Water On the Knee

Water on the knee is something I had only heard of in the game Operation.  I never knew what it was until recently.  Sunday night I was messing around while playing soccer and kicking the ball as hard as I could on goal every time it would roll at me.  Eventually I felt an arthritis-type pain that reminded me of what I imagined tennis elbow to feel like.  I remember sarcastically wondering if there were a suck thing as "kicker's knee."

On Monday I played soccer for 2 hours with no problems.  Tuesday night I didn't play soccer, but I played in the fraternity basketball game.  Yesterday (Wednesday) night, I was playing soccer and started to feel a pain randomly.  I don't remember anything specifically happening; I just remember running around not really being active on the ball.  After winning another pick-up game I paused to bend my knees and noticed a lot of pain.  I continued playing, and after we won another game I did the same thing.  The second time i noticed a huge lump forming every time i bent down.  I thought it was a bone, and I thought i may have fractured something, or maybe that bone just always sticks out and I've never noticed it.  I continued playing and I made a run in to the box.  All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain and without hesitation, I immediately limped off the field.  I pressed in on the lump, and it wasn't a bone.  It was like a squishy button on my knee.  I was with a few of my fraternity brothers, and one said it was just a build up of fluid in my knee.

The pain got worse and worse throughout the night.  Eventually the pain became so bad that I could not move it at all.  If my knee bent in the slightest, the pain was unbearable.  I google'd "fluid in the knee" and I got a lot of hits with "water on the knee."  I began researching water on the knee and I matched all the symptoms.  I iced and elevated for 3 hours, but the pain never stopped.  Before I went to bed, my neighbor across the hall was in my room and was shocked when he looked at my knee.  I looked down and saw that my injured knee was easily twice the size as the other.  Today the pain has not gone down any, and I am going to the health center to get it checked out.  I have two championship soccer games this Sunday, and I am worried I may not be able to make them.  Not cool.