Knee arthroscopy? Or second opinion?

[sharimcm 0]

I have had intermittent knee pain for 15+ years following a cheerleading accident a LONG time ago. When the pain gets bad, I'll suck it up, and just let it go away on its own, but there has been a time or two it got to the point I have gone to the doctor.

In 2000, I worked at a PT clinic. I went to see the orthopedist who prescribed an MRI without contrast. When the results came back, he said he could send me in for another one with contrast (which would show minor tears) or treat me for "left knee pain" with PT since all they could see was fluid in my knee. Thinking of the money, I went with the physical therapy... Instead of helping the pain, it seemed to make it worse.

Fast forward to the present... The pain has been constant for the last two weeks. Sitting hurts, walking hurts, lifting my leg to get in the car hurts. I went to another doctor Friday who did an x-ray... He came in, said the x-ray was fine, but he wants to do surgery. Uh, WTF? He said, "Something's going on with your knee, so we'll go in there and find out what it is. Get with Ron and schedule your surgery." Uh, no... Instead, I made an appointment with another doctor (different entity completely) who hopefully will prescribe an MRI with contrast to possibly tell him what the problem really is and put a rest to this pain. If he suggests surgery, then fine, but I want to make sure it's the right thing to do.

Has anyone has knee arthroscopy? What was the healing time? Has anyone had a quack of a doctor who wants to skip an MRI and go straight to surgery? Have you ever gone somewhere else to get a 2nd opinion when someone says going under the knife is your only option? Yes, I have insurance, but I don't want to go to the extreme if it's not necessary.

"I had a dude tip his black cowboy hat to me after I provided him with a condom outside my hotel room at 3-something in the morning." -myself

[selbbub78 0]

I've had knee othroscopic surgery, and it wasn't a big deal. I would definitely be getting an MRI though to tell WHAT needs to be repaired, or cleared out or whatnot. Me, i had issues with my minicus, and had some scarred tissue in there. I was able to walk out, and was back to normal quite quickly. It wasn't bad at all.

I had a different issue with my ankle a few years before the knee, and i thought the doctor was a quack, and I did get a 2nd opinion. Basically I knew there was a problem, and i went back to the "quack" 3 times, and all three times he told me it was a sprain. I knew it wasn't a bad sprain, and the 2nd opinion doctor told me that I had to have surgery since the ankle needed to get reconstructed. 2nd opinions never hurt. It's how comfortable you feel with the doctor.

CReW Skies,
bubbles

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[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

I had knee issues, went to Orthopod got x-rays (clear) and MRI (radiologist said I had torn meniscus) so arthro surgery...with a spinal block so I could be awake and watch. Imagine my surprise when the doc says 'your meniscus is fine, there is no tear"

"Ummm, WHAT?!" is what came out of my mouth, but in my head was thinking 'hey, is that my leg up in the air??? I cant feel it "

He showed the meniscus on the screen while he was flipping it around with the instrument thing...'ok stop playing with it before you do tear it, please"!

Then he says I see the problem, and holy shit you have a high tolerance for pain.

Anyway, turns out I had a massive wad of scar tissue in the joint from an ice skating incident 16 years prior. They trimmed it out, I went home that afternoon and was on crutches for just a few weeks, no issues since.

It gave the same symptoms as a torn meniscus, and apparently its location fooled quite a few radiologists

If you can spend the money, a second opinion is never a bad thing, especially surgery on a joint!

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[karenmeal 0]

I think that you should always get a second opinion on something big like that.

I've had an arthroscopic procedure done on my knee, but it was in conjunction with open knee surgery on the other side of that knee so I can't tell you about healing time. I just know that those incisions healed really fast.

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

[kbordson 8]

Had the knee pain, the MRI and the arthroscopy (with procedures on both menisci and the ACL replaced).

Get the second opinion (not saying the first doc is a quack... sometimes the MRI doesn't give the whole story and only by looking in can you see the real problems and maybe he's/she's just going by the premise that you're going to be doing the surgery regardless of what the films say). Get the MRI anyway (even though mine just showed the ACL and not the meniscal tears, it was still a starting point). The surgery wasn't too bad - my recovery time was a bit longer than anticipated because of the meniscal repair.... but the time actually went very fast.

