im 23 and i have had problems with my knees for years now(so does my mom and my nan did too) neither of them went to the doctors about it though, so i dont know if it was arthiritis for them or not, but i went to the doctors about it around a year ago, they said it was housemaids knee from being onthe floor too much, i told them im not kneeling on the floor that much but they were adament thats what it was. well since then i have read up about arthiritis and have realised that pains i get in my thumbs somtimes are connected with arthiritis( i never told the doctor about my thumbs as the pain is less often in my thumbs and i didnt my knees and thumbs would be connected if i had pain in both)
so what im trying to say is , could the doctor have got it wrong and it not be housemaids knee but arthiritis? as well as the pain i get swelling etc and sometimes its so bad i cant walk
hope someone can help

Well, my dr told me I had athlete's feet and it ends up to be arthritis-so YES, than can be wrong. I would see if you can see a specialist in arthritis and see what they say. I am finding that fingers, toes, eyes-can all be linked to arthritis so you just never know.

arthiritis is pain and swelling of one or more joints. So yes sounds like you have it.