Help! acl and meniscus tear, focal edema, and joint effusion.?

ok so i finally got my diagnosis for knee. i have a torn ACL and torn Meniscus, my doctor said that i will have to replace my acl but didnt say much about my meniscus. I was just wondering what exactly they do and how they repair a torn meniscus. i know that my doctor (family doctor, arthroscopic surgeon, and physical therapy doctor) all have said that because of my age and my activity level it will be more urgent and i cant really find an information on it. anything would be greatly appricated. oh and my MRI said i have a small joint effusion, and focal edema within the subcutaneous tissues anterior to the patella. Honestly at age 14 i have no idea what this means, i'm looking online but it's not really telling me anything. please help. i'm really uncomfortable going into surgery not having a complete understanding of what is going on. anything is appricated. thanks. :]

sorry for the limited info, i just found the paperwork from my first MRI, i have white zone (whatever that means) meniscus tear.

Here's the simplified explanation... basically, you had extra stress on the knee to the point that your knee couldn't take it anymore. One of the major stabilizer is the ACL. Think of it as one out of two criss-cross cables that holds the knee together. Well, that cable is ripped and it needs to be replaced as soon as possible. During surgery, they typically use a piece of tendon from somewhere else (usually just below your knee cap) and use that for the ACL.

Part of the stress on the knee caused the top part of your thigh bone to crash into the bottom part of your leg bone, squeezing and damaging one of the shock absorbers which is your meniscus. How badly damaged, hard to say since the information you gave me is limited. Given the typical type of damage among schoolgirls around your age, they'll either remove some of the damaged part or they'll staple it to the bone.

Now for the MRI report. Basically, when the body receives a damage like that, it wants to protect that unstable joint by making a splint. It can't just simply put two boards and wrap it with bandage, it does it by nature's method. It makes that joint swell up to limit movement. So, to translate. Small joint effusion = small fluid in the joint. Focal edema = fluid in a specific area. Subcutaneous tissue = just below skin. Anterior = front of. Patella = knee cap. Putting it all together, you have extra fluid in a specific area just below the skin that's in front of your knee cap.

I tore my meniscus last December and had surgery. My surgeon removed the little piece that tore because of my age. (I was 50 at the time) Your surgeon might repair yours because, at your age, it may heal. I'm not positive but I think the repair would be done with a few tiny sutures.

I'd be lying it I didn't tell you the pain was terrible for the first few days and I couldn't walk without crutches for 5 days because the swelling made it impossible for me to straighten out my leg.

The good news (if there's any) is that one week after the surgery, I was walking with a slight limp and the pain wasn't
bad at all. I stopped taking the pain meds after about 6 days.

The better news is, that was 11 months ago and I'm all better now and I hardly remember what the pain felt like. (Even though I remember there was a lot of it at first) And you can barely see the three incisions on my knee.

Good luck! You will probably heal a lot faster than I did because you're much younger.