Ok so I tore my MCL, meniscus, and ACL all at once. I had 2 surgeries, the first was to repair the meniscus and debribe (clean) the torn ACL out. My recovery for the meniscus was 6 weeks of non-weight bearing. During this time I was doing PT to improve flexibility in the knee. Once I was weight bearing at 6 weeks I continued PT for another few weeks and then just began to do exercises on my own. My surgeon never told me what kind of meniscus tear I had but I know it was pretty well detached (this happened wakeboarding where I completely dislocated my knee casing the wake). The type of tear may be an influence on whether or not you can use suture darts. Definitely talk to your surgeon about that.
As far as PT, here are a few tips. ICE religously. This is probably the best advice I can give you. It helps get the swelling down, and you'll regain flexibility sooner (meaning you'll lose less muscle and can rebuild muscle sooner). Get 2 tensor bandages (the first few days you're gonna have an ACE bandage so you'll only need 1 tensor). Wrap 1 tensor around the knee, then apply a bag of ice/peas/frozen item on top the tensor, and then wrap the second tensor on to keep it in place. For the first 2 weeks of surgery I iced my knee as I fell asleep as well. Second tip would be investing in a TENS machine. They're basically a muscle stimulant and they help a ton to initially regain your flexibility (they're also great for aches and pains on your body from skiing). I used one made by Dr. Ho and it works fantastic but there are others available. Last tip is ask your physiotherapist when you can begin to use a BOSU ball (You'll have to be weight bearing to do any of these). They're the half ball with a flat top. I did a ton of exercises on these (standing on the flat black side). I started off easy such as just applying a little weight to the surgical leg. Then eventually I was doing single leg stands (see how long you can go), adding dumbbell weights, doing squats (both two and one legged), airplane, lateral leg extensions, etc. These improved both my leg strength and my stability at the same time. This helped to really regain strength and stability in the knee and also helps with your skiing balance.
