I slipped and whacked my shin really hard...

[sarahspins]

Hard enough that I have a pretty big scrape/gash

But, that's not really the problem.. the sharp, shooting, razor like pain up and down my lower leg (though my knee and through my foot) has me more worried. It doesn't really hurt more if I walk.. but it hurts more when I stand still.

Didn't hurt on the bike earlier, because yes, I was stupid enough to just decide to ignore the pain and ride anyways. (I slipped when we were getting ready to leave.. took a few minutes to rest, another 10 or so to ice it, I bandaged up the scrape, and then decided it would probably be okay.)

It's almost 4 hours, and it's still throbbing and feels like it's on fire

Not in a "hey I racked my shin on something" sort of way.. I did that to the other one getting the kids in the car this morning, and I have a big lump and developing bruise to show for that.. this is way worse.

Should I go get it x-rayed in the morning? Part of me wonders if I'm just being silly and overreacting, but.. it hurts!

Help?

[KnottedYet]

You probably didn't break it, but I'd be interested to see if it had a crack.

My vote is go to the doctor.

Cracks can hurt like the dickens when weightbearing force is going through them in such a way as to force them to gap open a bit. The doc would be able to tell you what is up.

[sarahspins]

Wouldn't a "crack" still be considered a break though?

I know a bone "bruise" can hurt like you wouldn't believe... I had a pretty bad one at the distal end of my femur when I tore my ACL and ripped up much of the rest of my knee... it was not good (and this is the same leg, lucky me.. and my other knee is still not 100% from my kneecap injury in April.. grr)

Anyways though, it was 30 minutes before urgent care closed when this happened... by the time I really thought about maybe getting it checked it was too late to make it there before they closed... but they open up again at 8am. It's not bad enough to go to the ER (well since I'm not sure if I really DO need xrays, anyways.. if it was obviously broken I wouldn't hesitate). It's extremely painful around where I hit it though.. along the medial side of my tibia (several inches from the gash). It's not extremely swollen though (yet?).

Bah, stupid body. I've had an interesting, and not so great day today.. this is just one more thing to add to the list

[KnottedYet]

If you'd busted the critter, the pieces would lose alignment, they'd wander away from each other, and you would've been unable to ride or walk. You would have known something was not right in a big way!

Something more like a crack (yup, still a fracture, but a little one) will stay lined up enough that you can still use the limb, but it won't be happy.

Docs seem to like to put casts or plates and pins on breaks, cracks they don't seem to worry as much and let you heal it on your own with weight or activity limitations.

Whatever it is, it doesn't feel like a normal barked shin to you, so I'd be running off to the doctor (hobbling?). But then, I'm a big ol' chicken!

(cool bit of trivia: sometimes you can diagnose a crack that doesn't show up on xray if you run an ultrasound wand over the area. Cracks will hurt like heck when they are vibrated by the ultrasound, normal bone won't even notice it.)

[sarahspins]

If you'd busted the critter, the pieces would lose alignment, they'd wander away from each other, and you would've been unable to ride or walk. You would have known something was not right in a big way!

Oh I know.. that would have earned an immediate trip to the ER, not the "maybe I'll go get xrayed tomorrow"

I think I will go get checked in the morning, just to make sure.

[sarahspins]

Well, they had issues with the xray machine scanner, so I only got one view of my leg... this was after they failed to get anything out of the first attempt (both were blank), and the lateral view was blank on the second

I'm not convinced it's totally okay looking, but they said it was fine, and I agree, there's nothing SUPER obvious.. I'll get the official results from the radiologist tomorrow.

Where i whacked it is just about halfway down my shin, about level with where my calf muscle begins to curve in.

[NadiaMac]

Ouch, that sounds very painful! Not sure if you have a bone bruise or not, but like other posters on this thread, I've had bone bruises and they can be quite painful and persistent! I have a couple right now further to a mountain bike crash -one on the shin that is feeling a bit better after three months but is still tender, one on my femur--inside the kneecap-- that still feels pretty crap. Icing and anti-inflammatories help. Good luck with your recovery!

[Biciclista]

it looks like you have staples in your knee. Do you?
nice calf, btw. i hope you get better soon

[sarahspins]

Sort of? I'm not sure that's what they call them since they are fairly big (and pretty long.. it's a bummer they didn't get the lateral view, they look scary from that side)...but that's what held the lower part of my ACL graft in place. There's a screw my my femur too for the other end.

The radiologist report simply stated "within normal limits"

I wish I could say it feels better today than it did a couple of days ago.. now I actually have more pain standing on it than I did, so I'm taking a break from the bike until at least next week and I'm hoping it won't be bothering me as much.. it's not super painful, but more than enough to notice, even with motrin, which is super annoying.. and probably a good sign to take it easy for a while Easy of course, being relative.. my 3 kids sure don't seem to notice that I don't feel like running around after them all

Stupid leg It's cursed, I swear...

[SlowButSteady]

Did they not take a lateral view, or do you not have it to post?

Sometimes things show up from another angle that can't be seen from the first one.

I spend 8 months in pain from wracking my shin on the pedal while trying to clip in on my then-new bike. Never went to the doctor. My bad.