News from the Doctor

I went to see the doctor about my leg today mainly to determine whether it is a stress fracture or not.  I had an x-ray of my lower leg and knee and the doctor said it was negative for tendinitis and stress fractures.  Now, I am not a doctor but I am not so sure that an x-ray would show any information about soft tissue damage or a stress fracture only 6 days after the injury.  I was under the impression that they had to do a bone scan for stress fractures and an MRI for tendinitis.  A stress fracture only shows up in an x-ray after it has started to heal.  The diagnosis was that I have Osgood-Schlatter's Syndrome.  What!?!?  That is not even the right part of the leg - Osgood-Schlatters is in the upper anterior part of the lower leg, just below the knew cap.  My pain is on the lower anterior portion, basically the shin.  I don't doubt that I had OSS when I was younger since I have a noticeable bump in my leg just below the knee cap, but I have not had any pain there since high school.  I am beginning to think that the injury is anterior tibialis tendinitis based on this website.  I definitely feel the "creaking" they talk about and it only hurts when I pull my foot/toes up.

After pestering them a couple times on the phone my PCP got a second opinion from another doctor and they are going to refer me to an orthopaedist.  The other doctor said that he noticed some "early degenerative changes of the knee joint" and wants me to have blood work done to rule out an iron deficiency, thyroid problems, etc...  The word "degenerative" does not sound good though.  I have no pain in my knees so I am not sure what this means.  I will be 36 tomorrow and hope to run (and walk) for many more years.  I guess that we will see in the next couple of days and weeks.