120: Meniscus Surgery Recovery Update

MK: It's been exactly eight weeks since my meniscus surgery. Well, two months and one day. And I just wanna give you an update and recap kind of how my recovery has been going, what I've been doing for recovery, what has been working, what has not been working, and how the healing process has been and what I can now do, and maybe still not to do, you know, with with my knee.

Welcome to the Primer Shift Podcast. To recap a little bit, in case you haven't seen any of my previous, uh, recordings about the injury, I had meniscus surgery on October 7th. Today is, uh, December 8th, so exactly two months and, and one day. It was a partial meniscus removal that they did. So I had two tears in my meniscus, had a complex tear and a flap tear, whatever they called it.

And so they had to go in with, uh, oscopy, Athroscopy, basically with a, uh, with, they made two tiny incisions on each side of the knee, inserted a camera, inserted the surgical instruments, and then cut away the damaged. Flap of that meniscus that would not have healed by itself because it wasn't, um, it, it wasn't tissue that was supplied with blood and that's why it wouldn't have healed.

So the only thing they could do is cut it away as part of that surgery. Uh, they also discovered that I have a little bit of, uh, osteoarthritis, meaning a worn down cartilage tissue. From some of the things that I did in the past that were probably less than ideal, like doing chomping squats with 350 pounds or running on asphalt with a weighted vest and many, many other things that I just did in the past because I thought I could, and, um, because it didn't hurt, but I guess I'm paid the price, uh, eventually.

And so that's what they did. What they kind of ignored as part of the surgery was my. Was my split tear of the MZL because I had that as well and. I know from sessions with my PT upfront already that it might take half a year to a year to get fully back, to make, you know, allow that, that split tear to heal fully and to be fully operational.

But they kind of, meaning the surgeon, uh, kind of ignored all of that. They didn't talk about it initially. They didn't said there's nothing we can do, let it heal. But, uh, that was pretty much it. It was then from that point on, kind of ignored as part of my recovery or, you know, recommendations of what I should and shouldn't be doing and maybe supplementation or all of that.

So I was kind of on my own with that. And, uh. The healing process started out fairly well. I could walk within, or I did walk within, well, on the same day really. I walked out of, of surgery and, uh, kept walking, you know, the dog on day one. A week later I started doing CrossFit, obviously modified a little bit then, you know, it.

In the 10 day mark or so, I squatted already, not super heavy, but 225 pound front squats and back squats, you know, it's like 50% of my one rep max. But nonetheless, it's, you know, it is extra weight and all of that I could do, I could then jump, I could jog and, and run. Uh, not that I would go out in a, in a run for half an hour or so, but just as part of my CrossFit routine in running back and forth, you know, kind of explosive, uh, movements, you know, short sprints, et cetera.

All of the things I could do, but I still, I wasn't in pain at all. I never had any pain, but I could feel then some tightness in my knee, and that lasted for, I wanna say at least four weeks, maybe even a little bit longer.

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, Peluva!

Peluva makes minimalist shoes to support optimal foot, back and joint health. I started wearing Peluvas several months ago, and I haven’t worn regular shoes since. I encourage you to consider trading your sneakers or training shoes for a pair of Peluvas, and then watch the health of your feet and lower back improve while reducing your risk of injury. 

To learn more about why I love Peluva barefoot shoes, check out my in-depth review: https://michaelkummer.com/health/peluva-review/ 

And use code MICHAEL to get 10% off your first pair: https://michaelkummer.com/go/peluva 

And I kept, just kept ramping up my activity, you know, let pain be my guidance.

But since I didn't feel any pain, I just did as much as I thought would be reasonable without overdoing it. I never tried to find my threshold, my pain threshold, so to say, away would start hurting. So I can't really tell what I could have done, but what I did seemed to be working fine. And that was progressing.

There was a time, I wanna say between the, maybe the two and four week mark where. I felt the same, the knee felt the same, you know, this little tightness. Um, and that was probably because of the swelling. There was probably, there was likely inflammation going on. There was probably some fluid buildup just from the fact that A, you know, it was an injury.

It is an injury. And B, the incision that also had to heal, you know, they dug around in there a little bit. They, I think they probably must have injected, uh, maybe saline or something to, you know, expand the area a little bit to get a better camera picture. And so all of that. You know, left its mark and. I thought, well, you know, it's, it's not healing as quickly as I would like.

And then there was, there was a point, and I was, as we are getting closer to moving and I've, if you've been following me on us on the, on the Kuber Homestead channel, then you probably know that we just recently moved to a larger property with all of our animals and we did all of the move by ourselves, basically.

Yes, with help from friends and family, but we didn't hire anyone to help us move. And there was a lot of. Moving heavy stuff, cold plunges saunas, um, feet barrels. There was a lot of moving and lifting and dragging and carrying and pulling and all of those things going on and where we, we were incredibly busy.

It was a super stressful time, and to be quite honest, I kind of forgot about my knee a little bit and also about the recovery routine that I had implemented with red light therapy with neurostimulation. With supplementation, with massages, you know, all of the things that helped me in the beginning to get better relatively quickly during the move.

I put on the back burner. I didn't really do much anymore. And you know, then the move was complete, more or less. We moved the bulk of our inventory and the animals and everything, and I had completely forgotten about money knee. I didn't do any recovery anymore. Didn't do the red light anymore. I didn't, you know, pay much attention to supplementation.

