I live everyday with no meniscus in my knee and in my experience a few things will help: drugs, glucosamine/condroiton, rest and ice. Granted my injury was not simply a meniscus tear, but it is something that is the most painful from the injury.
I used to use a brace that was fairly ineffective at relieving any pain. The brace was designed to take pressure off my lateral side and didn't help with much besides protection from a repeat injury.
Assuming he already takes a pain killer/anti-inflamatory, try something that can be taken everyday to help. Something like Celebrex seems to help me.
The glucosamine/condroiton or similar joint-health supplement can help. It will never rebuild the meniscus but it does add a little bit of help for the joints. If he is ever going to be subject to performance enhancing drug tests, make sure the one you may choose is not going to trigger a positive.
Something else to consider, a shot of "lubrication" in the joint. There are two products I tried at the advice of a doctor, Synvisc and Supparts. Both are artificial lubricants designed to make the joint track more smoothly. While neither worked for me, I know former teammates who found it very helpful. **if your son has any poultry allergies, these may not be an option**
If it hurts, don't do it. If it isn't essential, like actually playing, skip it or modify it so as not to aggrevate it. If squatting hurts, do leg press. Avoid things that cause problems.
Ice it everytime after playing or activity, even if it doesn't hurt. If it is bad, every hour on the hour for 15-20 minutes.
Hope atleast some of it helps. Let me know if I can help any more.
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I hope he did well in the tourney this weekend Scott. Lots of good advice above so I will just say I had this done a few years back and RICE is the way but each case is different.
Most important to have a doctor take a look at it.
Let us know how he did.
Travis
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Originally Posted by Texan in Mexico:
I hope he did well in the tourney this weekend Scott. Lots of good advice above so I will just say I had this done a few years back and RICE is the way but each case is different.
Most important to have a doctor take a look at it.
Let us know how he did.
Travis
Nate played really well. Not quite as good as his last tourney but given the fact he is the youngest on the team, he held his own against bigger, older kids.
MCS
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Not sure if this helps, but I suffered a similar injury playing ultimate frisbee 2 years back. I had a partial tear on the inside part of my right knee, and had surgery to repair the tear.
I ended up being off of it for a while - about 2.5 weeks until I was riding a bike, but almost 2 months before I could run (on a treadmill) and only 4 months until I could play sports again. My advice would be to not push the recovery. I recovered very slowly (not sure why, just had a good amount of pain for a long time). Usually recovery time from meniscus surgery is really fast.
The one good thing about meniscus tears is that it isn't very easy to re-injure it in the same way. It's a little bit different than other injuries such as breaks where the area is a lot weaker after it's healed.
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Update:
When we took Nate to the orthotics place where my wife works to get fitted for a brace, the orthotist asked him if he knew his right leg was 3/8'' shorter than his left. We never had a doctor mention that. He gave Nate a lift for his shoe that has changed everything. Not nearly as much pressure on the left knee now. He had to be fitted for a custom brace as he has a bow in is leg that makes an off-the-shelf brace useless. The same place that makes the braces for The Lakers is making his brace. Off to Purdue for another tourney!
MCS
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