First of all, thank you for opening this forum. I’ve been following BBmeds pain science stuff for a while now, and think I’m groking most of it. But recently I had some bad symtoms with my left knee. I don’t want to bore you with all the details, but I’ll lay it out briefly. I’m hoping to get a second opinion on what action I should take.
About me:
- I’m a 250lb male.
- 42 years old.
- Squat e1rm=385, DL e1rm = 465, pause bench e1rm = 325.
- Been training seriously for about 2 years (did a TON of lifting before that, but never with any intelligent programming).
- May or may not be of note: Was 420lbs at one point, then lost the weight with the help of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass in 2004. Knee symptom leading to MRI:
- Knee would “lock” in the bent position, serious pain. Pain would immediately alleviate once I could straiten my leg and would feel a thud or pop as something felt like it snapped back into place.
- First event was while getting up off the floor, assisted, and coming up over the top of the knee if full flexion.
- This happened 6 times over the course of 4 months. Once when sleeping (while shifting my weight to roll over) and once when I was at a restraunt and adjusting my chair.
- Only happens when the knee is bent and mostly unweighted.
- it FEELs like the proximal tibiofibular joint is dislocating laterally, although my surgeon claims that is just referred pain.
- I can strength train with no pain or issues.
- I cannot train BJJ because being in guard position can cause an incident. MRI results with added notes from Surgeon visit: 1. Peripheral vertical tear of the lateral posterior femoral meniscus. Given the intermediate signal in the cleft and associated focal deep cartilage loss of the lateral tibial plateau this may be a chronic tear. (Surgeon says, in general: Needs surgery if I want to continue BJJ and other athletic endeavors. Could get worse if not treated. No hurry however. Stated that he believes the “knee lock” I’m experience is due to “bucketing” of the meniscus. Described a 2 methods of repair, but I don’t recall the details of them. Said he wouldn’t know which one he would do until he was in with the scope to see it)
- Partial deep and shallow thickness cartilage loss of the lateral posterior tibial plateau and full thickness fissuring of the medial trochlear cartilage and likely full thickness fissuring of the lateral patellar cartilage.
- Clustered ganglion cyst along the superior knee not clearly connected to a Baker’s cyst measures 4.5 x 1.3 x 2.3 cm. (surgeon said this was non issue)
- Small Baker’s cyst. (Surgeon said this was non issue) I don’t want surgery, because it means no strength training for months (4 months before full recover, full depth squats, as example). But I also want to be able to do BJJ and and other martial arts. I haven’t had a knee lock incident in a month and a half, and I continue to strength train 3x per week (currently running the Bridge 2.0).
Can this heal on its own? Am I doing the right thing continuing to train? Is surgery always needed in this type of situation?
Again, thank you. I hope I’ve provided enough information.