Osgood Schlatters Disease Archives

Knee Problem

I was diagnosed with Osgood Schlatters disease when I was about 13 years old. It was treated by putting the leg into a cast. When the cast came off things looked as though they had healed. Well they didn't. I just decided to deal with it. I dealt with it through high school sports and eventually it became sort of numb. Didn't really feel it, or the skin in that general area. After high school I went into the military and went through difficult training, lots of running and the area was still just "numb". During my service I ended up on an aircraft carrier and spent a lot of time walking up and down stairs, and the pain came back and it was more than I had remembered. I was then seen by a nurse practitioner that gave me steriod shots in the area, mostly directly above the knot that had developed from the Osgood Schlatters. After about 3 cycles of this treatment every 6 weeks, and no improvment, I had surgery performed and bony fragments were removed and also on the inside of the knee a "clicker" (that is just what the Dr called it to keep it simple) was removed because of pain in that area also. What I am wondering is what is happening to my knee now? I constantly have pain in that knee. The doc told me that my knee would probably never be 100%, and he asked what my goal was. I replied I just wanted to be able to squat and pick up my children without needing help standing back up. He said that was very possible. Well, it was for a while after the physical therapy, but it slowly became harder and more painful to squat down and stand back up. The only thing I do different at this time is I have to wait 2-3 days for the pain to subside before I exercise again. Is there anything I can do know. I have pain in the joint as well as the front of the knee where the "knot" is. Is there a way to fix this and reduce the pain, or is there nothing really to do about it?

Follow Ups:

• Re: Knee Problem ( Results of improperly treated Osgood Shlatter's) Archive Walt Stoll 08:57:00 1/07/01 (0)

In Reply to: Knee Problem posted by Mike on January 04, 2001 at 16:46:03:

Hi, Mike.

I am sorry to have to say it, since it is too late to do anything about it, but your choice to "treat your problem with high school sports" is why you have what you do now.

The only known, effective, treatment is to avoid the stress of sports until the growth center is through growing. Perhaps, of your doc had simply taken the time to explain this to you at the time, you might have ben more amenable to the treatment.

Even now, you could go to the library and have the reference librarian look up the condition and read it yourself. If there was any mistake at the time it was your allowing the doc to do your thinking for you. Of course, the conventional medical monopoly has spent the past 100 years teaching the public to do just that.

By the way, the very worst thing you can do is "squat"!!!

Walt