It will probably take a month before they want to do the surgery. In this time stretch, stationary bike. You shouldn't need a brace once you regain some stability. It will feel pretty normal in a couple of weeks, unless you try to pivot on it or make a weird movement like that.
Don't know if you have a surgeon picked out already, but I'd highly recommend Dr. Hugh West in SLC. He was a good surgeon, and he had an aggressive recovery program. I was off crutches in 7 days. Backpacking 4 months later, skiing 5 months after surgery. It wil take longer for it to be 100% though. And blowing out the same knee twice is a bad thing.
Take it easy in the meantime, and don't do anything dumb that could cause more meniscus damage - that's the real long term problem.