Knee surgery 27weeks!

cardie

Help!! On december 4th 2014 I had knee surgery for my torn meniscus. They told me it would hold for 10 years. Now, I tore it again simply by squatting down and grabbing a pair of shoes. I cant walk at all right now so I believe surgery will have to be done shortly. Las time I did surgery it was non- weight bearing for 6 weeks. Has anyone had knee surgery while in their 3rd trimester?? If you had the choice, would you wait it out until baby is born and have surgery then so family can help you with baby and yourself or go ahead and get it done now?? Also, I'm a single mommy so no daddy to help out with any of it! Thank you for your help!!! 

taysun

I would discuss this with both your doctors. I think it's important to find out what options you have. I would also talk to the family you plan on relying on. It would suck if you planned on their help when they're actually unable to assist you to the level you'd need.

MrsLeanMeanClean

I had a friend do acl and mcl just before getting a BFP... They had her manage until after the baby was delivered then did the surgery before LO was too mobile...

She still did need a lot of help from friends and family during recovery

oceanchild

Did they do an actual meniscal repair last time (with anchors), or just a partial meniscectomy? If you have an arthroscopy and the meniscus just cleaned up/torn part removed, you won't have to be non-weight bearing for all that time, but I'd also be hesitant to do it while still pregnant if you can wait. Of course afterwards you'll have to deal with the anesthesiologists etc telling you to pump & dump if you're BFing (which is totally inaccurate btw, so if you do wait and are nursing, I encourage you too talk to an IBCLC, bc it *is* safe to have surgery and anesthesia and pain medicine and still nurse). But if your orthopod and OB are comfortable proceeding with surgery now, you wouldn't have to worry about it. Before babies, I was a private scrub tech for an orthopaedic surgeon, and we rarely operated on pregnant women – usually only if it was emergent, such as a displaced fracture. Now I do volunteer work with an OB who is an IBCLC, and he absolutely hates when the MDAs/CRNAs tell mamas to pump & dump or stop BFing.

Mamabeagle

You will be hard pressed to find a surgeon to perform it now, but it doesn't sound like you have even consulted a doctor or had any diagnostic tests to confirm the injury or severity.

Go see your primary doctor and get a physical therapy referral ffs.

fishsticks-n-custard

oceanchild said:

Did they do an actual meniscal repair last time (with anchors), or just a partial meniscectomy? If you have an arthroscopy and the meniscus just cleaned up/torn part removed, you won't have to be non-weight bearing for all that time, but I'd also be hesitant to do it while still pregnant if you can wait. Of course afterwards you'll have to deal with the anesthesiologists etc telling you to pump & dump if you're BFing (which is totally inaccurate btw, so if you do wait and are nursing, I encourage you too talk to an IBCLC, bc it *is* safe to have surgery and anesthesia and pain medicine and still nurse). But if your orthopod and OB are comfortable proceeding with surgery now, you wouldn't have to worry about it. Before babies, I was a private scrub tech for an orthopaedic surgeon, and we rarely operated on pregnant women – usually only if it was emergent, such as a displaced fracture. Now I do volunteer work with an OB who is an IBCLC, and he absolutely hates when the MDAs/CRNAs tell mamas to pump & dump or stop BFing.

I second this. 

You need to get diagnostic tests done. MRI (without contrast) is fine in pregnancy. But anesthesia is always a risk to the baby, just like it is for the mom. I'm guessing the ortho will likely defer until you deliver; like @oceanchild said, I've never seen them operate on a pregnant woman unless it was a nasty or open fracture. But you really should get the work-up to figure out exactly what's injured.