Orthopedics Hip, Knee, and Shoulder Injuries Forum - Chronic Knee Pain But Normal Mri

My husband is 25 and has had chronic knee pain for a little over four years. He was active duty military and injured his left knee during basic training. It seemed to heal well though and didn't give him problems for a while. He started to have some knee pain when he was in korea and ran eight miles daily and climbed inumerable stairs. After he returned to the states, it gradually worsened until he could no longer pass his pt tests. It was especially difficult since he was a cook and spent as many as fourteen hours on his feet. He was passed from doctor to doctor in the military and since he rarely saw the same doctor, they never saw him fequently enough to make a diagnosis. His doctor recommended a medical discharge but it was denied and he was sent to iraq. When his active duty contract expired he stilled owed the military four more years, either in the individual ready reserve or the national guard. He joined the guard because the recruiter told him he would probably be sent to iraq again if he joined the irr. For a while his pain was better since he wasn't on his feet as much. Recently it has been getting worse even though he has a desk job. He is unable to run or perform other duties in the guard so they required him to go to civilian doctor and get recommendations on what kind of limitations he should have. He recently got a government job and finally has health insurance so we had been talking about taking him to the doctor anyway. He went to a orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Beller, and he ordered an mri. Since Dr. Beller was out of town after the mri, he picked up the results himself. Another doctor had written the mri report and said there was some abnormal fluid on both of his joints and that his left knee showed "increased signal intensity within the mid portion of the medial meiscus....It cannot be called a clear cut meniscal tear but it is statistically more likely to be torn there because of the segmental changes." we anxiously waited for his doctor to get back from vacation to help us understand what might be going on. In talking to his mom I discovered that she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in junior high and his nine year old brother has also been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. He tried to pop his knee one evening and felt excruciating pain. He's not a complainer but he said it felt like he'd broken it and it was hanging by a thread. We planned to talk to the doctor about both of these issues and had many questions. We waited an hour and a half before he ever showed up for the appointment and the nurse told us he had forgotten the appointment until he called and reminded him. When he finally arrived, he did not greet either of us or apologize for being late for the appointment. He just said,"your mri shows nothing." we asked about the abnormal levels of fluid that the other doctor had written about. Dr beller said,"there are no abnormal levels." I asked about the possibility of meniscus tearing in the future and Dr. Beller apparently misunderstood me because he said, "there is no meniscus tear." he then said,"you should return to the guard with no physical limitations whatsoever." I left the room crying because we had put so much hope towards this appointment.
After I left my husband told me he said,"okay," and waited for Dr. Beller to offer any other options or even to at least offer him pain medication.
Dr beller just said,"okay, that's it," and got up and left. The entire time lasted between three and five minutes.
My husband is still in terrible pain. It is especially bad in the evenings and sometimes he takes a wrong step and cries out. He says he hates being a "coward" in front of me. He can't even stand up to shower or brush his teeth and shave anymore. His walk is a painful limp. I feel at my wits end. We've talked about going to another doctor but I don't know if I can go through it again if the doctor doesn't believe he's in pain, as apparently Dr. Beller didn't. I'm not sure what questions I have. I really just appreciate if anyone took the time to read all this. I don't know whether we should go to another doctor and if so, what kind. It hurts so much to see my husband in so much pain and not be able to do anything.