Knee problems in early 20’s
Hi everyone, I’m in my early 20’s. Before last year I had no knee problems whatsoever. For some reason, I thought I would try and build my bone density as I didn’t want to get osteoporosis when I was older (I was worried because i have lived a mostly sedentary life). I started skipping 5-10 mins a day 3-5 a week for around 6.5 months (and I was making sure to land very hard on purpose so these weren’t just light skips). I wasn’t always consistent, and when I would get pain in my knees I thought it as a good sign that my knees were remodelling themselves and getting stronger instead of being damaged. At some point though the pain got pretty bad and the area behind my knee cap felt very inflamed so I realised I should stop, and this is when I realised this whole time I could have been wearing the cartilage away. 8 months later after completely stopping, the pain has mostly settled it’s not sharply or tingly anymore, however I do hear my knees creak a lot and make noises where they pop, I wasn’t having any functional impacts before but the last 2 weeks it has hurt to stand longer than a couple of minutes and feels very compressive, it also feels like my knees can no longer absorb any load because it hurts to even go down stairs or get out of the car, even walking hurts and I feel unstable while walking, I have to lean on kitchen counter tops after a while of standing because I feel like my knees will give way. I can’t even kneel on the ground it hurts so bad and feels like there’s a lack of cushioning between my knees and the ground and it brings back that sharp twingy achy pain I first had. Change of direction/ pivoting is also very hard on my knees and same with sudden stopping. Im really worried I wore down all my cartilage (worst case) or best case is that this is PFJS/ tendinipathy of some sort and with proper rehab I can go back to normal. I’m just not sure what’s wrong as the physio I have gone to just provided me with generic advice and didn’t seem too sure on what was going on either. I think I will get some imaging done to confirm but I feel so stupid because I only started this skipping so I could be more independent later in life and now I might have permanently damaged my knees to the point I might have early onset osteoarthritis and I’m worried because I’m so young idk how long I can push off a knee replacement for. I’m just so worried and feel so stupid, like I should’ve known better. From what I’ve described does anyone know what could be going on? Thank you.
Edit: I have also noticed I walk a lottt slower now, like the pace of a grandma/woman who’s in her 70’s. Before this, I could walk faster than everyone, and now even the smallest of impact sends pain in my knees. I think the correct term is antalgic gait.
I’m also not sure whether I have runners knee because I actually don’t have any pain on/ under my knee cap when I press on it, it’s only when I have to walk take load through my legs etc it hurts.