"dent" in my shin?!

Hi, just got a quick question.

About 2 weeks ago, I had a bit of an accident during class, banging my shin into a guy (strangely he didn't feel a thing!?). It got pretty swollen and went all kinds of pretty colors .

I think I had some sort of internal bleeding from it as well, 'cause the inside of my foot right by the heel is a bit swollen and blue and purple, so it appears some blood may have leaked down there? I'm sure I didn't knock my foot on anything.

The thing is, now that I'm actually able to touch my shin again, I was just running my fingers along it, and it feels like there's some sort of dent in my shin. The rest of the shin is naturally hard, however at this spot, with a bit of pressure I can push my finger down like a half centimeter (.2 inches) and it feels softer than the rest of the shin. Naturally I haven't found anything similar on any other place on either of my shins.

Any of you guys have an idea what this might be? A dent in a bone seems a bit worrying? Is it actually my shin I'm feeling, or is it more like some cartilage/muscles/whatever that's gotten a dent?

I'm mainly asking cause I don't want to end up with a break or anything like that from kicking or doing a shin block or whatever else might put pressure on your shin. You might say that I'm worried about whether the structural integrity of my shin is intact.

Any answers, comments or advice will be greatly appreciated.

I would say, if the dent is along the ridge of the shin bone, you probably have a fracture. Is there any sharp pain on the point of the injury/dent? I would Protect it, rest it, ice it (15 minutes on, 1 hour off), compress it (a brace maybe), and keep it elevated . Also support the leg. No kicking bags or blocking drills with that leg, and actually I would avoid any athletic ativities for a couple days, beyond push ups and pull ups, so it has tiem to start healing. As for the bagwork, pad owrk, and sparring/partner drills, avoid that for a week or 2 at least. If the pain, swelling, and discoloration persists for more than 2 weeks see a doctor.
I've had slammed shins before and they've lasted up to a week or so where I can barely walk onthe leg. No bueno.

Remeber P.R.I.C.E.S

First things first ... if you are worried enough then you should seek professional help ... Go See A Doctor (G.S.A.D)

Now with that said, I've banged my shin plenty of times when I've collided with partner's legs. Several times I have had an indent in my shin bone as an after effect but eventually it went away. You have to understand that there is a filament over the bone with a liquid underneath it. When the bone gets banged hard enough this will swell up to protect the bone. With time, and with the help of antibiotics, this swelling will go away. When the swelling goes down there will be an indent left from the initial impact. Eventually as your shin heals this indent "should" go away.

Now I am only repeating how I understood it when I had visited the doctor for a bone bruise to my hand from blocking a kick as I never visited the doctor with my shin hits as I wasn't too worried. If you are then what do you do? G.S.A.D.

is that filament the peristotem? I would think if it swelled there would be no dent?

We need like a cord/dereck alarm button. lol

Stormdragon, to be honest I don't know what it is called. I'm sure my doctor told me what it was when he pointed it out on the diagram but that was over 4 years ago for my hand. This may not be the case for the leg but it just seems logical as it is always the liquid underneath the filament that is the swelling to protect the bone. The rest I just theorized from my own experience and later the indent went away.

Not a doctor by any means and have no problem being corrected as then I can learn as well. This is just my guest-a-mate to the reasoning.

Arent dents in your bone a product of conditioning? God I hope so anyway.... because if not, I have some serious problems with my forearms...

Ok I've come in here several times and now I need to respond. Dents in your bones aren't normal especially if they weren't there before. I've taken some pretty hard hits over the past almost 16 years and can honestly say that I don't recall any dents in any of my bones. Ask someone with a PhD. in medicine. They would be the ones to ask. It maybe nothing or it might be something. GSAD

Casey

I think it is being "perceived" there is a dent in the bone when actually there isn't. From my earlier post I had explained I have had several instances where it "felt" as if I had an indent or dent in my shin when actually there wasn't and that overtime it went away. I theorized that due to the initial contact with something hard, in my case another person's leg, that the liquid between the bone and the filament swelled and when the swelling went down the indent was left. The indent was actually the impact spot and was not an dent in the bone. When the filament spot healed and the liquid became more even, the indent went away. Again this is only theorized from the explanation I received from my doctor when I had went in years ago for a similar incident when I had a bone bruise to my hand.

