About eight months ago walking across the street i hopped up to the top of a set of three steps. Usually not a big deal for me as i have always been a fairly strong outdoor person doing things like that. My knee popped all of a sudden. It became painful and gradually got worse over a long period with constant swelling and pain for many months with the pain moving from one side of my knee to the other then the top and below. all different areas. Now the swelling is for the most part gone and a lot of the pain. But still painful enough and I can feel these little kernals or something on my kneecap. It seems my knee is gradually healing. Could this be the case? Will my knee heal completely on its own or should I have seen a doctor already? It has been very debilitating miserable experience. What should I do at this point for my knee to be perfectly healthy again. I am 50 years old. My excuse for not seeing the doc already is that I fear that I may have needed expensive surgery.