Hoser,
I am a bit older at 67, so I probably heal a bit slower than you do. I did something similar to what you described developing a case of runner's knee in May of 2016 that forced me to completely stop running for several weeks. For over a year I had been trying to train hard and race with several soft tissue injuries (IT band, calf strains, achilles soreness) without letting them heal properly, but just trying to "manage" them through a day or two off and anti-inflammatories. In April '16 I did a 5K race and then a hard mile repeat workout about 3 days later and the following day I could hardly walk from the knee pain.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I now am 15 months into a healing and fitness rebuilding effort that I thought would take 6 months. I am to the point where I am running about 25 mpw and walking another 25 mpw. I am still getting a little soreness and stiffness in my knee after hard workouts but otherwise injury-free. I haven't had an MRI or x-ray, so I don't know if there is some permanent problem or just minor residual inflammation.
What I did find after my injury was that in the process of trying to run hard and "manage" my injuries I had developed some significant strength imbalances in my legs trying to compensate for the injuries. Rebuilding symmetrical strength in my legs as well as being patient with the healing and inflammation reduction process have been the necessary elements to getting healed.
In addition to very gradually increasing my running volume, I have been consistently working on a strength routine. I do 20 minutes on a rowing machine and 15 to 20 minutes on a series of body weight exercises including squats, one-legged squats (I still have a lot of room for improvement on them), lunges, hurdle step-overs and a couple of other drills.
After 15 months of building this routine I feel like I am just getting back to a point where my legs are durable enough to work on more serious running training. So, my experience has been that healing the knee properly is a longer slower process than any of us think it should be. My advice is be patient, don't rush it and be consistent about doing the exercises that you can to strengthen and protect the joint.