Osgood Schlatters continuing to adulthood

[Lemea4]

Hi all, I'm new on here and have been reading through a few of the threads. I was hoping to get a few opinions of options for dealing with/treating osgood!

I was told by my GP I had Osgood Schlatters when I was about 13 and had some xrays done to confirm. I developed the bump in my knee around that time and it was quite painful, but the pain became hardly noticeable over the years even though the bump persisted. Since then I haven't done anything about it, but it has never gone away. I can't kneel etc. for too long and occasionally it would feel a bit strained but I didn't really worry about it.
I'm now 23 and in the last year or so I have started to notice more pain/strained feeling in my knee more often, also I'm sure the bump has even become bigger! I have become a pro at hiding it over the years because I really don't like it all that much, and aside from my doctor and family I haven't talked to others about it really, didn't even think about joining a forum to get some advice until now!
Sometimes I get discomfort even when I am lying down and have woken up in the night from it a few times, but it isn't really a pain so much as an uncomfy kind of dull cramp or ache.
I have also recent taken up yoga and using the cross-trainer at the gym. I was wondering if these kinds of exercise are bad for a leg with osgood schlatters? While I exercise I feel a bit of a strain/ache but I just try to ignore it and keep going. Does anyone have any advice for treatments or whether or not I am possibly causing injury??
I've been starting to worry about whether this will just become worse with age as I find myself favouring my better leg more and more often.
would surgery be an option for someone my age? Although being a student it's not likely I will even be able to afford it for a very long time!
Any advice would be welcome!

[habibalex]

I posted some exercises from my PT here, they kinda help:

http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/http ... #msg572002

Basically if anything is in pain in your body its causing injury. Even if it doesn't hurt that bad, your body is trying to tell you something. That bump on your knee will get larger and larger the more you push it. The reason that happens (according to my doctor when I was 14) is that there are small microfractures in the tibial tuberosity. When they bone heals (takes 3 - 6 weeks) it fills in those fractures and it becomes slightly larger. I would stop everything until the pain goes away. Do simple exercises to strengthen / stretch your leg muscles. Try resuming regular activities to see if it helped, if not go back to simple exercises for a week or two, or do different activities that don't put as much stress on your knee until you're stronger. This worked for me.