Extreme Knee Pain/no swelling/no injury

[Sassy_]

I'm a female ... mid forties... active and up until now, in good health

I've never had a problem with my knees, but a week ago I was laying across the bed and a severe pain struck me behind the knee cap. I was in tears instantly.

It is a constant pain... varying from a dull ache and amping up to a crescendo of high pitch... There is no pattern to it... walking or laying down makes no difference. There is no position where there is relief.

I don't like to take pain pills, they upset my stomach but had a few Loratabs left from a dental problem. They lowered the volume, but still the pain was intense. My family doctor referred me to an orthopedic surgeon and prescribed Percocet until my appointment. Same results as the Loratabs.

The pain in my knee set off a topical pain down the front of my shin... I can control that with Elcon cream. It also affects the Sartorius muscle‏, but I can vibrate that and it stops. Those areas have different types of pain, but both radiate from the knee.

2 days ago I woke up and a brown bruise about the size of a quarter was on the side of my knee cap. It's not a bad bruise, but there are 2 black dots about half inch apart inside of the bruise. They look like small punctures, sort of like you get with a shot.

Today, I saw the specialist... I've used him before for a frozen shoulder and had excellent results with a cortisone type injection in the shoulder joint.

He took a few images and couldn't see a problem. Then he spent about 20 minutes checking all the pressure points. He explained, that certain points when pressed would indicate the problem and that I wouldn't be able to stand his touching it. Nothing hurt any worse when he pressed, but the pain was already severe. When I didn't react, he checked them again and was puzzled by my lack of reaction.

When he saw the bruise, he questioned me at length about how it got there. When I finally made him understand, it just came there while I was asleep, he said he'd never seen anything like that. I asked if there was something leaking from under the kneecap and he said no.

He said that without further tests, he couldn't tell what was wrong. He said, this was the first time in his career he had seen a patient be in such pain, without responding when the pressure point was pressed. I asked him about tests and he said an MRI.... Without explanation, that is out for me.

I asked for a cortisone shot and he agreed to try it... but said it might take as long as 72 hours to feel the full effect. He didn't come right out and say it, but he didn't appear to think it would do much good... but wouldn't hurt to try.  

Has anyone here had a similar problem, or know of something I can ask him to check?

Thanks in advance for any information

Sassy_

[kimberly584]

Do you by chance have a swollen lump just below your knee cap? My 13 year old son has something called Osgood Schlatter Disease this is caused when the growth plate gets injured before you are done growing. It can cause a swelling just below your knee cap of the patellar tendon. It is irritated by activity of any kind, especially twisting or jumping. It can flare up and then go away only to come back again. There is no treatment but rest and ice an usually goes away once you stop growing.

[Tonimpierouchakos]

I have sharp pain and cramps and my knees popps and feels like it is going to pop out of place. Sometimes it feels like I can not take another step or go up or down stairs .  At some point during the day it don't hurt and gets better and then you think yeah relief but then it comes back. Any suggestions on what it could be

[Vjb87]

Last week I woke up with a severe pain behind my left knee, my husband and I was on vacation, si I figured because we were driving. Today 07/08/2016 I wake up to sever pain in the same knee, it feels like it just moved to the inside of my knee. I woke up @ 3am to this, very painful when lying down and bending. First thought BLOOD CLOT! So what is this pain that moves? Answer please!

[Charifree]

Hi, i can see that the original question is now 6 years ago. I havnt read through all the other responses. Ive also had sudden knee pain with out injury but i know what it is. You may dismiss this, do with it what you will. In a nutshell everything is energy including us...physical, mental, emotional is conected, at a step further they also make up the etheric body...mainstream western medicine accepts this to a certain extent, ie stress can effect the body. Eastern medicine accepts even more ie fire (eating chilli while wearing a jumper on a hot dry day) imbalance will cause fire (inflammation, infection...more complex than i can list) in the body. In my practice and in many alternative forms of medicine they are not only accepted as fact, its considered limited to not understand the direct conection between these three parts of the etheric, physical,  emotional, mental or thoughts. Therefore sudden pain without injury is simply the emotional or mental factor at play...knees are flexability and courage, left knee is more internal (how you feel about yourself) right knee is more external (action and how you feel about the world)
SO WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE JUST BEFORE THIS HAPPENED? Is the million dollar question, and each person would need of cause a full physical, mental and emotional evaluation to further explain. At the risk of being ridiculed,  if you have an emotional block you can experience  
it physically. Its very common.
I would dearly love to offer some insight to the orginal person who posted this question. If your still around and interested?  your quite detailed and i have some idea of what happened to you.  I dont want to post it publicly and rest assured this is no scam. I do not want any money from you now or ever!! I want nothing, dont need you name or any details about where you live etc...no scam!
Im offering free insight in case if helps you, but you might have moved on thats ok too. Let me know and I hope what
I'v said helps maybe one of you...im pretty much expecting most of you to think this is baloney, thats ok too.

