossed.
 
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