Torn Meniscus: Do I "really" need surgery?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hello everyone, long time didn’t come here and i’m very surprised to see the new design. Kind of miss the old version but hey we still have that amazing platform so Bless the new operators!

I torn my meniscus 2 weeks ago while squatting after a class, it just torn when rising up from the squatt position, it’s very painful and on the MRI it shows the meniscus is torn and a piece has travelled through the knee joint and is now creating a lot of trouble between the tibia and the femur.

Two different doctors, both surgeons, told me that it’s better to do the operation if I want to continue my Yoga and Pilates practice.

My Pilates teacher tells me that i can be patient and heal the meniscus by focusing on the energies that created this, and use rest, acupuncture, and the proper diet to let the knee heals by itself. But I’m wondering how acupuncture can technically bring back the piece of meniscus that’s flying around and seal it to the original location of the actual meniscus.

I was wondering if some of you here had any similar experience and if you could share your decisions and solutions you found to solve that issue.

Thank you in advance

#2

Tore my meniscus and my Orthopod told me I could have surgery if I wanted, but it was not necessary, it would eventually get better, basically it would grind things back in place. I spent a year in a rigid knee brace, walking on crutches, getting to a cane and eventually walking without the cane, but still in the knee brace. It took a long time and in its wake I was left with some arthritis in the knee, but understand that I am over a half century old. If 2 MDs say surgery and you are still not sure you can get a third opinion. But my inclination is to go with what the Doctor’s say.

My wife is a Traditional Chinese Medical Doctor from China (also trained in TCM in China) who use to head an acupuncture department in a hospital in China. I also got acupuncture during my meniscus ordeal and Acupuncture does not bring back pieces of the meniscus, it reduces the inflammation to assist healing and ease pain.

I still have knee pain today and it has been a few years since I got out of the rigid brace. But I find that doing the knee exercises religiously, that came from Physical Therapy, help with that immensely. As for Yoga, there are postures I simply can no longer do. But that may have more to do with the arthritis in the knee and now hips that the injury. However the Yoga I do helps me greatly.