The only time I've ever seen something like that is from a posterolateral corner injury (lateral collateral ligament, popliteus muscle, popliteofibular ligament). Glad it's gotten better. If you just get cracking the first few steps in the morning, that's not a big deal. If there's persistent pain and/or instability, it'd be worth getting further checked out.

@More4Life thank you for your response. Also, my knee has never locked up or felt like it wanted to, which is what I've read is typical of a meniscus tear. It feels a little unstable at times when I've been immobile for a while, but I bend it a few times to make sure everything is working before I put weight on it!! I'm grateful that there's no pain, and I'm trying to strengthen my legs to support the knees better. I had an order for PT, but had no pain, so I didn't use it. I may go back to reevaluate and get another PT order. Given the symptoms, I'd sure like to get something more definitive as to what actually happened. Thanks again, I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for sharing the above . Unfortunately I am not able to both ascend or descend stairs. Lesion in both my spine hip

These could certainly be helpful in prevention, but there are a lot of different factors affecting your cartilage health, so I can't say that doing this alone would prevent a knee surgery.