Been there and IT HURTS!

2years ago, rite before Thanksgiving, fell in the house and hit my knee on the bed frame. Managed to get up, find my walker and hobble into my resident ‘chair’. Where I sat until DH came home. Got literally hauled to a satellite ER and had the pictures taken. Chip of the knee cap-put in a leg imobiliser [lots of velcro!] and told to see doc ASAP. Got the orthopedic the next day where another X-ray was done [should be ‘glowing’?] and was told to do the ice and elevate thing.
Follow up visit two weeks after that? They found that I’d fractured the bone below the knee also-at the joint. In a wheelchair around the house and walker going out [rarely] for two more months, then PT. The PT really helped my overall CIDP balance problems more than the knee itself. I was overall upset as I’d had knee surgery on this same leg 4years before CIDP.
Remember always that hairline fractures usually don’t show up rite away on film. It takes the rebuilding of calcium into the cracks to show a bright white on those films.
If you can find a sports knee brace [the thick foam, w/supports at the knee and much softer than the imobilizers, get one. They don’t rub near as much and are much easier to adjust overall. Don’t despair. It WILL get better.