Knee brace advice?

spiderdiane

I need a new brace and not sure what kind is best. I've always had a bad knee since I started playing soccer when I was little (approximately 1998). The cartilage in the knee is messed up, I've already had surgery once in 2010 to "clean it up." My exercise mostly consists of the Couch to 5K program (only up to 30 seconds of running at a time, but I can feel the impact in my knee). Pain is usually just a sore achy-ness, but I currently have a sharp stinging pain, just to the right of the knee cap, when I move it (dog's head thwacked it, then I went for a run).

I'm 5'7", currently at 240 lbs, so definitely still overweight and putting too much stress (probably) on my knee.

Any advice what kind of brace would be best? I'm terrified of the day it decides to go out on me again, that is not a pain I look forward to experiencing again.