Superbob,
From what you describe, it may be a bucket-handle tear of your meniscus cartilage. This is true if you feel something moving around inside your knee and that you have to do something to your knee so you can straighten it. If so, then arthroscopic surgery my be your best option. It certainly was mine.
I had such a tear from a caving trip I took back in Indiana in early Spring 1992. I merely stepped onto what I thought was a flat rock, which was really tilted about 30° down--causing my knee to twist unnaturally. It was a pretty painful exit from the cave as Wayne's Cave has a 1200 (yes twelve hundred) foot crawlway from 1 to 3 feet tall between the large comfortable walking cave (yes I hurt myself in that part) and the 15 foot hand climbable pit entrance. The knee was swollen, and I had to use the Bloomington Transit bus for a few weeks until the swelling went down. Then I could walk on it, but if the torn cartilage shifted, I could not straighten out my leg without agony--or at least until I hit the bulge on the front and got the cartilage back into place. I would have had it looked at by a doctor, but I was finishing writing my doctoral dissertation, and was scheduled for my oral examination in early June 1992--a date I could ill afford to miss, so I put medical attention off. Got Ph.D., then went to Pullman, WA for post-doc work--no time for surgery there either. Then did interviews for professor positions, promising I would get it done when I was sure I was hired somewhere--but not anything with too quick a starting date. When College of Southern Idaho hired me as an Assistant Professor in an October 1993 interview, I quickly made arrangements with Kaiser to get it done before I needed to move.
I got it done at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa California in early November 1993. It was my first experience with Versed--I didn't remember a thing--even telling in Farsi an Iranian-American surgical nurse I was happy to have met him during my surgery--he later told me what I had said. Versed also kept me from remembering my traumatic intubation just before my life-flight to Boise for my OHS much more recently.
My point is that Dr. (Barry?) Goldstein (also a surgeon who fixed up knees for Oakland Raiders and SF 49ers football players) was able to remove the cartilage chunks, smooth out the remaining parts, and patch me up so well I cannot currently find my surgical scars. What is more, my knee has never had a problem since to this very day. In fact, while I'm typing this, my left foot is comfortably beneath my left buttock while I'm sitting in an office chair--knee of course being very bent at the moment. The only sign anything is different is my left leg is slightly shorter than my right one now.
Recovery was so fast I was able to get off my Vicodin only three days after surgery, crutches after only two days, and was able to climb a flight of 20 stairs to church only three days after surgery after I drove myself into town--of course off the Vicodin.
In addition, I had been hired a month previously at College of Southern Idaho, and was due to start teaching in January 1994, so I had to move myself to Idaho from California. I moved into my new house in Twin Falls, driving 680 miles from Petaluma (spent the night in Lovelock, NV halfway there) and carried most of my furniture into my house only three weeks after the surgery--I had some help for my bed--delivered by Everton Mattress, but the rest was small enough for me to manage--a neighbor helped me with my couch at least. The knee has never been one bit of trouble since by the grace of God.
If surgery is needed, go for it. If I got such good results with 1993 technology, think of what sort of results you can get with 2008 state of the art surgery. Even if it's ligaments or other more serious stuff than what I had, the results should be 15 years more advanced and better than my excellent results. Of course, I had people praying for me then, too. Prayer never goes out of style--so avail yourself of that, too. You'll be in mine, for instance.
Now if I could only convince Laura to get her knee replaced....
With two happy pain-free knees,
Chris
