I'm frustrated and seeking some advice/support

About 8 years ago, my knees both started hurting quite badly after I overdid
some treadmill work and jogging. It has never been the same since.

Until recently, its been mostly the right knee acting up. Anyway, an MRI a
few years ago showed a torn meniscus and x-rays showed arthritis. After a
year with relatively minor problems things suddenly got bad in August. I
went to see the orthopedic surgeon a few weeks ago. The news was not good.
He says the x-rays and my type of symptoms point to some kind of
inflammatory arthritis as the main cause of my pain (and it's bad in both
knees). He said eventually we can do a scope when the bad days outnumber the
good days but he didn't think the scope would be all that great (but it
would probably help a bit). Apparently it won't really arrest the disease.
Down the road, we are looking at TKR. He'd like to wait as long as possible;
I am a 61 yr.old male.

Since then (really in the last week) both knees have gotten much worse.
Walking is very painful and even not walking still hurts (feels like razor
blades are in my knees). I'm going to give it another month (in the past
this problem has waxed and waned but each time the waxing hurts more and the
waning is not as good as the previous time). I'm a college prof. and if
things don't improve, I'll schedule the scope for mid-December. Right now it
really feels different and I suspect it might not get better. The pain is
just greater and more intense and the inability to walk is terrible. I'm
trying the tylenol stuff and if that doesn't work better it looks like
NSAIDS (OTC ibuprofin) but I fear the side effects from the NSAID..

I really don't know what to ask, but it is frustrating. Have any of you had
the scope clean out surgery and did it help? Any suggestions? (Perhaps the
medicos could add something!)

MZB