Another Knee Question

Earlier this summer I banged the h#ll out of my left knee (walked into the protruding spigot of a 700-lb barrel of honey at work -- oy!). The spigot hit just to the outside of the lower left kneecap. It never bruised but it raised a pretty good bump.

Now, a couple of months later, I find that even though the bump has receded, it's still a bit tender to the touch, and if I touch the front of my kneecap, there's a weird "pulling" sensation that radiates from the left (the original spot where I banged it) toward the middle of my kneecap. When I kneel, it feels like there's fluid moving around, plus that weird "pulling" sensation.

Any thoughts on what this might be? A co-worker said, "Oh, you've got water on the knee. That's really bad," so of course now I'm paranoid! I'm wondering if I should just give whatever it is more time to heal, or should I bring it to my doctor's attention?

One thing to consider is that fluid could be indicative of a tear and you may want to get that checked out.

Good luck and I hope it gets better soon!

Fluid/swelling can be a sign of soft tissue damage. Back in April I damaged something behind my left kneecap, and I've had some significant swelling off and on since then... but my doc checked it out and proclaimed it okay, and recommended PT to help strengthen the muscles that support my knees, which ultimately is why I started biking.

When it's swollen, my knee feels very "tight" - it's not so much that it's painful, but I definitely feel it. I take it as a sign to take it easy. Cycling doesn't bother it, but walking for any amount of time does.

When I tore my ACL in my right knee (ages ago), I battled swelling in that knee for close to 2 years before everything was solidly back to "normal", but I also had a lot of other soft tissue damage that was cleaned up in surgery, so it wasn't "just" my ACL repair that had to heal, but basically my entire joint, and anything I did irritated it, so it was a long process. Even now nearly 15 years later, occasionally I'll tweak it and get "some" swelling, but nothing significant.