When it rains

Probably not as good as walking/running...but the elliptical at a gym could really do the trick with very little knee pressure.
I ran a lot when I was younger; had to stop because of a knee injury, too. It never stops sucking but hopefully you can find something better on your knees that still helps you.
The fact that running reduced your symptoms is absolutely awesome, it's never been as effective for me. It's proof that you CAN beat this, that things can change. That is the ULTIMATE win. You've got this!

Holy shit. This is what’s wrong with me. I was working and taking 15,000 steps a day and now I’m staying home with the kids and getting no exercise other than the anxiety of running back and forth between them.

Try cycling. Much easier on the knees.
- Do swimming, too. It’s even better on the whole body
- I did pivot to cycling. But once my knee is already shit, even cycling often makes it worse. So I pivoted to swimming. Swimming was fine so far, but just now, my knee started hurting after a few laps, which inspired me to vent my frustration through this meme.
  
  You could try becoming a Skyrim guard
  
  Have you seen a fysio? Often early knee problems have more to do with the flexibility of the surrounding muscles.
  
  Is it possible that you simply don't let your body recover long enough?
  Also, have you tried physical therapy? I had quite a lot of pain from running, but it turned out, the supporting muscles in my legs were just too weak, so my joints kind of jostled around. A few weeks of cringy looking exercises help a lot.
  
  Are you swimming with a waterproof knee brace? That may help your endurance to build back up strength.
  
  I kept getting injured swimming so my doctor insisted I need to do gym too, apparently it helps strengthen your body to avoid injuries.
  
  Lol just throwing this out there, I have a terrible shoulder from swimming. If you feel any weird popping or discomfort REST and see a PT or swimming coach to work on form.
- Even just walking at a Brisk pace is better. In fact if you're not actually sprinting there's no real Health difference between jogging and walking quickly other than the aforementioned less pressure on the knees
- Cycling, swimming, rowing machine.
  Throw in some pull ups/pushups/squats and you’ll love what you see + have very functional muscles across the board. You don’t even need to do a bunch of weights when you do squats. Just squat the bar every time you go work out. Great way to just keep your legs and such tuned

Same. I switched to skipping (jump rope) and haven't looked back.

Fuck, that sucks!
- Idk why but you saying it like it is improved my mood just now
  
  Sometimes we just need someone to acknowledge that our situation is shitty. It can be downright therapeutic. Jumping straight into possible solutions is obviously a helpful thing to do, but sometimes it's important to grieve a little first.

I was standing up from the toilet one day and my knee pooped and it hurts randomly now
- Eww.
- Did your knee poop out your kneecap?

cries in ehlers-danlos

I have a fucked up knee too. some days i wish i could hack it off and strap a table leg to the stump.

Same here. I switched to cycling.
- I tried switching from running to cycling for my daily cardio, but lately I'm wondering if I'm just not built for cycling. I'm so bad at it.
  I live near mountains and will do hikes where I gain 3,000 feet in elevation and burn 2.5k calories, enjoying every second of it, but for some reason I can barely bike up a small hill.
  Underdeveloped muscle groups maybe?
  
  The more you ride a bike up hills, the easier it will start to become. But if it feels like too much of a wall to ride up the hills around you, you could look into swapping out your chainrings or cassette to get lower gearing so the hills aren't as much of a challenge.
- So did I, but it still makes my knees worse when I do it. As of like an hour ago, apparently even swimming does.
  
  How do you handle elevation gain? I ask because I can climb mountains like a champ but for some reason running kills my legs and I'm terrible at cycling. It doesn't even need to be a mountain, as a steep hill does the trick. Keeping a steady pace up a hill gets my heart rate to a place similar to running, and it usually stays pretty high for the descent as well. It doesn't hurt my joints nearly as much as running or biking.

I told my rheumatologist, „don’t worry, my dog keeps me busy!”. My dog is now on biologic treatment for osteoarthritis while I’m waiting for mine for an autoimmune arthritis XD

That's so frustrating!!!
I'm in a similar boat, where my joints are really whiny and won't let me run nearly as hard as I'd want to. I found a lot of daily stretching and sleeping with a pillow between my legs helps a lot. Still, my knees or hips wake me up more frequently than I'd like.
Also some strength training can feel like a cardio workout and actually strengthens the muscles around your treacherous joints.
Sorry to jump into solutionising... This one just really cuts close to home.
- No reason to be sorry!
  Good point, I might just switch to calisthenics for a little while. And yeah, I do need to stretch more!

I like walking more. I can listen to radio recordings / streams longer while doing it.

Are they really fucked up or do they just hurt a bit? Slight pain is not necessarily a sign of permanent injury and will most likely go away with activity. Even if it is an injury, the best course of action is to keep moving the joint. Joints don't have active circulation and so they need the movement to heal.
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/pain-in-training-what-do/
- GP said it's almost certainly that the tendons are inflamed. He said this type of thing usually heals in about 2 weeks, but it's been two months. It's extra scary, since I've had tendonitis in my entire forearm for almost 5 years now and nothing has helped.
  Thanks for the resource!
  
  Have you tried slow high volume eccentric movements? 30+ reps, 8 second eccentric, very low weight.

I got into running when I was younger and messed up my foot lol. It's hard. I do yoga now.

Is the accessible caption showing up? I made one, but can't see it anywhere after posting.
- I was just today wondering how to view alttext on Lemmy, and if people were actually using those here. On Mastodon I've gotten into the habit of reading alttext and I like that. Although I can see, it gives extra information about the intention of the OP. But apparently I can't view them here (at least in the Voyager app).
- Hm, I don't see it either.

I recommend jump rope if running tends to hurt your knees, ankles, or shins.

I can't do cycling either, and I have other issues that make swimming not possible.
When I was able to go, I had a great physical therapist. She had good advice on how to apply kinesio tape.
- Can't do physio rn, insurance covers a set amount, which is usually enough, but since I live in an expensive city, there'd be a co pay I couldn't afford.
  I'll look into kinesio tape! Maybe there's online resources that'd explain how to apply
  
  I hope it helps! I had to stop going myself for other reasons so I get it.
  Make sure to have some sort of oil on hand to remove the tape if you mess up. That stuff stays on for a while, like days.

My 3rd and 4th toes on my right foot last week 😭 jammed them hard into a decline bench. Barely avoided breaking them so luckily I’ll be back at it in a week or two hopefully

Is swimming an option?
- Yes that's what I've been doing these past few weeks, but during today's laps, the knee pain worsened :(
  
  That sucks!
  FWIW I get knee pain when I don't stretch. I'm not saying that's what is happening with you, but maybe physio or stretching would help?