Baker Cyst

About a month ago Taylor woke up one morning and said his leg hurt around the back of his knee. I couldn't really see anything at the time but he was also limping a little. After about 45mins. of normal playing he seemed fine and the limp was gone. Well two weeks ago the symptoms reappeared. Taylor said his right leg hurt again, accompanied with the limp again, and this time a small roundish bump was clearly noticeable under the skin (about the size of a quarter). It looked like something was swollen but what-it seemed to come and go?? So later that week we took him to see his doctor to find out exactly what was going on. Well the doctor confirmed what we had researched on the internet... it's a Baker Cyst on the back of his right knee. A Baker cyst is swelling caused by fluid from the knee joint protruding to the back of the knee. When an excess of knee joint fluid is compressed by the body weight between the bones of the knee joint, it can become trapped and separate from the joint to form the fluid-filled sac of a Baker cyst. The doctor also checked Taylor's lymph nods and temperature to make sure that it wasn't a tumor or some other kind of infection (nothing there). The most likely causes of a Baker cyst are arthritis or some type of a knee injury. Well, anyone who knows Taylor knows how active of a boy he is and some form of a knee injury is quite possible but I have no idea when it could have occurred. He falls down at least 5-10 times a day with regular playing. Luckily, most Baker cysts heal and disappear with time but we will just have to wait and see.

To confirm that it is in fact a Baker cyst we are being sent to get an ultrasound of the back of his knee. We want to make sure that in fact it is a FLUID filled sac and not a SOLID filled sac which would be something else like a tumor. Our ultrasound is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon so I'm sure we'll get many more answers to our curious questions.