knee is fucked

[uh-oh]

tried circling the side of the pic for better accuracy. i know we got lifters and old people here in general who may have run the chance of ruining a joint so help da god out.

i can't pinpoint when exactly i hurt it, i think it was tuesday, but my knees are always rundown sore and achy. tuesday was pretty busy though and i helped take a bed off a truck, like a truck bed and we had to fight it off so im thinking maybe the crouching and busting it off the bolts couldn't helped (but i don't remember any pain from it) alot of my job is being crouched like this cool motherfucker here



except im holding a DA/sander and walking around the car in that position, like down the whole side, occasionally kneeling and leaning to get under rocker panels etc, and sometimes i'll hold it static for awhile if im fixing something in a particular area and don't have a stool etc cuz im moving fast. but alot of times just moving like that can strain the knees and if i stand and twist weird i can get pains here and there too but im always working fast paced and just thug it out.

but wednesday i woke up to pain to the left of my kneecap. sharp pain, any time i put weight on that leg or engage the knee at all. it lessens a bit when i use it though, like crouching and stuff, im putting most weight on my left though and just bending the right out of necessity but not ENGAGING it. so i worked through it wednesday. thursday morning i woke up to swelling and tightness, but the swelling was only noticeable when the knee was bent. like it pushed the swelling out of the other side of the knee, where the pain is at there isn't REALLY swelling, its there but word.

worked through it thurday and friday with it being slightly worse each day but i had like a compression knee brace/sleeve thing on which didn't help pain as much as distract from it with the feeling of uncomfortable shit.

now, since i've been limping and favoring it for days, my achilles/calf is tight as fuck and sore because its picked up the slack from my awkward gait. this morning the pain was badddd but its the same spot and im not swollen cuz i've been icing the fuck out of it after work.

arthritis/meniscus/mcl?

i don't think its mcl or any serious ligament damage because there is no instability, i guess it could be a strain? i dunno. im not thinking arthritis because im pretty sure the normal pain and aches were arthritis, im thinking a minor meniscus tear in that section

what are the chances of it healing if i continue to work on it and just hot and cold treatment it after work? its bad enough to require xrays i think just from the debilitating aspects but i don't want to go through the system unless i become completely debilitated by it. i can still favor it and just use mechanic type stools to roll around cars instead of crouch. but when moving stools/chairs side to side i get pops and shit moving in there

really this was just an incredibly long venting post since i woke up and the pain is still there but if the NC docs want to chime in have at it. or ignore.