Increased pain after surgery (lateral release)

I have had Left knee pain for at least 2 years now (also rt knee pain, but less severe). I went to the orthopedic Dr about 18 months ago and after xrays & MRI's was told there wasn't anything wrong with it, other than I have a discoid lateral meniscus. about a year later, I twisted my knee coming down the stairs, and had an acute flare up of the knee pain that did not lessen with time.

I went to the orthopedic dr again about 6 months ago now. After a repeat MRI, the dr told me i had a torn meniscus (medial) and my patella did not sit properly in the trochlear groove. So, he recommended arthroscopy w/ a lateral release. He told me i would be out of work for 2 weeks. So, I scheduled to be off 2 1/2 just in case and had the surgery on 8/29/98. In surgery, he stated that I had advanced chondromalacia, but no torb ligaments, etc. I am on my feet constantly in my job...so I was unable to return to work until closer to 8 weeks post op.

Physical therapy was painful (sharp firey burning around my patella on ROM of the knee), but I figured this was normal. 6 weeks post op, I went to my Dr for a recheck visit and he told me if the surgery was going to help, it would have by then. Very discouraging since I had only been of the crutch completely for about 10 days at that point ( I am severely overweight and suspect this is slowing down my recovery). He told me to D/C the PT visits and continue my PT at home. I was afraid to stop PT that soon, so I continued for another 3 weeks before I had to stop for financial reasons.

Now, 8 weeks post op, my pain is still significantly worse than before. I cannot climb stairs normally, and have a difficult time getting off the floor without assistance. When I try to extend my knee from a sitting position, it feels like the patella is "popping" over the trochlear groove on the lateral aspect so that it is inline in flexion and out of the groove on extension. I NEVER had this kind of pain prior to surgery.

My fear is that the surgery has done more harm than good. It seems like the more I do these extensions, the worse the pain gets....last night I even woke up from the pain, unable to get releif.

Can you tell what is going on?? Do I need to push through the pain in PT to get better results? Or is this kind of acute burning & lingering pain suggestive of another problem?? I go back to the Dr tomorrow...we will see if it is any more helpful this time. I have my doubts.