05-04-2019, 11:09 AM
Very sorry to hear about this, Mickey. 
I've been dealing with torn cartilage in both knees since I was in my teens (one from football, one from a motorcycle crash).
Besides the general daily pain and odd noises I've been lucky to only have a few flare ups over the decades. It's usually the result of a piece of the torn cartilage migrating to somewhere where it's not supposed to be.
Back in the late 80s I had one of these and the doc went in with an arthroscope and cleaned it up, while leaving as much of the meniscus as possible intact. There was an option for total removal of the meniscus, but that didn't seem like a good long term solution, as (in my view) having part of the meniscus was better than none, to keep bones from grinding together.
Nowadays they've got some pretty good techniques for repairing tears and most are minimally invasive. There's even an option for transplanting a new meniscus if yours is too badly damaged to fix.
Hopefully, you can get this repaired and get back on the road in short order.
I've been dealing with torn cartilage in both knees since I was in my teens (one from football, one from a motorcycle crash). Besides the general daily pain and odd noises I've been lucky to only have a few flare ups over the decades. It's usually the result of a piece of the torn cartilage migrating to somewhere where it's not supposed to be.
Back in the late 80s I had one of these and the doc went in with an arthroscope and cleaned it up, while leaving as much of the meniscus as possible intact. There was an option for total removal of the meniscus, but that didn't seem like a good long term solution, as (in my view) having part of the meniscus was better than none, to keep bones from grinding together.
Nowadays they've got some pretty good techniques for repairing tears and most are minimally invasive. There's even an option for transplanting a new meniscus if yours is too badly damaged to fix.
Hopefully, you can get this repaired and get back on the road in short order.