Pain in shins?

[TJay]

This is my first post here, so I hope I'm doing everything right! I couldn't find a relevant board for this, so have posted on here. I wanted to ask if any of you could give me any information on the following problem -

Basically, both my shins have been really painful for about the last year, at first it was only when they were hit by anything, but now it's pretty much a shooting pain every day. The docs ruled out stress fractures, and when they did an x-ray they found a lump which they thought was phlebitis on my left leg.

Anyway, they then sent me for an ultrasound and discovered that not only was there this lump on my left leg, but that my right leg had lots of lumps. They apparently don't seem to be in my veins as they first thought, but more on my actual bone - they called it a deformity (!).

The only problem is, they can't seem to do anything about the pain, other than to offer me Amitriptyline to "slightly deaden the nerve endings", and I really don't want to have to take this - so, anyone got any ideas? I've searched the internet for information, but have got nowhere. I would be so grateful for any advice.

[Merrida]

Did you get a specific diagnosis? Telling you that you have a "deformity" does not mean much, and it should not freak you out in and of itself because that term can apply to absolutely anything that falls outside "standard" guidelines.

If you've got lumps on your bones, they surely must have an idea of what those lumps are. If they've ruled out veinous ballooning, and they've ruled out any problems with your lymph nodes, and if they've absolutely determined these are hard, immobile nodules on the bone itself, what did they determine the nodules were? Soft tissue growths? Bony spurs? Scar tissue?

Is this bilateral? Do you have them equally in both legs? Is this exclusive to your lower legs, or do you exhibit any of these lumps on any of the other bones in your body elsewhere?

Have they considered doing a biopsy? Have they done any soft tissue diagnostics, such as MRI?

Did they give you any explanation for what is causing the pain? It's pretty common, regretably, that doctors often attack the symptoms (ie: deaden the nerve) rather than address the CAUSE (ie: what is CAUSING the pain in the first place). Even if they determine "these lumps" are causing the pain, that does not explain what these lumps are, and what they are doing TO cause the pain. If they did, it would be easier to try and figure out what this is and what you can do about it. Without a definitive diagnosis to know precisely what they are, there's no way to offer much in the way of opinions of options to alleviate your pain or cure the problem.

[TJay]

Merrida, thanks for replying to me so quickly! I'll answer your questions as best I can - they've ruled out phlebitis, the ultrasonographer felt that they were "probably" soft tissue swellings, and seemed to think they had probably always been there - couldn't explain why they had suddenly started hurting though!

The pain itself is quite severe when anything hits my shin (which doesn't help with two small children constantly kicking them!) - it has reduced me to tears before now after just a mild knock. Recently, I've also started to have shooting pains down both shins, mainly when my dog is dragging me along on a walk, and when driving, but occasionally for no apparent reason.

The lumps are bilateral; although not equal in both legs, I seem to have only 1 in the left leg, but quite a few in the right, and there are no other lumps anywhere else on my body.

As for a biopsy or an MRI, well, the NHS being what it is, you have to fight to get anything they consider to be expensive, and if they do refer you for further investigation it usually takes months for an appointment, so to be honest, I haven't followed up on the ultrasound appointment yet.

As for what they think is causing the pain, my GP just said it was neuralgia (hence offering the Amitriptyline to deaden the nerves), but they don't seem to know what the cause is. I know I should go back and try to get more help, but I am sure that they would be unwilling to do any further investigation, and seem to be treating it as though it's just some little deformity that I should just ignore, hence the reason I was trying to find out any information I could before going back. I'm sorry if I didn't really provide enough information before, it's hard to know what to post, so I just kept it as basic as possible.