I literally have a dent in my shin?

[Anonymous]

I was a dancer for twelve years before a back injury forced me to quit. But I also have been having some ongoing musculoskeletal issues from the wear and tear of dance.

I have had a dent in my shin that has not gone away. At first I thought it was a bruise and that I got it from bumping my leg, but it has been several months now and nothing has changed. I have a lot of pain in both my shins, but I still try to keep an active lifestyle. I don't dance anymore, but I enjoy kickboxing and other high impact exercises when my body will allow me to do them.

My question is this: Is it possible this is from some kind of remaining stress fracture? I know very little about how long it would take something like this to heal, but I do know of other dancers who developed them. I was quite the jumper "back in my day" as a dancer lol. Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated. And YES, I am seeing my doctor soon. lol Thanks.

[dangerDoge]

It is difficult to say based on tbe description whether it is a stress fracture or not.
Are your areas of pain in one of these--?
www.jointessential.com/.../shin-splints.png?e07f80
However, considering that the "dent..."
-- is a focused pain (aka it is a specific spot that hurts)
-- has been going for MONTHS (usually weeks nonstop means there is a problem)
... It is a good thing you are seeing a doctor.

Until then, I would take it as easy as you can so you don't aggravate the injury anymore than it is already.

It is always possible it could be just shin splints, but that doesn't usually last for full months as far as I know.
----
For the future, it is good to know the difference between good muscle building pain (like tiredness and such) vs not good pain. Sharpness in pain is usually a bad indication.
During things like, the best idea is often to take days of rest to recover. It is better to recover from injuries and miss a few days instead of push through them and miss a month... As frustrating as I know it can be.
When you get the injury I would use the RICE method. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation)

Granted, I wouldn't be surprised if you already kind of knew a lot of this already given your actice lifestyle, but I thought I might as well restate it all xD

[broadsword]

Are sure you've not had a impact contact. ? I've had one these for years mine came from contact sport. I played Rugby as my main sport and never wore shin pads until I took a kick to the shin. It does take a long time to heal fully I still have a small dent decades later.

I think it's to do with the shins having poor circulation. I've also covered with shin splints to. It's not the bone its the muscle over the bone being damaged.
I've all ways had very well defined calls and good muscle mass on my chins from cycling as well as weights. It's this muscle that is damaged.