Water on the knee??

Mattsmom277

Active Member
Hi all. Over a month ago I hurt my right knee. I was dashing across a road to not stop traffic flow, and as my right foot hit the ground, the knee felt like it was shifted right out of place. Mind searing pain. Even worse, I was holding S/O's hand, and he had no idea. We were about 5-6 steps away from the curb, so I ended up being sort of dragged along and landed several more times on the right foot. By the time I was on the curb, I felt near to passing out it was so bad.
It took about a week for the pain to subside. Since then, I can feel pain when going up but mostly going down stairs. I can feel pain if I cross my legs (So I don't). I can't step heavily, but when walking normally, I've been able to forget I even injured it.
Over the weekend I got up from bed and the entire knee felt like it was floating in something. It hurts (not like when it happened though) and yet at the same time, it feels cacooned. Almost as if someone put novocaine in there. Its the strangest, oddest feeling. I can feel some throbbing into the area of my thigh just above the knee now. That is new too. I can feel it stiffening up each day since Saturday. I had a hard time placing my leg to sleep last night as somehow every position felt like I was putting pressure on it.
I figure it is probably water on the knee??? I know I know. A doctor is where I should be. But I no longer have a family doctor. Due to the H1N1, the ER wait here is 8-10 hours wait! (Unheard of wait times, can you imagine???) Our walk in clinics, normally a good bet, are open week nights from 5-8p.m. The thing is, with the flu thing, everyone is going to the few walk ins we have. Apparently by 2-3p.m. the lines are building and when they open at 5 to register, within 15 minutes they have so many registered that they can't take any more and send the rest of those waiting away. I doubt I'd be able to be seen, even if I could actually stand for 2-3 hours in a line just to register, then gosh knows how long until it was my turn to be seen. I couldn't be on my feet that long without my knee issue due to my MS. So now I'm feeling doubly vanquished.
Anyhow, have any of you ever dealt with water on the knee? Other than elevating the leg and cold packs on it, is there anything else I can? Oh and the obvious, try to not use the leg much, etc. I really don't know what to do here. Stupid thing too, if I do the walk in and find a way to tough out the pain of waiting without collapsing, they can't do xrays there. They'd send me to the ER with the 8-10 hour wait if they can't decide by examination alone what they think is happening to my knee.

PS. I'm cursing my nasty family doctor of 17 years who I no longer have as an option simply because of my speaking up about my former psycho neighbour who also had this doctor, and who was so freaking drugged out via this doctors prescriptions. I should have kept my darn mouth shut, even though the doctor for a couple of years had been treating me like **** and i had lost faith in him.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
So sorry for your pain. I've never had water on the knee but deal with horrible knee pain when going up and down steps, sitting to standing, standing to sitting, and other movements. Often I feel no pain at all (when just walking) but other times I am near tears.

I have been seeing a sports medicine dr since mid April and doing physical therapy on my own. From May to early September no pain, now pain almost every day, much of the day.

I had no preceding injury though like you did and no pain above the knee in the thigh. My pain comes on the knee and the I.T. bands (Sp?) on the sides. For me the doctor says ice and that I need to strengthen my core, glutes, and hamstrings. I'm working on it and it was helping just isn't right now.

I really wish there was a way for you to get to see a doctor. Hugs.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
My knee problems started somewhat similar to what you describe. I was walking across a gravel parking lot and lost my footing and tripped and twisted my knee. At first, I just put the injury off to being a sore knee from being overweight and clumsy. By day three I knew it was more than that. My knee had swollen to twice its size, turned red and was inflamed. I was sent to an orthopedist because this happened on company time and the ortho took one look at it and took xrays, an MRI and declared I had water on the knee along with a very small tear of the miniscus along with some arthritis. His recommendation was to drain the fluid at that time and let the miniscus repair itself since it was so small. Sounded good to me since I didnt like operations back then...lol.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
When I was a kid I had water-on-the-knee from repeatedly falling hard on it. After initially icing it to reduce the swelling (usually just over the first 24 hours I think?), we treated it with heat and kept it elevated a lot. The heat increases blood flow to the area to speed the healing and absorption of the excess fluid. And yes, you have to keep it wrapped when you are using it so you support the joint and don't mess things up further.

Beyond that, I don't think there's much else you can do except be patient. But then, I'm not a doctor -- I just play one on the internet. :p
 

Mattsmom277

Active Member
Thanks all!

Okay, the question I didn't want to ask:

How exactly do they drain a knee??? OUCH OUCH OUCH is all that comes to my mind.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Mattsmom. Basically they use a huge needle. It's not really bad if you don't look at the needle and they do use a local anesthetic to numb things up as best they can.

From your description, it sounds to me that you likely tore cartilage in the knee. That needs to be surgically repaired. Ignoring it will lead to severe arthritis down the road and you are already dealing with a disease that can badly impair mobility.

I don't know how your system works in Canada, but is there any way you can see a doctor and then claim the bill back through your insurance?
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
husband got water on the knee when he was a kid. He went without treatment for financial reasons and instead ended up in the hospital for several weeks getting his knee drained on a daily basis. Please don't let this go if this is what you think it is.

Granted, the emergency room is not the place for this. But is there a clinic in the area that you could visit?
 
Top