Dealing with Osgood-Schlatter disease

It’s called Osgood-Schlatter disease. Back in fifth grade during PE, I was working out with everyone else when something just snapped in my right knee. It hurt like hell after that, so I went to see a doctor. He brushed it off at first, saying it wasn't a big deal, but then this bump started growing. I spent forever bouncing between doctors until they finally diagnosed it as Osgood-Schlatter. They told me the bump would disappear once I finished growing. I knew right then that was BS—it felt like actual bone sticking out. Just gross.
I’m 21 now and the bump is still there. The pain stopped a few years ago (unless I take a hard hit directly on it), but it’s just... there. Like an elbow on my leg. You can't see it when I'm standing, only when I sit down, so I've mastered the art of sitting just right to hide it. I've seen doctors a couple of times since, but they say surgery isn't recommended because I'd end up needing some kind of screw in my knee. Honestly, I'd love to just get rid of it. But now I'm terrified that if I go through with surgery, I might lose the leg entirely or they'll mess it up so bad I won't be able to walk. Anyone dealt with something similar?

Bryan Fowler3 said:It’s called Osgood-Schlatter disease. Back in fifth grade during PE, I was working out with everyone else when something just snapped in my right knee. It hurt like hell after that, so I went to see a doctor. He brushed it off at first, saying it wasn't a big deal, but then this bump started growing. I spent forever bouncing between doctors until they finally diagnosed it as Osgood-Schlatter. They told me the bump would disappear once I finished growing. I knew right then that was BS—it felt like actual bone sticking out. Just gross.
I’m 21 now and the bump is still there. The pain stopped a few years ago (unless I take a hard hit directly on it), but it’s just... there. Like an elbow on my leg. You can't see it when I'm standing, only when I sit down, so I've mastered the art of sitting just right to hide it. I've seen doctors a couple of times since, but they say surgery isn't recommended because I'd end up needing some kind of screw in my knee. Honestly, I'd love to just get rid of it. But now I'm terrified that if I go through with surgery, I might lose the leg entirely or they'll mess it up so bad I won't be able to walk. Anyone dealt with something similar?

Hey! So, I've had this whole Osgood-Schlatter thing going on for four years now (I'm 15, so it started when I was 11). The first time I went to the doctor after hitting my knee, he just told me it was a bruise and that I didn't need to come back unless things got worse... so the swelling eventually went down, but the bump stayed. At first, I thought it would just vanish on its own, but since it didn't, I went back and they told me it's just a growth spurt thing, just like what happened to you. I kept training through it until about three months ago when the pain came back super intense and the bump grew even more. I ended up getting X-rays, a CT, and an MRI, and it wasn't until the MRI that they saw a piece of bone had actually fractured off and moved into the tendon, which caused total chaos in there. They recommended surgery to get it removed so everything would be fine, but the MRI also showed signs of overworking the knee and all those hits to the bump, so apparently my meniscus is shot too, which they'll fix at the same time. I won't bore the orthopedic surgeon with all the details, but seriously, get that MRI and have them look at your knee properly. If they say you need surgery, just go for it, because that bump itself isn't the end of the world. 😁

Hey there,

About two weeks ago, I finally got back out on the soccer field after taking a several-month break, and it looks like I might have overdone it a bit too soon. Since then, I’ve been dealing with this nagging pain just below my kneecap—right where the patellar tendon meets the shinbone. If I feel along that spot (about 3-4 cm below the patella), there's this little bump or some kind of roughness on the bone. The weird thing is, the pain is localized strictly to that one specific point; the tendon itself feels fine and the rest of my knee seems totally okay. I've tried pretty much everything I can think of: icing it, applying different creams and ointments, and staying on top of daily stretching and eccentric squats to help strengthen things up, but nothing seems to be hitting the mark. Every morning I wake up hoping today might be the day it finally starts feeling better, but the pain stays exactly the same... I'm only 22, so it's honestly pretty tough for me to be sidelined from being active. Has anyone else here dealt with something similar, and if so, how did you manage to get past it?