UKC

I seem to have a bucket-handle tear of the meniscus and given a mixup with the surgeons appointment team he won't be able to see me until the end of September!

Unfortuantely it is a tear which has locked my knee out, so I can't straighten my leg.

The surgeon I was recommended is Mr Phil Turner in Manchester, he does look brilliant as he specialises in sports knee injuries.

Can anyone recommend another knee specialist, I don't mind travelling anywhere in the UK as long as it gets fixed. The time pressure comes from both lack of mobility and a need to move house in the coming month (also changing job)

Really appreciate any advice

In reply to BoulderyDave:

Do you know any sports physios local to you? They might be in the know having a wide range of experience of short, medium, and long term contact with the patients that have been treated by the firms operating in local hospitals. This might be an opinion based on narrower but more numerous experience than that of,say, a GP. They will tend to have been dealing with people that wanted to get back to being active asap with as close to a full recovery as possible. The GP will likely have an opinion based upon a much wider set of patients including the elderly etc.

Good luck with getting sorted. I think you may need some to get in with another and a procedure sooner than a month. When you are in contact with a new consultant it may be worth saying you are willing to be very flexible(honestly sorry for the pun)regarding taking any cancellations at short notice.

In reply to BoulderyDave:

Hi Dave, had the same as you two years ago but got it done on NHS in Devon so can't recommend a surgeon. But, I was on crutches for about 10 days after the op and was not able to return to sports for another 2 months so moving house and carrying boxes is not gonna happen in a months time I would say... just not worth jeopardising your "fix". Do you know what they will do? I had a meniscal repair... sadly it failed a couple of months ago and had surgery again in June where they removed about half of the meniscus The rate of failure of repairs is pretty high, about 30% chance of it failing apparently.

Good luck with it, I hope it all heals up well. My advice is to take it easy and don't over-do it with the move. Get some mates to help you out! And, lots of time on crutches give your strong shoulders so returning to climbing is not as bad as you think!

In reply to BoulderyDave:

So, right or wrong (don't shoot the messenger) the NHS have offered an appointment in an appropriate timeframe given it is not an emergency. Finding another NHS surgeon is unlikely to speed things up as they all have similar waiting times. Going private would speed it up but of course that depends on various issues.

Best of luck buddy.

In reply to nickinscottishmountains:

I was assuming he had already done so. The surgeon he mentions now specialises in sports knee injuries. (http://www.manchesterkneesurgeon.co.uk/ )

In reply to ultrabumbly:
Oops i misread that! apologies to OP!

In reply to Nick GP:

Having had a meniscus keyhole op some while back, I would agree that the OP is probably best off not thinking of having the op so that he can do some of the lugging around moving house. Mine took a good while (several weeks) until I was walking properly again and many months until it was really ok. It's true that you are back on your feet quite fast but it's not business as usual for quite a while (or at least it wasn't for me). I'm looking at the possibility of another op on the other knee right now, MRI scan next week, and not looking forward to it if that's what the consultant recommends.

In reply to BoulderyDave:

I'd echo everything people have said about being patient. Remember, the meniscus is cartilage. Cartilage doesn't have a blood supply. So it heals VERY slowly and responds best to physical therapy that is designed to avoid tear forces on the repair. Compressive forces are OK and even good, but the twisting forces from moving boxes and furniture around would be an exceptionally bad idea.

In reply to pneame: mine was worse immediate after the op than before: before I couldn't run but could at least walk, moving house just after the op would ha e been impossible.
Derby were very efficient for me. Have you had a scan for diagnosis? My op was very soon after the scan: it was moved forward as I said I could come in any time if someone dropped out.