Plica?

This past weekend, as I was getting into bed, it had felt like I knelt on a pencil or bead. I'd assumed that one of Donna bed things (herb satchels, mini-pillows or stuffed animals) had made its way to the wrong side of the bed and that's what I'd encountered in the dark. It wasn't until the next day, when I noticed my knee was still bothering me (and, by "bothering" I mean that it felt like the tendon was delaminating from the bone) that I began to wonder whether I might have damaged something in my knee.

It was a holiday weekend, so, I figured, "I'll wait till Tuesday to see if it's still bothering me". As Saturday progressed into Sunday, and Sunday into Monday, the knee was getting worse. Even better, because I was favoring the left knee, my right knee was starting to complain about the unequal distribution of work. Tuesday morning, I called my GP's office. I'd tried finding a orthopedist via Google/Bing/WebMD/etc., but hadn't really located someone nearby. So, off to the GP with the first available appointment I went. Wasn't much he could do for me. Having gone online and found a "what's wrong with my knee" diagnostic tool, I was figuring "tendonitis". Little can be done for such, so, wasn't expecting much from the GP. I got about what I expected, which was, "go see the referrals desk...".

Went home with the business card of a local orthopedics practice that had rights at one of the hospitals I don't hate (I will never go back to iNoVA Mt. Vernon after they tried killing me during my stay there summer of 2008). Got home and called the practice. First available appointment was this morning.

Today, when I got up, the pain was nearly gone (naturally). However, it was too late to cancel with no cancellation fee, so I went in and had a sit-down with the doctor. He did the interview and joint-manipulation, then sent me off for X-rays. Got the X-rays back and there was nothing conclusive. He'd indicated that it was likely a tendonitis or a plica (wtf?). Neither of which, at this point, there was much to be done about. My body just laughs at pain meds and anti-inflammatories aren't really compatible with the state my epilepsy meds have put my liver into. So, he told me to go home and rest it and see if it improved or got worse. He also gave me an MRI scrip in case it got worse.

Naturally, as the day wore on, and there was no immediate prospect of being seen by a doctor, the knee decided to wake back up. Who knows, it may have been the futzing in the doctor's office that pissed it off, again. So, now I get to see whether or not it calms back down. If it doesn't, I gotta decide whether to go for the MRI. Some of the site's I've looked at have indicated that, much like today's X-rays, MRIs are often inconclusive. But, whatever. Gotta see where the hell this goes.

I hate the aging process (though, this may be explanatory of why, over the years, I've had periodic bouts of pain and swelling with this knee).