Question
The condition I'm about to describe has come on suddenly, and not as a result of injury.  When I lay down at night - after about an hour - my right knee starts hurting.  It goes into full blown stabbing, shooting , pulsating pain.  On a scale of 1-10 the pain is a 9!  I'm on the verge of tears every night!  I've tried everything from propping my legs up, to keeping them bent at angle.  When I switch positions it feels like my knee may come out of joint.  The only relief is to stand up or sit in a chair.  I do not have this pain in the day time.  I'm 45 yrs old and am pretty consistent with doing 30-45 minutes on the tread mill at least 3 days a week, stretching my legs afterwards.  Other than that I am not real active.  I spend two hours a day commuting to work (sitting) then I split my time at work between sitting at my computer and teaching in a class room.  I'm losing sleep every night and have gone some nights with no sleep at all.  HELP!

Answer
Hi Renee

First of all, let me tell you that my expertise is not in the area of knees, but I do have some suggestions that you should think about.

The pain you are experiencing needs to be diagnosed by a doctor.  I have used this the allexpert service myself and I always double check physical things with my doctor since I don't believe anyone can give you a definite diagnosis on the computer.  That being said, my concern is that you don't mention feeling pain during the day.  You commute to work, go on the treadmill but yet you don't seem to be stating you have pain after those activities.  

If I were you, I would do several things.  

1. Stop the treadmill, until your doctor tells you that it has nothing to do with your current problem.
2. Make an appointment with your primary doctor and get a complete blood workup.  You  may have a vitamin deficiency or a blood level may need to be checked.  It may be related to a low potassium level.
3. If the bloodwork comes back fine, ask for two referrals, one to an orthopedist and the other to a neurologist.  It sounds to me like the pain is more in the soft tissue rather than the bone, but again, if you are feeling like the knee may come out of joint, that might be a problem in the bone.  Only an X ray or MRI can diagnose bone issues.

Hope this gave you a jumping off point for further actions.

Sharon Davis