Have had post-tib pain for eight months now and have not run a step since November.
Anti-inflammatories didn’t work.
Ice/heat/ultrasound/EMS/soft tissue work didn’t work.
Physical therapy didn’t work.
Orthotics didn’t work.
Immobilization in casts didn’t work.
They just won’t heal. I don’t get it. When you get an injury, it’s supposed to heal. What do you do when it doesn’t heal?
well its not uncommon to have shin splits for years if you dont pay attention to them early enough, in sprinters especially its more common the junction of the fascia and periosteum, if this becomes chronic rest and other non surgical treatments wont do much so youll probably need a fasciotomy at that stage…
does it hurt constantly or at specific type of moves and if so, where excactly? What type of pain is it? Localized or more spread out?
in any case perhaps an mri or cat scan could help evalutate the sollution (given that it persists for so long) a bit better?
How long have you had the injury, and how long did you try each of the above mentioned treatments? A general rule with injuries is the longer you wait to treat them, the longer they will take to heal. So if you had the pain for a year, then it will take time to heal. Did the therapists just give up on you? or did you give up on them? With tricky injuries it can take a while for the therapist to figure out what the exact problem is (even the really good ones). How many therapy sessions did you go to? I can’t see a professional therapist letting something like this go on and on. It is just as frustrating for them as for the injured person. Although, I know of at least one physio in the area here who has a tendency to say it is all in the athlete’s head if he can’t figure out the problem. So ya, find a therapist that will work with you to find out the problem.
Yeah my shin splints just won’t heal too what the hell…
Theyve been hurting since beginning February…I’ve tried icing and it seemed to help but then I dont know. I’ve tried ibuprofen…once I went off it still hurt the same
I didnt stretch the shin muscle out at all until about last week…and now im getting physical therapy…so we’ll see…
Thanks for the responses guys.
The history is this:
I attempted to start training in September after a nine month layoff due to a non-running related knee injury. I got about two weeks into training when I started experiencing this dull pain along the distal third of the posteriomedial aspect of the tibia, which I identified as medial tibial stress sydrome.
I had a similar injury five years ago when I was 17… that time I had tried to run through it for several months, but then it got so bad that I eventually had to cease training and it took SEVEN HORRIBLE MONTHS to heal. So, wishing to avoid a repeat of that misery, I stopped running immediately when I felt the pain again and resolved not to run until it was 100% gone.
After two weeks it felt good and I thought I was ready to run again. So I get going, and within a week the pain is worse than it was before. I took three weeks off, returned to running, and it recurred yet again. Then I took a whole month off before slowly reintroducing myself to running with a very gentle walk-jog sequence. Again, the pain came back. This time, however, it didn’t go away.
I have not run a step since early Decmber, any my legs are in worse shape now then they were when I stopped training. This is because a podiatrist immobilized my legs in casts for the better part of three months. When I got the casts off, my legs were extremely fragile and I aggrovated the injury badly when I started walking again.
There are so many details about everything I’ve done since December as far as PT and everything goes, but I’ll at least give you a brief synopsis. I went to PT for a month in December and quit voluntary because I felt it was unhelpful. Then I returned again in April and went for another month, at which point my insurance benefits for PT ran out. It didn’t do any good anyway.
I’ve got these orthotics that are total abominations… rigid, bulky, and uncomfortable. I could never run in them in a thousand years. However, ever since I got the casts off I have needed the orthotics to walk. If I walk without the orthotics the injury flares up quickly.
Like I said before, the pain is along the distal posterior-medial aspect of my tibia. The tibialis posterior tendon is also painful to the touch in the area that can be palpated from a few inches above the ankle down to where is runs around the medial malleolus. Thus I believe that this is a combination of TENDONOSIS of the tibialis posterior tendon and something else- periostitis maybe. I can’t tell what exactly.
An MRI revealed no abnormalities other than some subcutaneous oedema in the post tib area.
I’m going to be speaking with a surgeon on Monday… I am also considering trying ART. I have been reluctant to do this up until now because don’t believe in chiropractic and generally don’t trust chiropractors… but the “sports medicine” doctors have been such a collosal failure, and I’ve heard enough good things about ART that I’m thinking I may as well give it a shot before going under the KNIFE…
How are the shins doing now?