Hi Beth,

It sounds like your knee has bot been behaving at all! Yes, sometimes we nurses do make the worst patients, but that is ok....

With Baker's cysts, your nurse colleague could be right on with her suggestion. Generally, this benign but often painful cyst doesn't get better on its own and they are commonly removed by orthopaedists. Sometimes, they can also become large and they can come back! They can act like ganglion cysts in how they return so this is why excision is the most common treatment. This and taking antiinflammatory as you have been doing for conservative measure is about the only thing you can do. Most people do very well with surgical excision. I have seen them removed in the Dr.'s office before but more often than not, OP surgi center is most common site of removal. The pulling sensation you report could be from possible Baker's cyst but I am also wondering if it could be from possible tendon pain which has continued, particularly since you stated that you had a great deal of pain, took a long time before it felt better and lots of bruising to the area. This could cause the feeling of a pulling sensation and pain too. Baker's cysts can someitmes be felt but more often than not, are seen on films, often MRI's. Ortho may want to do a MRI to make sure that you don't have any tears of soft tissue. Baker's cyst often develop following injury to the knee, soft tissue, can happen as result of arthritis.

There is a really good article which is from the Mayo Clinic which will provide a comprehensive overview. I think Mayo has some of the best online educational literature and I often use this as a reference since their literature is always current and nicely encompassing. Here is the link:.mayoclinic.com/health/bakers-cyst/DS00448..

I hope I have been helpful. Please let me know if you have further questions and I will help in any way I can. Sorry for your bum knee. Sounds like your best bet is a trip to the ortho to determine exact problem and additional diagnostics of films/scan and if you have Baker's, excision is the best known treatment but again, they can reoccur and especially true with repeated injury of knee such as you have experienced.

Hi Beth,

You are so welcome. Yea, we nurses make the worst patients thinking that we can't possibly break down ourselves and dont want to admit this. You are funny, we usually do know what we "should" do but thinking and doing are often two different matters for us. I hope you will be better soon--after evaluation and treatment! =) Good luck. BTW, you can click on my name and send me a PM to let me know what the Doc says and how you are! Alll the best, Beth. Susan

PS--Thank you for the accept. It was a pleasure to help!