Question: I had ligament injuries twice at left knee back in 1996 and 1998 while playing basketball and football respectively. Visited orthopedic physician and his advice was 'if you want to continue sports seriously go for surgery, else move on carefully, you may face challenges at old stage'. I was not in position to afford time and cost for the surgery, I moved on. I used to be very active in outdoor sports and gym. For those injuries I started limiting my sports and movements and naturally in regular activities (and in few remaining sports with me like badminton and cricket) I started giving more pressure over my right leg to save left one. In 2013 I started feeling severe pain in right knee and doctors said I am having kind of arthritis there (reduced space kind of problem) due to unbalanced pressure over right knee. They asked me to have some regular exercise to build up stronger muscle around knees and asked me to manage a schedule for surgery asap. Came to know from different sources that these sort of orthopedics surgery often fail to solve the problem, rather trigger new issues, sorry, I have no idea there. Can I have your expert opinion on what I should do now?
On a separate note, One of my colleagues recently has fallen in an accident and got ligament injury in left knee. She is going to visit a specialized orthopedics hospital in XXXXXXX (India). She suggested me to share few of my documents with her so that she would try to consult on the same with her doctor there. If I agree, what kind of medical reports or diagnostic data would help the doctor to have adequate understanding over my status?