The Secret They Are Not Telling You About Torn Meniscus

If you have a torn meniscus in your knee, there are a lot of things you can do
besides getting surgery that will give you the same result. Surgery is not always the
quick fix people want or expect it to be.
You may have a torn meniscus, but the pain in your knee may not be coming from it.
There are so many other areas of your body that can cause your knees to hurt and you
deserve to have a comprehensive examination done to know exactly what’s causing your
pain and symptoms.
A torn meniscus is not the end of the world and doesn’t always need to be “fixed” for
you to have full use of your knee. It may have been there all along and now that your
knee hurts and you’ve had an X-Ray or MRI done, we see some “aging” of your meniscus.

One of the very few times when people actually need knee surgery is when it keeps
them from going to the bathroom after they’ve had physical therapy on multiple
occasions and with multiple providers. (Not all physical therapy is the same, kind of
like not all restaurants serve the same food.) Another indication for knee surgery is
if there was direct trauma to your knee, like the kind that would happen in a
football game.
If you have knee pain that develops overnight, over the course of a few weeks or
after a specific activity, then there’s a likelihood there are other answers.
So, what might really be going on with your body that’s causing knee pain?
Traditionally, if a torn meniscus is the cause, you will hear some sort of clicking,
popping or your knee might lock up. That being said, healthy knees make noise, so
don’t worry or jump to conclusions because you hear something.
I had a patient a few weeks ago who had been diagnosed with a torn meniscus and said
he had some clicking. Within one visit, I was able to take his pain away by releasing
a muscle around the knee.
Sometimes, the area of pain is just the area that’s overworked because somewhere else
isn’t working the way it should. This happens everywhere, not just the knee.
Typically, knee pain is just the symptom and warning light that you have a hip or
ankle problem. Focusing only on your knee will not completely address your problem or
keep it from happening again.
Say you think you have a torn meniscus. What can you do about it? Don’t worry. What
you need is someone to do a full body diagnostic exam and see if your knee is the
thing just causing the alarm to go off, and not the real cause. Is it your ankle?
Your hip? Your core stability? Or just something that’s tired and overworked?
The best medical professional to see 1^st in this case is a physical therapist who
can perform a full body diagnostic exam to tell you exactly what’s wrong with your
knee, where the root cause of the problem is and how long it will take for you to
recover.

If you’re struggling with knee pain and want to avoid injections, medications or
surgery, click here to speak with our knee pain specialist or call us at 416-634-
0005. We would love to spend some time talking with you about what’s going on so we
can give you an idea of how we can get you back to doing the activities you love!
To your health,
Alejandra