Unhappy Triad - How soon should treatment start?

(Toronto, Canada)

Unhappy Triad - How soon should treatment start and how critical is it?

I recently got my MRI results and it said:

-moderate joint effusion
-full thickness tear of the ACL associated with bony edema in the tibial plateua and femoral condyles
-linear high signal within posterior horn of medial meniscus: equivocal between degeneration or tear
-no tear of lateral meniscus
-high signal within MCL representing high grade partial thickness tear

I am a 30 year old male.
I sustained the injury bowling (in Cricket), just before delivery. This translates to a high shearing force: cleats, wet baseball diamond sand - I can see how it happened.

My question is how about quickly the treatment should begin. I was discharged from emergency with a pair of crutches and the assurance I had no broken bones. It has been a month since then. I live in Canada and health care here is poor.

I was lucky there was a cancellation and I didn't have to wait 2 months for the MRI. 2 weeks after the MRI, I got the results. So that's the first month. After 5 days on crutches, I started limping along and am still doing that. I had an appointment with the orthopaedist who recommended an MCL brace and a MRI. I forwent the brace because I would have had to pay out of pocket for that.

Given the waiting times for appointment - I am still trying to schedule one with an ortho - have I sustained even greater damage to the knee because of the waiting and lack of prompt attention?