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Heads up, this is going to be a long post.
2 years back, in July 2024, I tore my meniscus while playing football. I knew it was coming, every time I ran or played a sport, my knee used to hurt. I ignored it and kept playing. That day, the inevitable happened.
I was devastated. I couldn't even walk without pain, and I was scared I'd ruined my knee for good. I got an MRI immediately: horizontal tear of the medial meniscus, partial tear of the ACL.
I was in pain constantly, walking, sitting idle, everything except sleep. I didn't want surgery, and even my doctor didn't push for it immediately. I found a bunch of YouTube videos on rehabbing a meniscus tear: isometrics first, then movement, then plyometrics, then sport-specific work. I was confident I'd follow the routine and get back to sport quickly.
Little did I know how difficult it is to rehab an injured knee. It requires great mental strength.
I started with isometrics and felt better within a few days. Then this scary loop started: every time I felt better, I tried to progress to the next exercise, but in reality my knee was not ready for that. This made the pain worse again. I got stuck in the loop. I was never able to make any progress. I did not have the mental strength to take it slow and steady, I was rushing it. And also, I was guessing. I did not do anything to track the progress. Sure, the videos explained how to do the exercise, but I did not know when to progress. I always did too much too soon, and ended up in a worse situation.
1 whole year passed by. I was so frustrated and depressed.
I decided I'm not going to give up. Let's give one more shot to this rehab thing, but let's do it right this time.
I started from step 0. This time, I logged my pain and my load bearing capacity. I tracked how long I can do isometric wall sits, and what was the pain level, on a scale of 1-10, after each exercise. Now I know how much I'm progressing, and if I can go to the next level, or not.
I slowly progressed from isometrics to light weight gym sessions, to fairly intense cardio, to moderate weight gym sessions, and finally, after 2 years of fighting the injury, I can happily run, play football, cricket, badminton, do deep squats without any pain. I also decided to not give a f*ck about my knee and enjoy my life with everything else I have.
I can proudly say I'm one from the rare group of people who have successfully recovered from a meniscus tear, without any surgery.
I'm gonna start building an app that helps people like me recover from their meniscus injuries, by tracking their load bearing capacity progression, and their pain improvement progression. The core idea: instead of generic advice, you get a set of exercises that start easy and get progressively harder. If one doesn't work for you, you can swap it for another at the same level. For every exercise, you log your load and your pain, so instead of guessing whether you're ready to progress, you can actually see it.
To all the warriors fighting their injury recovery out there, I'm an example that you CAN recover from a meniscus tear. It's possible. Do not lose your hope.
If anyone reading this post wants to talk to me about their injury recovery, you can comment under this post, or DM me.
Cheers.
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