Torn meniscus and what happened next. Lejog

[Gearoidmuar]

Mid-June.
Crossing kitchen floor, sudden stab of severe pain in left knee. Had been very bike-fit for months. Could hardly walk. Ok next day but flared up from cycling, walking big distance.

Diagnosis: MRI. Spontaneous horizontal tear medial meniscus. Aged 67, male. Other changes.

Problem: Due to do CTC Lejog for the fourth time starting Sept 1.

Progress: Knee stiff after cycling though told it should be ok.

What I did: Took six days totally off exercise. Went back gingerly. Stiffness was gone.

Note: Arthroscopic surgery on average of NO benefit in such patients. Recommend conservative treatment.

Before the off: Did 3 weeks of 200m/week. Slight grumbling of knee but of other knee as well.

How it went: Knee went from slight grumbling to perfect during the ride. Wore MTB SPDs, carefully centred throughout.

Precautions: Kept gearing fairly low, no big gearing but going really hard in second half of tour, intermittently.

Comments on Tour. This 1200m approx tour on small roads is REALLY challenging in Cornwall and Devon and in Yorkshire Dales etc. The weather was easily the worst of all four tours. The excellent organisation of Chris Ellison, was, well, excellent. The food and accommodation was good. The company was excellent.

The highlight: The last day was perfect. From Bettyhill to John O'Groats. Sunny, wind at the back. Lovely termperature. Great scenery.

What would I do different? Lighter bike. Used Thorn Raven Tour, which I've done on two other Legogs.

Will I do it again?: Well I could as I'm down to 12.08. Have been 13.00 for last almost four years. My longterm weight before I discovered lowcarb was 15.12. But no. It's a rewarding tour as it's an achievement, but from now on I'm doing shorter easier stuff. It was, I think, my 88th bike tour.

[Cyril Haearn]

Knee went to perfect during the ride, +1!

[Gearoidmuar]

I'd bet there are a lot more too!

[robing]

This is interesting as I have had 3 surgeries now for a meniscal tear on my R knee and am beginning to wish I didn't have the surgery. (I've also had an ACL recon in my L knee which ironically is my 'good' knee now, no problems touch wood!). The meniscal tear in my R knee was spontaneous - 10y ago now, had surgery the next year but didn't work so the surgeon went in a second time. Seemed OK after this but after this I got heavily in to road cycling and my R knee pain flared up, forcing me off the bike and abandon two LEJOG attempts. After a bike fit and lots of trial and error I hit upon my ideal saddle height which is slightly lower than recommended - and since then not looked back, have done LEJOG, opposited diagonal, Spain, Ireland, France.

Fast forward to 2 years ago I injured the knee in the gym and went to for a second opinion as wasn't happy with the first surgeon. Ended up having a 3rd surgery for a small tear and tidy up, by now I'd less than 1/3 of my medial meniscus remaining. Since then have been ok and even did my first marathon this year. But got knocked off my bike 3 months ago, and even though I wasn't aware I'd injured the knee, the pain came back pretty bad. I had a tour lined up in Italy last month and even days before just walking around Venice the knee was extremely painful and I was having doubts I'd be able to do the cycle. But then miraculously - I did the 12 day cycle - one of the toughest I've done with a huge amount of climbing in the Appenines and by about Day 3 the pain completely resolved!

After reading stories like this and from my own experience I would urge anyone to try conservative treatment first before undergoing surgery for a meniscal tear.