RE: i wonder if i made the right move or not.
Let me give you some advice from a person that has had three knee surgeries. If you continue to take anti-inflammatories, you will continue to keep having pain. Your body swells up in area to bring nutrients and things to help heal the area. If you eliminate that internal swelling all the time, you are eliminating the healing process. I am not saying let your knee swell up, but just ice it when it hurts, and occasionally use anti-inflammatories. Let the body take action.
I gave a buddy of mine the same advice I gave you above. He and I submission wrestled together and he developed some serious tendinitis in his wrists. He constantly used anti-inflammatories for years. I finally convinced him to stop the pills for 2 months and just ice afte practice. His tendinitis went away completely because his joints were finally allowed to heal.
You also need to strengthen the muscles right around your knee, especially the teardrop shape muscle on the inside quad. Your hamstrings also must be strengthened to help keep you walking upright and not leaning forward, thereby placing a large amount of stress on your knee joint and not on the muscles, where most of the pressure should be placed.
If you are overweight, losing 10-15 pounds can make an immediate impact on your pain levels.
Hope this helps.