Another meniscus injury question

[Kyle Marston]

Hi all—I’ve been through the PM and CF message boards regarding meniscus tears and found some good info but still hope to solicit some specific advice for my case from anyone who’s had experience with them.

By way of background in Feb I hurt my knee running a 5k, then really hurt it doing powercleans and burpess a few days later. I’m currently out of work so I can’t really see a doctor so I just laid off completely and have been doing the GB WOD’s, skipping any days that have lower body stuff. However, it’s been a month and a half and I have seen no real improvement (meaning the pain has gone away and I’m not limping but I still seem to re-injure it every few days getting out of the car wrong, climbing steps too fast, whatever).

Now I am hoping to become a firefighter and recruit school (with no small dose of PT) would start in August so I finally shelled out the cash and saw an ortho today who told me it is a meniscus injury but it’s not too bad (knee isn’t locking) and without the $700 MRI can’t really say if surgery will help or not.

Finally on to the questions/advice: it’s been a month and a half with little to no improvement so am I fooling myself that I could be ready for the firefighter recruit academy in 4-5 months? Or if I’m smart about it do I stand a reasonable chance of rehabbing before then? I hurt my other knee kickboxing a while back and it took almost a year to fully recover (and I’ve avoided kickboxing ever since). Unfortunately I need to make that decision now rather than try rehabbing for 5 months to see how it does.

Next, how exactly do I 'be smart about it' (with a limited budget)? Here’s what I have so far:
-Don’t do anything that hurts my knee, ever
-Avoid high impact/explosive stuff for now
-Do foam rolling/stretching/joint mobility stuff
-Do as much as possible with diet to reduce inflammation (Paleo, fish oil, avoid nightshades)
-Should I be squatting and deadlifting with light weights as long as it doesn’t hurt?
-If so, what’s the verdict on below parallel as there seems to be conflicting advice?
-Is there anything else?

Any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Garrett Smith]

Anything that doesn't hurt and moves the knee through ROM would be good.

What do you mean by "re-injure" it every couple of days? A twinge of pain doesn't mean re-injury.

You might need to get some more aggressive (and $$) with your treatments--the bloodflow to the inside of the knee is poor at best, and 5 months may not be enough time to heal enough for FF training.

[Steven Low]

It's too hard to tell the extent of meniscus damage without an MRI.....

The fact that it hasn't healed with 1.5 months rest is a bad sign. I would get the MRI.

And I'm with Garrett... what exactly does "reinjure" mean? When I "reinjured" my knee my rehab was set back about a month or two. That's a reinjury. If there's a twinge of pain or something that only sets you back a couple days worth then that's definitely not much to worry about.

[Kyle Marston]

Thanks for the responses, and in answer to your question, I guess it is more of a twinge than re-injury. Really it seems to just be a scale:

-Original injury, popping feeling, lots of swelling, lots of pain, limping for three days
-Get out of the car wrong, same popping feeling, a little pain, ok by the end of the day
-Yesterday slight jog crossing the street, same pop, some swelling, lots of pain, limping for two days but not as bad as the original injury

These minor setbacks just seem to be happening on a regular enough basis that it has a 'two steps forward, one back' feel to it. Regardless, it seems like FF is out for this year *sigh*. But I will definitely get the MRI and get it fixed up as best as I can; longevity is far more important to me. Thanks again for your help.