I am in a town called Victoria waiting for an xray. My shin splint got progressively worse over the past few days to the point where I no longer could walk on it. After some research and talking with other hikers I determined that it might be more serious than a shin splint. There is one particular spot on my shin bone that is beyond tender and it hurts constantly even while not hiking. That same spot is swollen and bruised. It took me 4 1/2 hours to hike 7 miles yesterday down into Cajon pass and after those 7 miles I could not imagine hiking anymore that day. Baboon and I got a night at the Best Western there and I elevated it and had it on ice all night. I was hoping that having taken most of the day off would have made it slightly better but the injury seems to persist.
I called the hardware store in Wrightwood because I knew there was list of trail angels there that could potentially help me. The lady I talked to made some calls and within 30 minutes a wonderful lady named Carol came to pick me up. We went to the urgent care center closest by which is where the doctor told me I most likely have a stress fracture in my tibia and to get an xray. So now Carol and I are waiting for just that.
I was sitting outside the urgent care center with my pack and my obviously upset looking face when a man named Tony came and asked me if I was alright. He asked if I was trekking the PCT. When I told him about my situation he told me that his girlfriend is a big hiker and that she would be more than happy to help me in anyway she could. He gave me her number and told me to call her. I gave her a call and she said that she would put me up at her place tonight and I could stay as long as I needed for me to heal.
Now all I have to do is wait for the results of the xray. They said that most times stress fractures don't even show up on the xray so either way to treat it like I have one until we know for sure. Both the doc and the xray tech seem to agree on this information so far.
Hoping for the best.
This sucks a lot. Last year I got the same sort of pain in my shin in the middle of Pennsylvania--it hurt all the time, not just when hiking (although it was worst then). It was impossible to get comfortable even when sitting down. Like you, I figured it was a shin splint at first and said fuck it, nothing to do but keep hiking (it helped that El Perro was around to call me a pussy every 5 minutes). But then I described the pain over the phone to my aunt, a doctor who used to be an athletic trainer, and she was worried it was a tibia stress fracture. I went home to Virginia Beach and it took two weeks to get the situation figured out. The process went like this:
ReplyDelete1) X-ray. Showed nothing.
2) Three days later (earliest it could be scheduled), bone scan. Showed inflammation and increased blood flow to the part of my shin that hurt, but no stress fracture. Also to two spots on my ankle (which didn't hurt).
3) A week later (earliest it could be scheduled), MRI on my ankle. Revealed a bone bruise on my ankle that was somehow referring pain to my shin.
The whole time I was sitting at home waiting for doctor's appointments, the pain gradually went away to the point where it was almost gone. That, combined with finding out that it wasn't a stress fracture, made me want to keep hiking (which I then did).
But the point is that it took a long time to get a straightforward diagnosis. And if I wasn't under 26 and still on my parents' awesome insurance plan (thanks Obama!), it would've cost a metric butt ton of money. And the whole time I really really REALLY wanted to be hiking again, because I had invested so much energy--emotional, physical, money, time, etc.--into the AT.
So I can sympathize with your situation very much. I would stress patience (you might not find out what's wrong quickly, it might take a long time to heal regardless). That, and optimism (i.e. that it really is just a shin splint or bruise).
- Scrub