Usually it is associated with some form of trauma, like a laceration or insect bite. But, if your circulation is iffy, it could crop up from something like bleeding from the area, but it usually takes a few days at least before it gets really going.

In your case, with the symptoms you described, I would be concerned that it was a stress fracture. You really need to stay off of it, and I'd make an appointment and get an x-ray unless it was significantly improved.

Jan

Thanks Jan,

The redness and pain do seem to get worse again whenever I put any weight on it so the initial improvement of this morning isn't looking so good this evening. As much as I hate to admit it I am going to have to bite the bullet and get Frank to take me down to A&E tomorrow. I've been putting it off because firstly, I've had my daughter visiting for the last week (she flew back to the UK last night) and secondly because I have this really strange aversion to hospitals! I think I've been kidding myself that if I ignore it for long enough it will go away/get better by itself thus saving me the bother of having to enter the Big House!

Thanks again, I'll keep you posted.

Shell

Shell, this may be a dumb question, but what does A&E stand for? I'm guessing its the emergency room?

Well funnily enough yesterday seemed to be the turning point and my shin is starting to feel much better. It's still tender and a little red but nothing like the pain I had been experiencing with it so my method of putting off going to the Big House worked for once!

Chelsea, yes you are correct. A&E stands for Accident & Emergency which is the same as your ER (emergency room)

Thanks again for all the advice and well wishes. I guess I'll just have to be content with not kowing exactly what was the cause, unless it happens again in which case I promise I will hot-foot it down to A&E asap!

Shell

Hi Shell,
Glad you're feeling better - I was getting worried there. My Dad had necrotizing fasciitis that started as a sore, red, swollen knee (no puncture wound) and it was NASTY. But if you had that you'd be feeling terrible by now, not better. After my Dad's experience I have become extremely wary of unexplained redness and pain. I'd get it checked anyway - if not for your peace of mind, for ours!

Thanks Soph, but it's the weekend now and a Bank Holiday on Monday so it will have to wait until Tuesday (by which time I'll probably be dancing on it and running to work! ) Oh and it's the Channel Islands Liberation Day Bank Holiday on Wednesday so it could be Thursday by the time I can get to a doctor!

Seriously though, it really does feel so much better today and I am keeping my weight off it as much as possible over the weekend to make sure it continues to improve. However if it does take a turn for the worse I will get it looked at I promise!

Shell

What about erytheum nodosum? Did it start in one spot and spread. I had that as a secondary sign of crohns/colitis and it was very red, hot to the touch and spread like a bruise. Hurt to walk on and they usually are in the lower shins and can be in the ankles as well. It eventually turned purple and just looked like a large brusing. Just a thought. You seem to have this figured out.

Hi Marcene,

I'm not sure what it could be myself any more. My symptoms can be matched up to the description of everything that has been suggested here on this thread. In fact the very first thought that crossed my mind when it first started hurting was that it could be IBD related, but then would it have come on so suddenly had it been erytheum nodosum? What did you do about yours? Did it just resolve on it's own?

This actually started hurting very suddenly while I was walking to work and felt like an impact unjury but I can't explain why the skin itself was so red and felt so hot to the touch if it was to do with the shin bone itself.

Well I guess it's going to have to remain one of life's mysteries because it is feeling so much better now and unless it takes a real turn for the worse I won't be seeing the doctor about it.

The fact is that I'm really fed up with all the health issues I've had going on, particularly this year. I have appointments with the pain clinic, my GI, my surgeon, and ENT (and that's not counting all the visits to my GP) and now I'm waiting for an appointment with the eye clinic because my optician says that I have fluid on my retina (can't see much out of that eye at all at the moment!) so this leg thing was just about the final straw!

Ooops sorry for that little rant, it just sort of slipped out!

Anyway, thanks again for all your support, you people really are the best!

Shell

Hi Shell,
You sure got your share to deal with, I almost feel guilty that I now am dx with crohns but I have no symptoms or issues to deal with. I feel excellent.

Chelsea, I was wondering the same thing(A E). Shell,Dosn't theater mean operating room?

I am thinking of you and wish you the best..Don

Hi Don,

Yes we do call the operating room the Theatre. I think it goes back to Victorian times where you could actually watch from a public gallery as the surgeons operated. The operating rooms had balconies overlooking them for student doctors and onlooks to watch the poor wretch being operated on. Not very sterile conditions to operate on back then I would imagine.

As for my ongoing problems, well I'm still waiting for an appointment for an endoscopy and biopsy to find out if my stomal ulcers are related to Crohns. The wheels of our helath service grind excrutiatingly slow! I think it's pretty conclusive though as I have had too many other symptoms which are indicative of Crohns and now I'm starting to wonder if the leg thing has anything to do with this too!

I think I will mention it to my GI when I see him after the scope/biopsy and see what his opinion is on it.

Shell

God, poor you, Shell. That's a long list of things to deal with all at the same time.
I hope you get out of this phase quickly. You always manage to stay so chirpy. When I went for my scope on Friday I met a bloke who I'd met last summer as I sat getting Remicade infusions. He was NOT getting operated, he said. NO WAY. Well, he had emergency surgery in February and everything went wrong, so he has a permanent ileostomy now and HATES it. I wished he was in the right frame of mind for me to pass on the details of this website, 'cos he could really have done with reading your posts about Wee Willie, but he just wasn't "there" at all. I felt so sorry for him

Shell,

Mine just popped up on both shins and felt like severe bruises that just ached and I couldn't remember hitting my legs. It was raised and red and hot. It is not something that needs to be treated if it is bearable because all my doctors have said that it doesn't causes damage...however it did leave behind some skin discoloration. It is treated with steroids...big shocker.

I'm glad that it has seemed to resolve. When it rains it pours doesn't it?

Hi Marcene,

Having done some research I really don't think it was EN because it didn't have that nodular appearance and the whole lower shin area was involved not just patches or lumps. Thanks for the info though, it's given me one more thing to cross off my list of possibilities!

Shell

Shell: I would also check with your doctor about Erythema Nodosum. It's a rash that can occur with Crohns and it was extremely painful. I had it during a flare up and saw my regular doctor who put me in compression stockings and had me checked for blood clots and found nothing. The first time I mentioned it to my Gastro doc, he said it was Erythema Nodosum. I can't remember if there was any treatment for it though but once we started treating the flare up, the rash went away too.

Good luck, Pam