May I have some advice on a bad knee?

I damaged my knee about two months ago on the ski slopes - no big fall or anything - it just doesn't feel right and has swollen up. Now I know I should go to the Doctors but because I have artificial hips as I had ricketts when I was a kid, I have a fearful problem in getting health insurance for skiing and I just can't risk it being on my records. What can I do?May I have some advice on a bad knee?
You didn't give too much of your symptoms, but from what it sounds like it could be that you torn your meniscus. Which is normal injury that occurs while skying. If you don't want to use your insurance, then go to any diagnostic Imaging center and have a MRI of your knee. Most imaging centers will give you a cash discount. If there is a grade 4 mescal tear, then you have to have arthroscopic surgery for it (need to see an Ortho). If its a small tear, and you can deal with the pain, then leave it alone for a while to see if the swelling and symptoms will subdue on it own.May I have some advice on a bad knee?
I've a had a huge amount of knee trouble over the years and I've found that the best thing is to allow the knee time to rest and heal.





Whenever you're sitting, raise the affected leg and rest it on another chair or a stool or something, and maybe an icepack (or bag of frozen peas) over the knee to help reduce the swelling.





You do need to give your body time to recover from injuries. Think about it - if you maybe got a slight tear in the muscle or ligament, or knocked a bit of cartilage off, your body will be trying to repair it, but every time you move it, the parts that have just been rebuilt will tear apart again - not too much of a problem if you're just doing gentle walking and resting it as much as possible in between, but you can totally undo any healing that's gone on by exercising too roughly.





The swelling is caused by your body bringing fluid to the site of the injury, partly to cushion the area to try and reduce any damage you're causing and partly because the fluid carries the cells and stuff that allow your body to repair the damage - it's your body's way of telling you that something is wrong and it needs the time to fix it - listen to it!!!
BE AWARE OF YOUR POSTURE!! Your artificial hip leads me to believe that it could be throwing your whole leg out of alignment causing undue stress on your knee. Maintain correct biomechanics with keeping your knee over your ankle.
I always answer people' knee questions on here as I just had my 13th surgery so I am a seasoned knee injury veteran. And I will tell you what I tell everyone else. See an orthopedic (bone and joint) doctor. He/she will discuss your symptoms with you and take xrays and an mri scan. The xrays will probably show nothing, but the mri will give you your answers. The knee is a very complicated joint with 4 main ligaments and tons of cartilage including the meniscus. I am very knowledgeable on the subject, but I wouldn't begin to tell you what is going on without looking at images of your knee. I am not sure that I understand you about the health insurance thing. You don't want to hear this, but skiing is horrible for knees, so is running. Do low impact sports instead like walking, swimming, rollerbablading. So please, see a doctor and get it checked out....the earlier the better....you do not want to be like me and have 13 surgeries and huge scars...trust me. Good luck to you.