I've been diagnosed with a slight (lateral) meniscal tear, and since aging might have something to do with its appearance (I'm 58), I thought I'd ask around in this forum. I think I popped it last May running speedwork (laps) at the local college track. Though it seems my running may be (or should be) history, I plan on taking brisk, long walks and riding my bike. I was able to take a few 60-mile rides (15.9 mph avg.) this summer, and experienced no knee pain (during the ride). Has anyone else experienced this type of knee injury and continued to ride with a rest, ice, compression and elevation rehab scheme, or, better-yet, gotten past it without surgery?

Many of us have had this problem. I've had tears in both knees and had to have arthroscopic surgery on the right knee at age 63 and the left knee at age 66. My riding hasn't suffered since the surgery. Its only gotten better since the surgery. My doctor was a sports medicine doctor (who is also a cyclist) and said I could ride till I'm 100. I'm presently 71.

Your recovery is great news, Ron. Any idea what may have precipitated your injuries? (It seems that, like so many other maladies, a combination of factors may contribute).

I've had 3 tears surgical worked on but the last one was what pushed me to seriously take up biking. It happened while simply out on a walk along a local path. I've easily ridden close to 20,000 miles since the last unrepaired tear. For me I just have to avoid mashing and need to ride consistently. My knees tend to get sore if I take off too many days. I also stick to the "sweet" spot for my saddle on all my bikes. If I get the fit off I can get pain. I think the biking builds up the legs better and tends to help stabilize your knee joints. Oh, and both my primary care doctor and the surgeon that did my knees are riders. They've had knee surgeries too and recommend cycling strongly as a means to maintain the health of your knees.
The other biggie was totally giving up running, hard to do since I was a runner all my life. I do hike some now but take my time and am really careful on the downhills. I carry a brace on my hikes and if I feel any knee discomfort the brace goes on. So, yeah it is possible to not have surgery and recover. Just don't "fight through the pain" as I used to do. I blew one knee at mile 9 of my final marathon and still finished the race. That was so stupid, I mean really!

Jamesdak, thanks for your informative and re-assuring post. An interesting thing is that I had just begun running in 2008, and had taken 2010-11 off because of adrenal fatigue. So, my knees were relatively fresh and this came out of nowhere, but as you alluded to, it can happen at unexpected times, and, in your case, under a situation of minimal stress (walking a path). I had never had any knee problems before, just a pulled LCL ligament now-and-then. I'd like to ride consistently, but have not gotten the habit of riding in colder weather. I know Utah can be brutal cold, too, just like Maine. Actually, I think Utah is tougher because of the drier air.
My osteopath has prescribed physical therapy before any arthro-scopic procedure is considered. I am avoiding climbing, kneeling, twisting and running. The running I miss a bit, because I loved it, but with the knee giving fair warning, I am actually elated to still be able to cycle and walk at decent (for me) paces, because I now see what there is to lose. Persons have asked me, in the past, which part of my body I would not want to lose: I have always said, "My legs".
In your opinion, does a knee brace (wrap-around, unhinged) have any advantages over an ace bandage as a carry-along?

I just have never had good luck with keeping an ace bandage in place so I carry a smaller knee brace that velcro's in place and has a cutout for the knee cap. My daughter is an athletic trainer and can actually stabilize my knee with just few pieces of tape in the right place. You can google that too.

I have to admit that this summer was the first time in around 4 or 5 years I had to use a brace hiking sometimes. I attribute that with not riding at all the past year and letting the legs get out of shape again. I'm betting this summer I'll be fine again because I am back to at least 20 miles pretty much daily.

And yeah winter riding can seem brutal. But even this mornings 20 mile ride at temps well under 0 was not that bad. Get the layers right to move the sweat and use lots of wool. Oh, and I grow a beard for winter to keep the condensed breath off my skin.

This is how I looked at the end of this morning ride. Really quite comfortable.

Arthroscopic surgery here. I had a slight tear maybe 8 years ago. I can do anything I want, squat, run, ride, ski, etc. No pain.

don't fear the knife. it's amazing what they can do. I had similar surgery 18 yrs ago after trying many many weeks of rest and ibuprofen. sometimes you just gotta do it.

Thanks for the good word, rum. It is not just fear and loathing of doctors that has me scrambling for second-guesses, though: Economics is a conclusive factor, for me, right now.

Hey, that is a really cool signature. A damsel fly on your handlebars...a foul fly ball bouncing off a right field railing...It's all good.