[DragonflyDream]

I'm interested it what you are explaining. I suddenly developed a pain in my left knee last Friday and it has not gone away. It gets worse as the day goes on but I have not gone to see a doctor yet due to insurance issues. The only thing that helps is 600mg ibuprofen which is short term. Please let me know if you can help. ~DragonflyDream

[Charifree]

Hi, i can see that the original question is now 6 years ago. I havnt read through all the other responses. Ive also had sudden knee pain with out injury but i know what it is. You may dismiss this, do with it what you will. In a nutshell everything is energy including us...physical, mental, emotional is conected, at a step further they also make up the etheric body...mainstream western medicine accepts this to a certain extent, ie stress can effect the body. Eastern medicine accepts even more ie fire (eating chilli while wearing a jumper on a hot dry day) imbalance will cause fire (inflammation, infection...more complex than i can list) in the body. In my practice and in many alternative forms of medicine they are not only accepted as fact, its considered limited to not understand the direct conection between these three parts of the etheric, physical,  emotional, mental or thoughts. Therefore sudden pain without injury is simply the emotional or mental factor at play...knees are flexability and courage, left knee is more internal (how you feel about yourself) right knee is more external (action and how you feel about the world)
SO WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE JUST BEFORE THIS HAPPENED? Is the million dollar question, and each person would need of cause a full physical, mental and emotional evaluation to further explain. At the risk of being ridiculed,  if you have an emotional block you can experience  
it physically. Its very common.
I would dearly love to offer some insight to the orginal person who posted this question. If your still around and interested?  your quite detailed and i have some idea of what happened to you.  I dont want to post it publicly and rest assured this is no scam. I do not want any money from you now or ever!! I want nothing, dont need you name or any details about where you live etc...no scam!
Im offering free insight in case if helps you, but you might have moved on thats ok too. Let me know and I hope what
I'v said helps maybe one of you...im pretty much expecting most of you to think this is baloney, thats ok too.

[jenny_1984]

OK so I am a massage therapist by trade and I do believe the body harbors much of its emotional stressors and has a way of expelling them through expression of pain and other physical attributes. I am a fairly stress free person but I work a 2nd job for the steady income and within this position I walk a total of 15 miles per day. I am experiencing excruciating pain medial knee toward the front just beside my patella...no known injury and no visible swelling just unbearable pain.....any insight?

[tmoney0923]

I have the same problem in my right leg.  I notice a lot of sorenes after a light work out.  And then have trouble walking for about 3 days.  Then everything goes back to where about every couple hours I have to stretch my knee out.  Let me know what you find out.

[tabatha_snyder2004]

I have knee pain but only the skin hurts, I can rub it or touch it and it feels ok with no added pain, it hurts worse whe Im not touching the skin. Theres no bruising or swelling at all, it feels like I scraped my knee on concrete but I never injured it.. the feeling of pain I get is intensifying every day..but not when I touch it or massage it..This is really wierd, and unexplainable. I dont understand it and im a medical massage practitioner..any thoughts on this?

[cuty14]

i'm 14 years old i have had severe knee pain in both of my legs for over a year no bruising no swelling sometimes it's everyday for a few hours and sometimes it stops for a few month and then comes back nothing changes what ever position i'm in if i'm standing sitting or laying down.
please help if you have any information about it.

[parkerdubois]

Your husbands situation is just like mine. I am in such pain while driving home. I went to my orthopedist and he told me physical therapy 3x a week for 6 weeks. He took an x-ray, which showed nothing. Did you ever find out exactly what was wrong with his knee????

[ensiferum0]

I have a similar issue. I am 20 and have had my knee problem for about 10-11 years. My right knee will "flare up" and have extreme pain. It doesn't hurt to move or touch it. I can walk and even sprint while the pain is there. There is no physical indication either but the pain is unbelievable. To put it into perspective, I ruptured my spleen in two different places while playing hockey in high school. I finished the entire game and ate dinner with my friends before going to the hospital. I nearly bled to death and died. I refused any pain killers the whole first 24day hours because I wanted to be aware of everything before my internal bleeding was stabilized. That was a cake walk compared to my flare ups. I can't describe the pain but it is tear inducing. It wakes me if I am sleeping and nothing relieves the pain. Sometimes, it lasts an hour others 10 hours. It can happen every day for a week straight or it can be months before it happens again. It's almost always late at night or early in the morning and NEVER unless I am very tired up and up to near exhaustion. Also, standing for 60 or more minutes causes my knees to burn with the fire of 1000 suns. It becomes completely unbearable after about 4 hours, which is very difficult considering my job requires me to be on my feet 40 hours a week. I wish I could find relief. There is never any physical indication and doctors and family just think I'm an idiot.

