My knee is in constant pain in a very specific spot (so bad it wakes me up at night, no matter what position I am in). It locks up on me, and it makes lots of interesting clicking and popping sounds. The diagnosis, confirmed by the MRI, is a torn meniscus with no osteoarthritis. It's been bad for six weeks now and not getting better. The surgical procedure sounds minimal and straighforward (they said it could be done under local anesthesia, too), but I would love it if PT alone would be the answer--I'll discuss that with the physician's assistant or the doc. when I talk with them.
It's understandable for a surgeon to see corrective action in terms of surgery, but you might ask them about this study:
Knee Surgery - Arthroscopy Results No Better than Pretend Surgery A good surgeon won't be threatened by the discussion.
Even if the surgery is a raging success, strong muscles are essential to stabilizing the joint so that things don't bang together or get out of alignment. I went through your pain phase for several months, and even a year or two later I could have a flareups from significant exertion. I'd go for some sort of anti-inflammatory (800mg of ibuprofen three times a day, depending on body weight, if tolerable) for several weeks to beat the swelling back into submission, along with the very gentle quad/hamstring exercises that don't even hardly bend the knee. The PT will stabilize the knee to stop putting pressure on the meniscus sore spots, and the PT will also teach proper motion (tracking, flexion) to avoid grinding it down any more than it already has. As the muscles get stronger you'll be able to progress to squats & lunges. The stronger the muscles get, the less floppy the knee gets-- and there's less pain, less swelling, less noise, and less funny stuff that can be pushed around with your fingers.
When I get up in the morning, or after an hour in a recliner, the synovial fluid still sounds like popcorn in the microwave. But that's no worse than cracking knuckles.
Cb has had pretty significant knee surgery, including an attempt to rebuild cartilage, and Deserat has finished rehab from her ACL reconstruction. You might want to PM them about their meniscii.
Surgery is a personal decision, and whatever makes you comfortable. If the loose cartilage has worked its way into a joint and is preventing range of motion then surgery is probably a good idea. But every time I approached a surgical decision I felt like I was turning myself in for sentencing, and I finally met a martial-arts conditioning coach who'd come back after a bad car accident. His first knee surgery didn't go well but he did the post-surgical PT on both knees at the same time, and the second knee responded so well to the PT that he didn't need surgery.
There's also a lot of shared misery & good advice at
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