Wow, Joe, THANKS for the encouragement AND the great info!

OK, this is something I didn't realize until reading your message...that on-and-off pain, and being able to do stairs, could mean it's not the bone-on-bone thing that is the biggest problem at this point. I actually WAS diagnosed with a torn meniscus 10 years ago, and maybe that's the reason the bad pain comes on all of a sudden. I did injure this (right) knee in 1990--fell off a recliner whose arm I was brilliantly standing on to hang a curtain. Thought I "broke" my knee but did not go to a doc, as I had no insurance then and I could still walk and move the knee--it was just horribly stiff for about a month. After that, I remember for a long time that inner side would painfully "shift," and in later years I started getting the painful shifts again. Every time it happened I'd say, "NOW I'm going to the doctor," but then it would stop and I wouldn't go--until 2015 when it shifted painfully and I could barely walk for days. That's when I got an MRI. Oops, I see the 2015 episode was the LEFT knee. (Well, I'm sure the right knee must have the same except worse. They take turns, apparently. I do remember getting an x-ray in about 2009 or 2010 and was told bone on bone, probably for the right knee.)

PROCEDURE: MRI Knee Lt WO Contrast

REASON FOR EXAM: Left knee pain. Effusion. Medial joint line tenderness. Crepitus.

TECHNIQUE: Proton density axial fat saturated, proton density sagittal, proton density
sagittal fat saturated, proton density coronal, proton density coronal fat saturated
images were obtained. A T2-weighted sequence was obtained aligned with the course of the
anterior cruciate ligament.

COMPARISON: None.

FINDINGS: Patellar articular surface shows grade III/IV chondromalacia involving the
medial patellar articular surface. There is a small knee joint effusion. Infrapatellar
tendon, the ACL and PCL are intact. Lateral meniscus is intact. Medial meniscus shows
radial truncation series 8 image 13, and an oblique horizontal tear through the posterior
horn of the medial meniscus with a dorsally located small parameniscal cyst. Medial knee
compartment shows grade II/III chondromalacia and lateral knee compartment shows grade II
chondromalacia. There is mild strain to the MCL and the LCL is intact.

IMPRESSION: Oblique tear and radial truncation type tear involving the posterior horn of
the medial meniscus with an associated mild MCL strain.
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Well, maybe I should not plan on knee replacement this year, because maybe it really is just meniscus problems. But whatever it is, I have it in both knees for sure. I have to laugh because just now I found a 20-page file of my detailed knee history from 2006 to 2015--posts I had made on some message board and copied into a Word file. I can't believe it!! The common theme in my posts was always how these sudden painful shifts would happen and then fade away, and also that I had times where while trying to straighten or bend the (right) knee, I'd have to do it very slowly, in stages, because I could FEEL that it was going to shift if I didn't.

The fact is that I've only seen an ortho MD once, in 2015, who did the left-knee MRI and gave me a shot, and a PA once, last year, so I have not ever even discussed surgery with a surgeon. To be continued...

But THANK YOU, Joe, for reminding me of something I think I once knew but forgot...the pain problem really probably is just menisci.

Re scoliosis and a "disastrous" lumbar spine--OMG, who needs THAT as well as knee problems!! Sorry you have that hanging over you, too. Did you have scoliosis as a child, or did it start later--and is it progressing, do you know?

I have the S-curve (since adolescence), but the report of a recent lumbar MRI (which my FM doc wanted to prove his conviction that I had spinal stenosis to account for my very slow walking, but turns out I DON'T have stenosis) did not sound bad at all. I have never suffered from back pain (very lucky) but in recent months my lower back has at times gotten extremely tired, almost painfully so, which never happened before.

Ah, the joys of getting older & parts wearing out!!

Thank you again so much, and don't be surprised if I take you up on your offer to ask more questions!!

Best wishes & thanks,
Nancy