Pain in the... Knee

A couple of days before Christmas, I was getting down off a chair to get to something behind our computer and my knee hit a baluster on the balustrade along the top of our balcony.  There was a loud crack and I was in terrible, terrible pain.

Fortunately, my kneecap was stronger than the baluster.  It was the baluster, not my knee that made the loud crack.  The immediate pain subsided and other than a bruise, I wasn't much worse for the wear.

Or so I thought.

Since then, my knee hasn't been quite right.  I've been popping ibuprofen and using heating pads, but none of that seems to be helping.  I can bend my knee just fine, but when I straighten it, there's a point where it seems to catch and pop every time.

And I'm scared.

I'm going to wait until Friday to get it looked at.  Maybe there's still some swelling inside somewhere that will still subside and this problem will go away.  (Also, it will cost less if I wait until Friday for insurance reasons.)  But I'm afraid that the problem will not go away and I'll have to have knee surgery.  I don't WANT to have knee surgery.

I'm probably overreacting, but since my knees have been bothering me for YEARS now, I can help but jump to dire conclusions.  I hope I'm wrong.  Because if not, this little pain is going to change into some serious pain before it goes away.

But for now, I'll learn to deal with the aching and popping until I know more.