For some people there’s cortisone injections. They don’t fix anything but reduce pain and inflammation. I’m actually a use case where that was enough for that occurrence. I had a sharp pain in my knee and the cortisone got rid of the pain and inflammation and that specific issue didn’t come back.

Of course now my knees are totally wrecked and the only choice they gave me is replacing them

PSA: I wish they told me more about strength and balance when I was evaluated. I wasn’t able to go through with it at the time and had no reason to believe it was urgent since I could live with the pain . However now after years of of being unable to use my knees, I clearly have weakened muscles in my lower leg, clearly do not balance as well, and have a hard time getting up from the floor. Even worse I keep reading that those are exactly what they look for in aging and independence. So now I still need the joint replacements but somehow have to rebuild my lower leg strength