did the mri last thursday, got a call from the ortho specialst/
surgeon. he said it's an MT. his suggestion was that i should get it
fixed soon because he wanted to avoid the possibility of my knee
buckling and thus making things worse. it sounded like the urgency of
the surgery was preventitive. thing is, i'm going on vacation two days
after the scheduled surgery, so i REALLY want to put it off. ie,,,i
don't want complications screwing up the vacation.

so i have some questions.

1...if it's a tear then why not let it heal on it's own? my opinion is
if surgery can be avoided, then all the better.

2...are there alternatives to surgery?

3...what is actually done in the procedure?

4..what's the success rate? is this one of those things where
everything MIGHT be ok,,,or WILL things be ok after surgery.

history: it first happened 5 or 6 months ago. there was a slight
buckle on my knee, and the knee started feeling "out of lock-step". i
went to the gym and used the treadmill for an hour. in the ensuing
days the knee started to hurt...this lasted for about 2 or 3 weeks.
then it started feeling better. when i initially stood up from a
seated position, the knee hurt and i limped. after standing on it for
a minute or two the pain would go away.

when it was feeling ok, i started biking on a stationary and doing
weights for my knee. everything was ok and in a month i was feeling
GREAT, so i tried the treadmill again. i did it for 20 minutes no
problem. but then the pain came back, only this time it was MILDER. it
felt okay after a week.

that's when i first saw the ortho specialist. he gave the exam and
nothing hurt so he said if it comes back to schedule an mri.

i started using the elliptical trainer and the workouts were great.
1.5 hours per session. any pain was totally gone, and all that was
left was an infrequent crack in my knee like you crack your
knuckle...no biggie, didn't hurt. did the elliptical for about,,,2.5
months.

then two weeks ago i felt a little tick in the knee while on the
elliptical. the next day the pain came back and this time it was like
the first time. i stayed off the gym work, but started with the bike
every other day. no problem, i ice it down after a workout. also,
after i soak in a hot bath, my knee feels fine for a short while.

basically if i HAVE to get surgery i want to do it after i get back
from vacation but that dr, has me worried about buckling.

btw,,,i'm late 50's in in great shape otherwise.

thanks