Orthopedist needs to send you for an MRI to determine if you have a torn meniscus or ripped ligament. He will do some preliminary tests in the office.
It's arthroscopic surgery and they only trim away the area that is torn, not like years ago when the would just remove the cartilage all together, which was painfull and then caused traumatic arthritis, whereby always needing a knee replacement. It's a pretty simple procedure. Usually two or three days recovery. Docs will give you some pain medications, but most likely after the first day or two, you won't need them.
If it's a ripped ligament requiring surgery, then it's a bit more involved and depending on the surgery, not all that much more painful than what I described above, but just a longer recovery period.
Yes, I've actually had the surgery and I'm not just typing from doing the office notes. I've also seen many, many patients in the office (prior to working from home) come in after the surgery to follow up with doctor. Very rarely did we ever have a patient still have trouble after the surgery and then it was usually because there was a tremendous amount of arthritis and no matter what was performed, they were told that it may only be palliative treatment, but they would ultimately need a knee replacement.
Keep us posted.