Arthritic knee hot and puffy?

[vipersnest1]

Would you see someone?
I have chondromalacia patella (no cartilage left behind the kneecap) that side, but usually manage with a bit of pain here and there and a lot of creaking.
Tonight I suddenly realised how it felt and found it was quite puffy but not massively swollen.
It feels like a bit of an overreaction to ask for a GP appointment as I'll probably get sent to physio (again) and that doesn't really tackle the issue of how to manage it when I work full time. The only thing that I can think of to help is to take some anti-inflammatories, but I avoid them as they give me gut issues (diarrhoea with pain) so have no other at home management strategies that won't entail me taking time off work.
What would you do in my position?

How HOT it felt.

Anyone in the later night crowd got a thought on this?

I'd go back to the GP and ask for an orthopaedic referral. It sounds like your arthritis has progressed. I had a partial knee replacement last summer and the months leading up to it were horrendous. My knee felt like it was on fire.

I'm recovering from a cruciate ligament injury and was told quite clearly that if my knee became hot and swollen it was an emergency and I should go to A&E. I'd probably ring 111 for advice.

Thank you@thenightsky and @TheFormidableMrsC for your replies.
I think I'll put a request in with my GP tomorrow for an appointment or referral. It's all a bit tricky as I'm a teacher so when other people are free to put in an online request I'm already working.

That's a bit of a nightmare isn't it? I would urge you to call 111 if it gets any worse.

@TheFormidableMrsC thank you, I'll definitely do something about it tomorrow (or one of the days after if I don't get the chance). I'm just grateful for the reality check as sometimes I'm not sure if I'm making a fuss over nothing.

Not for arthritis though.

Have recently been to a series of appointments with friend with swollen painful knee.
All focused on whether it was hot and even though it wasn't she was sent for blood tests to rule out infection.
So this is clearly a concern.
In the end after pushing for a diagnosis rather than physio appts it was found to be psuedogout and steroid injections gave immediate relief.

@RedHelenB Certainly before I had my diagnostic X-ray and my GP thought it was probably arthritis (which I have in my foot), that was his advice. I presume caution in the event of infection. Just my experience.

But OP already has the diagnosis. Heat and inflammation is what you suffer from with arthritis.

Certainly the OP uses u the word arthritic in her thread title.
Whether that means she has that as a diagnosis or it's an assumption she's making I don't know.
Either way the title suggests to me that the heat and puffiness are a new phenomenon.