[sharimcm 0]

The first doctor I went to 8 years ago said there could be a possible tear in the medial meniscus, which would explain the fluid. This was the doctor that did the MRI without contrast and prescribed the PT. The doc I went to on Friday had the same opinion (even though I made no mention of a previous MRI until afterwards) of what the problem was.

I suppose I'll wait to see what this other doctor says before I proceed with surgery. I'm allergic to anesthesia and certain pain medications, so previous surgeries have claimed to be quite difficult. I guess that's one reason why I am reluctant to take surgery as the only answer. I just want to know that it will rid the pain, but that's really an unknown.

"I had a dude tip his black cowboy hat to me after I provided him with a condom outside my hotel room at 3-something in the morning." -myself

[Casie 0]

i had orthoscopic knee surgery back when i was a sophomore in high school - about 15 years ago.

give you a little history - i had a freak accident at school when i was little like 4 years in a row on halloween day concerning my knee. crazy stuff i tell ya and had to be rushed to the hospital for them to drain fluid from my knee every time. anyways - the doc said as i grew, got more athletic the tissues in my knee overlapped (also said i was probably born with this) and that was causing all the pain in my knee that i felt usually when i was in track - just jogging, my knee would give out on me and i could tell the bone was rubbing. sometimes it would happen just walking.

needless to say, i got the surgery to correct the problem, was in and out the same day. i had an allergic reaction to some of the medication - they could never figure out which one, but my knee, even with doing PT, stayed swollen for approximately 3 months. this is not the norm. but that's what happened in my case. i have 3 tiny little scars on my knee that you barely can see unless i point them out - my knee never bothers me either : )

every once in awhile my other knee will give out on me and pop as the corrected knee used to do. it rarely happens so i doubt i'll be going in for it again.

hope that helps!

~Porn Kitty
WARNING: Goldschlager causes extreme emotional outbursts!

[masterrig 1]

I would definately get the 2nd. opinion and an MRI!!! I had orthroscopic surgery on my knee, about 10-yrs. ago. Torn miniscus and ACL. A couple hrs. after surgery, I limped down to the mail box and basically, stayed (limited) active. Three weeks after surgery, I went to therapy (prescribed) and was told, after 3-days, I didn't need it. I told the Doc what I had done as far as walking on it and all and got a big grin from him and that was that. I have three tiny 'dot' scars. I have had absolutely no trouble with my knee since.


Chuck

[wildcard451 0]

I've had my right knee done, back in 2002. I grew up with Osgood-Schlatter's, so I have always had knee pain since age 13 since I had a bone fragment in my patellar tendon.
It also turns out that I had an extra band of cartilage that due to packing all the time, had cause a friction blister on the back of my articular cartilage. No MRI was needed, my knee was locking and popping when I tried to extend it with a shitload of pain (it even hurt to sitfly).

Since I had to have the scope, I asked them to take the bone fragment out at the same time. The recovery from the scope would have been short and sweet.

The fact they had to split my patellar tendon in half and stitch it back to the bone? Yeah......6 weeks in a straight leg brace and then another 5 months before I was back to "normal"


Sometimes the dx can be made without further imaging if it is obvious on physical exam. However, you are right to be wary of anyone that wants to cut first without you being comfortable with the reasons.

[popsjumper 2]

Put me down firmly in the "get second opinion" group.
No questions asked. Personally, I would probably even go for thirds.

After being told by Atlanta Sports Medicine that my shoulder required MRI and major surgery, my Chiro fixed it right up for me, no big $$$ MRI nor surgery.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[sharimcm 0]

Well, I went and got a second opinion yesterday, and uh, well, this doctor said surgery is NOT the answer. Basically, he told me he thought it was something called "jumpers knee" (go figure)or "chondromalacia." He told me my shoes have something to do with some of the pain I was having as well. BUT, just to make sure it wasn't a tear of the menisci, he ordered an MRI, which is being done on Saturday. I felt much more comfortable with this doctor who took time to examine my knee, and ask questions rather than the last one who just wanted to cut in to my knee to see "what was going on." I'll keep y'all updated when I get the MRI results.

"I had a dude tip his black cowboy hat to me after I provided him with a condom outside my hotel room at 3-something in the morning." -myself