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_