Looking for someone to help identifying the issue with my knee
Hi everyone, I’m a female below 30 and currently overweight (100+ kg). I’m honestly very scared and anxious about my knee and wanted to know if anyone has dealt with something similar.
My knee issues started around 3 years ago after I accidentally hit my left knee badly. Since then the pain has been on and off, but over the last year it started getting worse randomly with stiffness, discomfort, pain while bending/walking, and cracking or grinding sounds.
I recently started improving my lifestyle and began walking close to 10k steps daily because I want to lose weight and get healthier. I genuinely love walking and someday I also want to learn boxing, but right now I’m losing hope because of this knee issue.
I finally got an MRI done this year. The exact findings were:
Mild fluid in the suprapatellar recess and central synovial recess
Subcutaneous edema and fat stranding involving the anterior, medial and lateral aspect of knee joint and shin
No drainable collection
Meniscus, ACL, PCL, cartilage and ligaments were reported normal
The doctor told me there’s “nothing major” and advised rest plus weight loss, but I’m confused because for the last 2 days I’ve been getting weird crackling/cackling sounds with pain, and when I touch my knee it almost feels like liquid is moving inside.
I’m terrified this could turn into osteoarthritis or some long-term issue. Can mild fluid/swelling cause these sounds and pain? Can people recover properly from this and walk normally again?
Also:
Should I stop walking for now or continue lightly?
What kind of exercises or physio usually help?
Could this be related to some vitamin deficiency or inflammation?
Any diet changes that helped anyone? (I’m vegetarian.)
If anyone has faced something similar or has suggestions, please help a stranger out. I’d genuinely appreciate it because this has been affecting me mentally a lot lately.