Try rehab first - it worked for me. I had both knees "scoped" around 15 years ago due to trail running injuries (medial meniscus), not realizing until I watched the movie how much they cut away when they repair a meniscus tear. That results in less cushioning.. and eventually possible osteoarthritis, which is now in both of my knees (mild), at age 60. Also with less cartilage you're more prone to further injury. I've read that three years after a meniscus tear, results from both surgery or PT are the same. Of course, if you can't walk or it locks up that's another story - no way around it then. An MRI will tell you how bad it is.

The last couple of minor tears I had (this year and two years ago) I have just done PT for 6 weeks - good as new. Seriously. And as others have mentioned, cycling really helps the knees, keeping them pain free..

While I've not had an MRI, I tore my meniscus a couple of years ago playing r-ball. It hurt like H! It took a few months for the pain to go away but it did leaving me only with an aching knee. The big problem I have is that it gets pretty sore when riding hills and where I live hills are unavoidable. Now that I'm on medicare and bought a supplement I may actually go see a sports medicine guy or I may just keep living with it and hope it gets no worse.

If it helps, I wear an elastic knee brace when playing r-ball and that makes a difference in that case. As to riding, I haven't found one that feels comfortable on the other hand I've not looked all that hard.

Good luck!

Blew up the meniscus in both knees doing leg lifts at the gym (too much weight). Tried a brace - no joy. Doc said let it heal by itself for three months. One knee apparently did but I had surgery on the other. Surgery was a one day affair and I was back riding in two days. No pain since. Surgery is the way to go; if my other knee so much as squeaks, it's off to the docs for surgery.

still doing leg lifts?

I tore my miniscus unclipping from a pedal (new pedals, tightened to max, didn't realize). For over a year biking never bothered me. Occasional movements (like kneeling down to tie shoes, or crawling under something, etc, etc) would cause it to "catch" wrong and shoot me some pain when I tried straightening up. Eventually I had it scoped. Easy recovery. Doctor said, "You're a bike rider? --just keep doing that and you'll recover very fast."

A slight lateral tear should be easily fixed. My last one was about a 15% tear from the side from a skiing incident. Had all the symptoms you are talking about. Surgery was 15 minutes under spinal (I watched the whole thing). Went home and put my leg up for a couple of hours and then went to my son's award presentation at his school that night on crutches. Next day, things were pretty much fine and only direction was to take it easy for 4 days and stay out of the water until the four 1/2" incisions were healed (infection risk).

So I'd say get it fixed. The irritation is a not good either and the fix is pretty short and fast and not even all that big of a deal. Same day surgery, in and out. I asked a few questions while the surgeon was explaining the procedure and he said to me, that basically he'd be happy to answer my questions later but they only had the OR for 15 minutes on the schedule.

The problem, at least with mine, was that the edges of the tear would continue to irritate the soft tissue around them. I tore it in March skiing and it was still bothering me (no improvement) in June. I'd take it easy a couple of days, and it would diminish but then as soon as I started moving it again, it all came back. In other words, as long as those torn edges were out there, it was going to continue to hurt.

That all was 7 or 8 years ago and I've done nothing except increase my mileage since.

J.

tore mine playing with a tall skinny Mexican balloon. it looks like a regular balloon, the kind clowns make animals out of, you know long and skinny but it is much larger, like 1' in diameter and 4' long. you kinda punch it from the bottom and it shoots straight up in the air like a rocket, then you run around under it and try to do it again before it hits the ground. I was doing this on my in-laws front lawn which is uneven and I hyper-extended one knee causing some pain but I kept playing and made it worse. within 20min it swelled up and from that moment on I had discomfort and an inability to lift my weight on stairs with that leg. after a VERY long time (weeks) of rest ice elevation ibuprofen and multiple Dr visits I was finally granted an MRI which showed the tear quite clearly. my surgeon said is was from a lifetime of activity even tho this "sports injury" may have been the final-straw so-to-speak. Wifey was pregnant so I was in the dog house. the surgery was quick, 17min and I got it on video tape. I jokingly asked the surgeon if I could get it on tape and he said, sure, just bring a tape with you when you come in. they had a VHS VCR hooked up to the scopes. it was very cool. I popped a pain pill and watched it with my Mom that night. it was 11 years before I started working out at the gym and trying anything remotely like a leg lift on a weight machine, but I walked & hiked just carefully. I was paranoid of re-injuring myself. broke my foot just before getting married, tore my knee before my daughter was born. broke my leg before my son was born. after that I told everyone, no more kids and no more marriages. I tend to go a little wild and get careless and my body can't take it anymore. knock on wood it's been 20 years and still intact. just jinxed myself, right? wait, who's pregnant? oh no, wait, I don't have a girlfriend anymore ;(