[ysaure]

don't know if you'll ever see this, but me too. it's hard to describe what i've felt in my knees for now 12 years, but your comment pretty much sums it up. it's a bit of a relief that i'm not the only one out there, but i wish there was a diagnosis for this...

[Pali73]

Hello- I am a 38yr old, healthy, in good shape female.  I exercise lightly but on a regular basis.  I started having unexplainable severe knee pain.  No idea how or why.  No injury, no swelling, no bruising.  I had my knee examined, Xrays done, and everything looked great. I decided to change the sneakers I was using to exercise and actually use sneakers when using the eliptical at home and as God is my witness - problem solved!!!!!!!! No more knee pain.

I hope my story helps someone.
M

[annieminette]

what brand of sneakers did you buy?

[lrmiller]

has anyone at all found out what's the cause? I, too, woke up yesterday with extreme knee pain that no matter how many pain meds I take, it isn't stopping

[lorilee4201]

look up pseudogout its painfull knee pain, hot, no swelling .

[jnic13]

i am only 16 years old and have been dealing with severe knee pain for 3 years. i have been to 3 doctors (one specialist) so far and i have had two surgeries(in less than a year) i had a plica removal surgery and a lateral release procedure. i have had two cortisone shots(neither did any good to help with the pain.) and i am now on my fifth round of physical therapy and i am making great progress strength wise but i still have pain. i myself am still trying to find someone that will give me a diagnosis and i will finally have pain-free days. if anyone has an idea to help.. it is very much appreciated.

[shelly994]

my husband had sudden knee pain a week ago , it is most unbearable while driving , he did not injure it , there is no swelling,  even when I drive we have to pull over so he can stretch it out the door , very, very painful, hard to go upstairs, he had acl surgery on the other knee about three years ago, but he had injured it while shoveling , but this one is sudden for no reason, the pain is in the right leg and radiates all the way down , very sharp   .

[Bigmj8489]

I'm a 20 year old college football player. I play on the defensive line so I'm constantly hitting 300+ guys day in and day out. My knee pain started my senior year in high school 3 years ago, but now is becoming more of a problem and a burden because the pain it is grting worse and worse. Im praying it's not arthritis. Tendonitits might be the problem but the excercises the trainers tell me to do don't work! If I sit down for too long my knees begin to ache! The urge to stand up is unbelievable! If I stand up for too long I have to sit down and give my knees a break! Squaring with weights is definitely out of the question! If anyone knows a possible diagnoses of what I may have and/or treatment for me it would be GREATLY appreciated! Please contact me at ***@****

God Bless
MJ

[NRK99]

I am 25 years old, almost 3 weeks back i felt heaviness in my right leg especially the knee area..for abt 2 days it was mild, i went to a local doc who gave me Muscadol- a pain killer..the pain was still mild..i was bck to work and suddenly i felt so weak in my leg and the pain was unbearable below the knee cap ,gradually the pain spread to my calf and back of my thigh but there was no swelling at all..no redness no bruises...i tried al sorts of heat rubs and pain killers ...wich showed temporary effect. went in for an x-ray fearing arthritis or rheumetisis..later figured out its a sprain...was put on some more pain killers n more heat rubs...asked the doc if i shud go fr an MRI ,to wich he replied not needed. at the moment there is no pain in the knee but i still feel a strong pain in the calf n back of my leg especially while sleeping and in the mornings....now without wasting any more time m heading to a specialist fr an mri....havent been wearing high heels since the pain started. will keep u posted with the results.

[kktampa]

Your problem sounds like mine exactly. I am early 40's, healthy, not overweight, and about two months ago I developed unexplained left knee pain. It hurts when I sleep, it hurts when I walk. Some days it is worse than others. Then this past weekend, I developed a series of light bruises around my kneecap. I am fearing arthritis but the bruising is certainly strange. Let me know if you learn anything more.
KK

[neilone]

My girlfirend has such pain in her knee although she is only 18. She has never had anything wrong with it previously it just started hurting and now hurts in both knees. The doctors think that it is Rheumatoid arthritis but the chemo pills haven't helped at all. so if you find out what this is please let me know.