Jururawat membalut lutut saya yang bengkak dan menyapu krim pada siku saya.

A useful way to parse it is:

• Jururawat = nurse
• membalut = bandaged / wrapped
• lutut saya yang bengkak = my swollen knee
• dan = and
• menyapu = applied / spread
• krim = cream
• pada siku saya = on/to my elbow

So the structure is:

Subject + verb + object + and + verb + object + prepositional phrase

More literally:

The nurse bandaged my knee that was swollen and applied cream to my elbow.

In Malay, possessives usually come after the noun:

• lutut saya = my knee
• siku saya = my elbow
• rumah saya = my house

So Malay says knee my, elbow my, etc., where English says my knee, my elbow.

This is completely normal word order in Malay.

Malay usually does not use articles the way English does.

So:

• jururawat can mean the nurse, a nurse, or just nurse, depending on context
• krim can mean cream, the cream, or some cream

English has to choose an article, but Malay often leaves that unstated unless it really matters.

The forms membalut and menyapu use the meN- prefix, which commonly marks an active verb in standard Malay.

• balut = wrap / bandage
• membalut = to wrap / to bandage
• sapu = wipe / sweep / spread
• menyapu = to apply / to spread / to wipe

In a sentence with a clear subject doing the action, standard Malay often uses these prefixed forms.

Also notice the spelling change:

• sapu → menyapu
  The initial s disappears after the prefix.

This kind of sound change is very common with meN- verbs.

Here, membalut means something like to bandage or to wrap with a bandage.

With a body part like lutut (knee), it strongly suggests medical wrapping, not just any kind of wrapping.

So in this sentence, membalut lutut saya is naturally understood as:

• bandaged my knee
• wrapped my knee with a bandage

Yes, sapu has a broad range of meanings depending on context, including:

• sweep
• wipe
• spread
• apply

In menyapu krim, the meaning is clearly to apply or to spread cream.

So:

• menyapu krim = apply cream / spread cream

Malay often relies on context like this.

Here yang links the noun phrase to a description:

• lutut saya yang bengkak = my knee that is swollen / my swollen knee

So yang bengkak describes lutut saya.

This is very common in Malay when you want to attach extra information to a noun.

Compare:

• lutut saya bengkak = my knee is swollen
  
  • this is a full statement
• lutut saya yang bengkak = my swollen knee / my knee that is swollen
  
  • this is a noun phrase inside a bigger sentence

That difference is important.

It describes lutut.

So the meaning is:

• my knee is swollen

not

• I am swollen

The phrase lutut saya yang bengkak is understood as my swollen knee. The adjective is attached to the knee, not to the speaker.

Because krim is the direct object of menyapu, and siku saya is the place/body part where the cream is applied.

So:

• menyapu krim = apply cream
• pada siku saya = to/on my elbow

This is a common pattern:

verb + thing applied + pada + body part / target

Why not ke?
Because ke usually suggests movement toward somewhere.

Why not di?
di is more purely locational: at/in/on. In some contexts it may sound possible, but pada works well here for the target of the action.

Malay usually repeats the possessor where it is needed for clarity.

So:

• lutut saya = my knee
• siku saya = my elbow

If you left out the second saya, the sentence might still be guessed from context, but it would be less explicit. Repeating it makes it clear that both body parts belong to the same person.

English can sometimes avoid repeating my, but Malay often keeps it.

Strictly speaking, the Malay sentence itself does not mark tense.

Malay verbs usually do not change form for past, present, or future. Time is often understood from context.

So this sentence could be interpreted as:

• The nurse bandaged my swollen knee and applied cream to my elbow.
• The nurse is bandaging my swollen knee and applying cream to my elbow.

The English translation chooses a tense based on context, not because the Malay verb form itself is past.

Because the two verbs work differently.

In the first part:

• membalut lutut saya
• lutut saya is the direct object

In the second part:

• menyapu krim pada siku saya
• krim is the direct object
• pada siku saya adds where the cream was applied

So English says:

• bandaged my knee
• applied cream to my elbow

The difference comes from the verb pattern, not from a special rule about body parts.

Not with the same structure and meaning.

• membalut lutut saya yang bengkak = correct, meaning bandaged my swollen knee
• membalut lutut saya bengkak = not a natural standard equivalent

If you want to avoid yang, you would normally need to rewrite the sentence, for example as two clauses:

• Jururawat membalut lutut saya. Lutut saya bengkak.
  = The nurse bandaged my knee. My knee was swollen.

But if you want the adjective built directly into the noun phrase, yang is the natural choice here.