dribbling soccer ball with defender coming

Week 7 Rehab After My Second Meniscectomy

by Rashida Bealin Meniscectomy Surgery, monthly updateson Posted on

I took huge leaps forward in my recovery during week 7 of my rehab after my second partial meniscectomy.

However, before continuing with this post, I suggest you first review the previous weeks of my recovery:

In this article, I detail my seventh week of recovery after my second partial meniscectomy.

How I Felt During Week 7 of Meniscectomy Rehab

This week, I felt even more confident and sound than my previous week. As I continued to progress, I was feeling far more upbeat and motivated than in some earlier weeks. In general, the more I could do the better I felt.

However, I also still felt nervous about my knee and the recovery. I was still having some pain, and was being pushed back to sport sooner than I felt ready. In my mind, I still needed more time and strength to work back to the sport. As I’ll cover soon, I didn’t get that time.

How My Knee Felt

I made another pretty big jump between week 5 and week 7 of my recovery. My leg was feeling much stronger, and I was able to run faster.

However, I was not 100% or pain-free. I still had some medial knee pain when bending my knee a lot. When I tried to do explosive movements, I would feel the quad tend lag/weakness. Essentially, my knee felt a lot better than it had, but it did not feel completely good.

Major Events

Throughout the previous week, I was integrated into team trainings. I completed the team trainings, but was quickly fatigued throughout the week leading up to the game. At the beginning of this week, I played my first soccer match back.

However, I did not feel ready for this game and was not better. If it were completely up to me, I would not have played. While I could do a lot of the typical movements from team training, I did not feel like myself. I felt slower, less agile, and less explosive. I still had some pain when trying to do things like high needs or quick change of direction.

While I made it through the game, I did not play up to my full potential for this reason. I’ll go over this more in my next post, but I did not feel fully recovered until about week 9.

The major events of the week included:

  • Much closer to full flexion.
  • Team training.
  • Played in my first professional match back, 90 minutes.

7 Week Post-Op Meniscectomy Exercises

In addition to the team workouts, I still went in the gym a few times to continue strengthening and power on my own. Incorporated many exercises that I show in my 7 to 9-month and 9 to 12-month ACL recovery exercises videos.

Here are some examples of the exercises I did:

  • Sprinting
  • Change of direction/agility
  • Individual ball work (passing, dribbling, striking)
  • Plyometrics
  • Landing mechanics, SL and double leg
  • Split squats and lunges
  • Lateral lunges

Meniscectomy Rehab Frequently Asked Questions- 7 Week Post Op

Did you have pain?

Yes, I still had some pain, but not nearly as much. In general, my pain was worse during full flexion (high knees) or after a few sessions in a row. I also felt pain and weakness in my quad tendon when trying to do explosive movements like change direction or jump high.

Could you sprint?

Yes, by this point I could sprint, however, I did not feel like I could change direction or accelerate as fast.

Could you play soccer?

I did play soccer at the very beginning of week 7, but I would not have if it were up to me. I felt I still needed about 2 more weeks of team and individual training to be ready. I did complete the game, but I paid for it for multiple weeks. My muscles were not ready, and I faced extreme muscle soreness that kept me out of many training sessions for the rest of this week.