Osgood Schlatters Problems

Here's my experience with OS:

OI had a runner who who had it in his knee and his doctor told him that if he could stand the pain he could run and it wouldn't cause any damage.

A girl had it in her toes- same diagnosis from a different doctor.

I would find out if this is the case for you- don't trust my word.

BUT- make sure the doctor knows sports and specifically running. Some doctors will tell you not to run for a hangnail on your thumb.

Osgood Schlatter is one form of an injury called apophysitis. Apophysitis occurs when tendons exert stress on a growth plate that is not fully closed, leading to inflammation. Your heel injury was probably Sever's Disease, which is apophysitis at the calcaneous bone. Osgood Schlatter is apophysitis of the tibial tuberosity just below the knee/at the top of the lower leg.

I am a college runner who had Osgood Schlatter in middle school and also had apophysitis at the ilium and ischium bones in the pelvis in high school. Ice helps tremendously because the injury is purely inflammation. If you are ever sitting around, put ice on it. It is okay to run through the pain as long as it is not too severe as apophysitis can become an avulsion fracture, where the piece of the bone to which tendons attach breaks off and requires surgery. Use your stride as a guideline for this. If you are limping you are probably in too much pain and should back off. You may want to take some time off from running to take anti-inflammatories, ice, and get it under control before resuming training. As with all injuries, people always mention strengthening the hips and dealing with flexibility problems, though I think it was more the constant icing that helped me.

Pain will continue at least to some extent until the growth plate closes, so always keep up with icing.

See link for bracing and taping demos.

Thanks. This is some of the best advice that I have gotten.

I'd recommend seeing a chiropractor who does ART. I've had OS into adulthood (would even show up as stress on the bone when I'd get a bone scan), but having my chiropractor treat it with ART took care of it. Rarely feel it now!

Otherwise, why are you doing 3 hard workouts a week? 60 mpw as a high school sophomore? Sounds like you're doing too much intensity and too much mileage for a growing kid. Shoot, I was running not even 1/2 that in high school at that age and had the OS. You need go back off- your body is telling you too much stress (and it's only August!).

I've got an athlete who got over osgoods pretty quickly. He'd had severs too, and they're basically the same thing.

Here is what you should do:

1. rest the knee from impact for 2 weeks. If you want to keep fit, do heaps of swimming and cycling (spin calsses, whatever) in that time.

2. rub voltaren gel over it every night. Smear a lot over it before you go to bed and wrap your knee in plastic, like it's a sandwich. This intensifies the effect (and stops things getting dirty!).

3. stretch your quads twice a day. The pain is from tugging on tendons around the growth plate, which is brought about from bones growing first and muscles/ligaments/tendons then catching up. You need to stretch those muscles/ligaments/tendons religiously during those 2 weeks so they catch up. The best way is to lie down on your front, and have someone lift your heel over and push it into your butt and hold for 30 secs each leg.

4. Yes when you start again there are two taping methods you can use. One is the kt-tape method. The other is the one where you use normal strapping tape and wind it into a cord. Both work and you can do one or even both. You will feel the kt tape one less when running.

It's true a little bit of pain is nothing to worry about. You can ice the area before you run to help.

You need though to get the inflammation down (hence the rest) and to relieve the strain on the tendons (hence the stretching).