I've mentioned this before but we didn't see a lot of doctors when I was a kid, so when kids in my town had the measles, the mumps or chicken pox, more than likely it was their mothers who diagnosed it, and then treated it, yet pretty much everyone survived. When I was ten or eleven, an uncle went into the hospital, and we were told that he had water on the knee. I was very confused because, without joking, I began to wonder if I should be careful about swimming or drying myself carefully after a bath. My uncle was in the hospital for a long time, and then apparently came home to die because he looked awfully sick and didn't live very long after returning home. To this day, I don't know what he died of but I gained a whole new respect for keeping my knees dry. Water on the knee was a term used to describe a swelling in or around the knee, usually referring to an accumulation of fluid, within the knee rather than on top of it as I had erroneously assumed. Looking online, I still don't see any causes of water on the knee that seems likely to have resulted in death but, of course, it's quite possible that the swelling was a symptom of an unrelated problem that he might have had. Possibly, it was a tumor, maybe metastatic cancer, but I hope you can imagine the confusion this caused me, thinking that someone could die from getting water on his knee. I suppose I still have that problem. Rather than asking questions, I gather as much information as I can and then try to make sense of it on my own. My mother died when I was thirteen and I had thought she died of cancer until a year or two ago when my older brother told me she had had a stroke.
I've heard that term as a child but didn't think about it...or worry about getting my knees wet. We went to the dr when we needed shots or were sick. He was our dr forever. He was a general dr but also delivered my 2 sisters. Well she went there for her pregnancy check ups...not sure who did the deliveries. Gosh, I remember my mom's clothes when she was pregnant...sure different from what my daughter wore.
It's true, we seldom went to the doctor. One time I remember having to go because I had a bad pain in the side of my tummy. Good thing my doc came over, I forgot, he did house-calls back in Winston Oregon, and this was about 1960'ish. Anyway, I had my appendix taken out (if that's the spelling for the "books" appendix, oopsie). Anyway, one time I had a fall out of a wagon on the cement, guess that was scarey for my family, doc said I had a concussion. @Ken Anderson I'm still not sure exactly what grandma and grandpa died of. Nowadays people seem to go to a clinic, hospital for everything. But also, there are so many "warnings" about different conditions, so now, I'm time-traveling, or trying to. Taking care of as much as possible at home, and with natural meds. Sometimes I get scared and run for the clinic, but most of the time not.
The human body is largely composed of water. So, if an inordinately large amount of it gathers somewhere, like in or around the knee, "Water in the Knee" is evident. Just my evaluation. The more complicated system which evades my understanding over and above the common physiological bases, such as muscle, ligament, blood, lymph, capillary vessel system, digestive, Endocrine System, immune system, is that of the NERVES. Present everywhere within the body, most in the form of super-fine tiny fibers like the individual strands of Cotton Candy. Most important to me, since both hands feel constantly "asleep", I cannot pick up or discerne small objects, occasionally the tingling becomes pain, couple all that with Arthritic contracture of my thumbs, and there you have the state of the state of Frank Sanoica.
Some years ago I tore the miniscus in my right knee playing Racquetball. My knee swelled up with fluid and was quite painful. The doctor took a needle that looked two feet long and went into the knee to drain the fluid. It was one of the most painful procedures that I have ever experienced and explained to me why he had his nurse hold my shoulders down.