[Hank70SS]

Lynda had a similar injury, minus bruising of the bone. She tore the meniscus, don't recall which one and blew out her ACL. They operated to clean up the meniscus but did not repair the ACL. She was considerably older than Lauren when this happened. They said if she was younger or active in sports they would recommend repairing the ACL. Her knee would buckle on occasion because the ACL was gone. She road a stationary bike, walked on a treadmill and did other exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee. She hasn't had a problem with that knee for years now, of course she has torn the meniscus in the other knee twice now.

The meniscus repair can be relatively minor depending on the amount of damage. Unfortunately an MRI can't tell you how much damage was done, they have to go in and look. Usually they go in and trim off the torn piece and smooth it out. Some pain but you can be back up and around in a day or two, followed with some therapy. Building up the muscles around the knee keeps it stable which helps to distribute the weight evenly between the lateral and medial meniscus. That's what those hinged knee braces do, keep the knee straight so one meniscus is not bearing all the weight.

The ACL is a different issue. The ACL is 2 ligaments, like an X. There's also the PCL. Together they pull the knee joint together and help stabilize it. With a torn ACL the joint can be sloppy and not operate smoothly. Typically they remove a portion of the patella ligaments to rebuild the ACL. Because of her young age I'm sure they'll want to repair it. The recovery time for that is much longer, up to 6 months with lots of therapy. Fortunately she is young and should recover quicker than an older person.

I'm sure the surgeon can give you a much better explanation of what's wrong and what they need to do. Hope all goes well, she'll need to work hard, lot's of therapy but should be good as new this summer.

Best of luck to Lauren.