NOW like I said earlier, G.S.A.D. if you are "really" concerned and I stand by this.

wow... well I guess it's really good that somebody brought this thread up.... I should probably go and talk to a doctor. But if I don't have any pain in my arms... then it can't be too bad, right?

Not necessarily so. When I was a youth around the age of 11, my brother (age 6) and I were in the basement. My brother ran upstairs to get a banana and bumped his shin on the stairs. He cried and cried and the next day he seen our family doctor but they could find nothing wrong. The pain eventually went away but not quite a year later his leg started going funny on him and it was discovered that he had started a tumor in that spot. He ended up having surgery to remove this tumor from his shin and had to take out a part of his hip bone to replace this.

So it may have hurt in the beginning and then stopped but this doesn't necessarily mean there is nothing wrong. If you are concerned definitely G.S.A.D. and at least get it x-rayed.

Hi there,

just read everybody's views and thought I'd give my tuppence.

I've been doing kickboxing for about 6-7 years now and do a lot of shin conditioning as our style allows kicks above knee's (thigh kicks) in full contact. When checking/blocking thigh kicks with a knee block there is always some violent bone on bone action. I had a slight (unrelated) knee injury and went to the doctors and casually mentioned the amount of "dents" running along the length of both of my shins, giving an almost serrated feel to them. He laughed when I explained the shin on shin nature of blocking kicks and said it was to be expected of such an activity. He asked if I had ever seen a cricket bat that had been used? He said that it has lots of small dents etc all over it from hitting the ball. Both the ball and the willow bat are harder that human bone and that it was natural enough for the surface of the bone to change under such stress and that it wouldn't cause any problems.

That being said you're not here to compare shin bones with and yours may feel different or be worse etc so mention it to your doc and tell us what he says!!! The tumor story sounds pretty scary so I wouldn't want to risk it!!!!!!!!

Rossko

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

I decided to get a doctor to check it out, just to know whether it's anything to worry about or not.

What she basically said is that it wasn't dangerous. I had obviously received a pretty heavy knock. However as far as I can recall, the dent is in some kind of cartilage running along the shin bone itself.

What she said was that the shin bone is extremely hard, so it would really take a lot to do any real damage to it. And if this was the case, I definitely wouldn't be able to put any weight on it at all and would pretty much know instantly that it was bad.

The indent would maybe go away, but not for sure, so all you guys with indents all over arms or whatever needn't worry .

i just did something similar to this. you see im fan of free running and i like jumping over stuff, and i tried to jump over my steel framed coffe tabel and tripped and landed on the edge of teh the table with both my shins, the left one is jsut slightly bruised but the right one has got wat seem to be an indentation, i would jsut also like to point out that i play alot of football with alot of 'indecent players' so lets jsut say ive taken quite a fair share of punishment to my shins, but it never got dented before, and the weird thing is there is no bruising, no pain when i stand or anythin, i can run jump nothing seem to be wrong, the only thin is that the dent, around 1 cm wide, when i push it in it hurts slightly, but thats it. im confused should i b worried, should i just leave it, and if anybody know plz tell me wat exactly you think it is, cause i would ave at least expected there to be a little bruising, and on yeh there isnt even any change in the colour of my skin. i mean ive broken bones before but never fractured them should i b wirried??? is this gonna haunt me later?? and i know many of the post suggest that i go see a doctor but that takes time and its kinda in the middel of my GCSE so i would prefer to either see a doctor after this or hopefully u guys can help me out, and i suppose if its really serious i'd have no other choice but plz id appreciate some help.

It's been about a year and a half since this thread was created, and looking back at my previous post, my forearms are still in the same condition, but I'm thinking they may be "bumped" instead of dented. I think I have many raised surfaces rather than bumped surfaces.. which I believe are probably calcifications, or spots in which the bone has strengthened itself. Well, whatever helps me sleep at night I suppose.

Regardless, bigk22... There seems to be a lot of mixed opinions on this subject. If you're worried, see a doctor. That's about all any of us can say to you.