Ya everybody is different.
When I over used my knee. 3 super steep climbs in a row in the middle of a 100 miler. I had front of knee pain the next day (recovery ride). I was able to ride after a weeks rest. I started taking collagen. Heard it was good for tendon repair. I did very few hills for about a month. If I did them I would sit and spin up them. Every week I would test my knee by getting out of the saddle, if it hurt I would try next week. Over time the pain lessened where I could do harder hills without much pain. I think it took about 5 months to get back to climbing without pain.
Good luck and hope you find something that works.