I just, you know, was spinning in a wheel, trying to get the move completed. And then I saw a comment, uh, on. I think a, a reel on Instagram where I talked about red light therapy and how it has helped me recover from my knee surgery. And that guy said, huh, yeah, right. I wanna see you sprint. And I'm like, that kind of made me think of my knee again.

And I'm like, I haven't felt my knee, I haven't paid attention to my knee. I didn't even remember that I had a. That had surgery or problem. So I went outside and I went down, you know, we have 45 acres or so, and it's kind of a, you know, winding pasture with, you know, some slight hills and you know, up and downs, et cetera.

And I walked down and it was freezing cold. The wind was blowing, and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna run back. And so I sprinted up the hill as fast as I could in my boots. So it was not a, you know. A hundred meter track, sprint. Uh, but I was going as fast as I possibly could, and I, you know, once I was up the hill, it was maybe, you know, a hundred, 150 meters or so, I stopped and I paid attention to my knee and I felt nothing.

I'm like, huh, you should have seen me sprint. I actually, it, it, I recovered. And so I, again, this was for me. A, a mental clue to say, to pay more attention to how does my knee feel when I do all of the things that I do. You know, as I said, there is a lot of heavy lifting and pulling chicken tractors and, and pushing saunas and all of the things that we've been doing and that we are still doing because we're still not completely finished.

And I noticed that all the forward and back motions, I feel absolutely nothing I can run. I can jump up and down. I can jump left to right. None of that bothers me, which is an indication that the meniscus itself has healed fairly well. There is no pain, no discomfort. Where what I can still feel, and that I think goes back to my MCL is rotational movements on the pressure.

So for example, if I lift up a heavy feet barrier and turn to the side, and my knee kind of has this. He is exposed to this torque, to this, to this rotation. I don't feel pain, but I feel still a little tight in there. And, uh, again, talking to my pt, that's likely the MCL that has not fully healed yet. And I was told in the beginning, and that was.

Maybe three, four months ago that it'll take half a year, likely up to a year to fully heal and where I would be back a hundred percent. And so, um, you know, that is the only thing that's left that I can still tell. That's not 100% yet, but I'm super happy that I can. Run that I can chomp, especially chomping up in all those explosive type of movements that I really enjoy doing both of my, as part of my exercise routine as well as, you know, just daily life whenever I have a chance to chomp up, um, I do that.

And so that's working perfectly. Running and sprinting again works. That was really one of the concerns that I had because I, I wanna go back to sprinting a little bit, and I have not been doing this really in a long time other than, you know, during CrossFit. But now that we live out in the sticks, there's no CrossFit box nearby, so I have to find alternative ways of getting my workouts in and lifting heavy stuff and sprinting and, and chomping is just some of the things that I can do.

Yeah, that come naturally, uh, as, as part of our lifestyle. And so I'm glad I can do that again. Um, but now that I've been thinking about, you know, my knee a little bit more and, and remember that I actually did have surgery eight weeks ago, I will likely go back to some of those routines. Maybe not as strict, maybe not twice a day, but at least at night when I sit on the couch, you know, I put on the kidney and I do maybe some of the neurostimulation again to work on the scar tissue.

That is probably still gonna be there. Or, you know, in the process of maybe building as things fully heal up and, um, you know, to get, make sure there is enough blood supply. There is, you know, that whole osteoarthritis means there is, um, cartilage tissue worn down and in particular red light therapy. Um, laser-based red therapy photo biomodulation has been shown to.

Tilt the balance of cartilage, tissue creation and de degradation. So you can actually regrow cartilage tissue very slowly, not by doing something, you know, letting, because red light does something magic, but it just allows the body to build as much as it naturally would be able to and keep the inflammation down.

So the degradation, um, is less than what the body is capable of rebuilding. And so. That's what I'll keep doing in the hopes that I can get some of that cartilage tissue back. There is still plenty of cartilage tissue there, but I obviously wanna be now more mindful that I don't degrade you even more by doing things that are, you know, like chomping down from high, from, from heights, or running with weighted vests, or doing chomping squats and kind of those things that, you know, stress, the joints may be more than what I'm capable of handling.

And so. That's it. Overall, I'm super happy. Um, it got to a point where I did not even think about my knee. I didn't even think about that. I had surgery and so that's, I think, is a sign that I am back on track. Maybe not a hundred percent yet, but I'm almost there. And if it wasn't for the MCL, I would probably back at a hundred percent already, and I'm super happy about this.

All of the things that I've done seem to be working. I think lifestyle was also conducive. You know, eating, eating well, sleeping well, uh, doing all the things well, to allow the body to do what it can do, meaning recover, and, and restore. Uh, the human body is incredibly at doing that. We just need to be out of our own way sometimes by not inflicting.

More injury than necessary and removing as much stress as possible. So the body has the resources. And with that, we're gonna wrap it up. Just wanna give you that quick update and let you know that you know, the recovery routine I talked about in another video. We're gonna link it down below, has been working.

And so if you're in a similar situation, if you need to heal recovery, if you have an upcoming surgery, maybe then, you know, maybe think about some of the things that I discussed and that might help you as well to get back into action quicker and to be as pain-free as you can. With that, we're gonna wrap it up.

Share this episode with someone who could use it, like it, subscribe if you're watching this somewhere where you can, or leave a comment if you're watching this on YouTube. Until next time.