Having had *4* surgeries on my right knee and a 5th on the near
horizon, I can totally understand your frustration and pain. My first
two Ortho's were total tools and as a result, I now on'y have 10% of
my medial meniscus, no ACL and articular cartilage osteoarthritis.
Luckily, my new Ortho is stellar. I had been telling my previous
ortho since December that I had torn my ACL for a third time and she
didn't believe me. Turns out that not only did my ACL tear, but my
body ended up cannibalizing it (ewwww) and now it is just gone.
Peachy! I can say that once you have any of your meniscus removed,
there is a much greater liklihood of general knee instabilty, pain
and potential ACL/MCL failure since having it removed destablizes the
whole system. It is a vicious cycle. My ortho told me that in a lot
of cases looking at an MRI is a guessing game of what is really wrong
and the only way to really see what is going on is to scope the knee
and look at the pictures. Sigh. Hang in there, this knee stuff can
really suck!

Erena
Minneapolis


--- In kneesurgeryforum@yahoogroups.com, "shirley weber"
<gmshirley@...> wrote:
>
> i had the menicus tear from a work injury and i did not have the
> normal signs so they did not think that was what was wrong it did
> not show on xrays and the mri showe possible tears but i just did
> not have the locking up or the about to fall thing , they did the
> surgery and i had a couple of large tears and it about a yr back at
> work and out i went had another surgery and there was 2 more tears
> also did not show up on mri so i really don't know what real good
> they are for that kind of injury if they don't show up. anyway i
> have severe arthritise now and on social security disablity. my
> firat doc office also lost my mri and they never found it and it
has
> been 3 yrs now.
>
> take care and good luck
>
> shirley of socal
> >
> >
> >
> > MY FUNNY/ANNOYING DOCTOR STORY:
> > I went to see an ortho surgeon (Dr. Ferrari at Camino Medical
> Group
> > in Sunnyvale, CA) last week for a consultation re. MRI results on
> my
> > right knee. After asking me the same ?s from our first visit, you
> > know, how did you injure yourself, etc, he looked at my knee and
> > moved it around a bit. He asked how it was feeling and I told
him
> > that since Saturday*, it hurts a lot more. He then broke the
> > news, "Well you have a ruptured ACL" that's when I interrupted
and
> > say (nicer than this of course) no shit Sherlock, I told you the
> > first time I came in and today that I tore my ACL 3 years ago and
> my
> > MRI results back then confirmed that. Then the doc goes on to
> tell
> > me that I now have a tear in my lateral meniscus. Doctor
> > explains three possible surgeries to fix my knee. After scaring
> me
> > half to death I started to ask my main question, what if I don't
> get
> > surgery? His answer was that I would have to deal with (what he
> > calls) "episodes" of my knee giving way.
> >
> > *That Saturday, when my knee started to hurt again, I was playing
> > pool and my knee just locked, I couldn't straighten in for about
9
> > hours and had a wedding the next day to attend. After many pain
> > killers and hours of ice I managed to strap on my brace, throw on
> a
> > long skirt, and actually wear some wedged heals. The good thing
> > about this lock was that it was less painful to walk on my tippy
> > toes (fortunately the heals weren't my biggest problem).
> >
> > I asked what could have caused the lock and he said that because
> my
> > meniscus is torn, if my knee bends in just the wrong way that
> > ligament can get stuck between my bone and keep it from
> > straightening out....does this make sense or is he completely
bull
> > shitting me????
> >
> > THE PUNCH LINE:
> > After I calmed down I asked to see my films and that's when he
> told
> > me that the office lost my films and he HAS NOT actually seen
> > them. Initial thought was that I was on punked or some prank TV
> > show. The bottom line of this horrible doctor visit is that I
> can't
> > understand how a doctor can give me "results" without actually
> > seeing my MRI films. After calling everyone at the office and
> > yelling at several people, my films turned up the next day and
> > that's why I am going to see this new doctor.
> >
> > WHY I NEVER GOT SURGERY 3 YERS AGO:
> > I never got surgery for my ACL because even after the many
doctors
> > told me I should, I did physical therapy and a lot of research.
> > Within a month my knee started to feel better and got to the
point
> > that it felt before my accident. In the past three years I have
> > been playing some rugby, mainly coaching, taking very intense
and
> > regular kickboxing classes, playing tennis, and dancing. Last
> > month, I was running and my knee went out, and I heard was the
> pop.
> > All I could do was scream and cry, brought back memories from my
> > initial injury. Yet this is my first incident since my tear 3
> years
> > ago.
> >
>