Bursitis swelling, how long will it last?

A couple weeks ago I slipped on my stairs and landed my full weight on my right knee, impacting just above the kneecap. It hurt like hell for a few minutes, then I was fine. Nothing appeared to be broken, pulled or torn as I had full range of motion, including twisting, and full strength, so I figured I'd just have a big bruise and that would be it.

Turned out I never even had a bruise, though I did get some swelling just above the kneecap where I hit. I didn't think much about it and assumed it would go away soon, and it appeared to be decreasing in the next few days. Other than from the swelling itself there was no pain or impact on my range of motion (though due to the swelling if I kept my leg straight for a while it hurt a bit to bend it a lot, and vice versa) It had full strength and I could push off with it as hard as I normally would and could twist it any direction, so I could pretty much rule out any bone or ligament damage and figured it was no big deal.

So about a week after it happened the wife and I had already planned to go for a bike ride so just to check it everything was OK I went for a quick 3-4 mile ride the day before just to make sure it was OK and it seemed fine, so the next day we rode about 40 miles. I took it a bit easier than normal up the hills, staying in a slightly lower gear, just to be extra safe, even though there was no pain at all, either during or immediately after the ride.

Unfortunately I guess that ride wasn't a very good idea, because the next day my knee was swollen larger than it had been at first, with probably 3/4" total of additional "thickness" in an area of maybe 6 sq in above the kneecap, and it hurt a bit to walk around, I could feel a burning sensation in the area above the kneecap when I first started walking though it would go away after a minute or so. It felt exactly like the bursitis I had in my shoulder a few years ago, and while that didn't include any visible swelling, a little bit of googling made me pretty sure that my fall irritated my suprapatellar bursa, and the bike ride, even though it didn't hurt, likely caused a lot more irritation there because of the repetitive bending and unbending of the knee for several hours.

So I decided I better not just ignore this and have been resting, compressing, elevating and icing it for the past several days along with taking some tylenol, but it doesn't seem to be having much impact on the amount of swelling. Is this something I would expect to improve in a few days and since it hasn't I should see a doctor and maybe he'd want to do something more drastic like draining it or prescribing some steroids to speed the healing?

I just worry that even though I'm pretty positive there wasn't any ligament or bone damage (surely I wouldn't have the full strength and mobility if that was the case) he might want to do MRIs and xrays, and that would be a problem for me because we do not have medical insurance. Just can't afford it at this time, nor could we afford $1000+ or whatever an office visit that includes something expensive like an MRI would run unless it was absolutely necessary, rather than just a doctor "ruling out" something he might already feel is unlikely to be on the safe side.

Should I give it more time or should I see a doctor now, and maybe just explain my situation before making the appointment so that he knows I can't afford the MRI unless he really has a strong reason to believe there's more damage than is apparent to me?

Thanks,

Dave