I moved back in July from western NC in the mountains to Nampa, ID. I take it from the elevation drop, I was feeling really good when I would run and bike, so I did a lot of it. Probably should have taken into account overuse injuries. I have had the same problem in my right leg. Pain that feels to be on the fibular head. I have a lot of experience with therapeutic massage, and have found the muscles in between the tibia and fibula to be extremely tight, but oddly enough not painful, so I have been massaging that area with fingers only. I don't believe in putting hard pressure with an arm on a small group of muscles that needs close, localized care.
Anyways, I noticed sometime in September that the fibular head only on my right leg would hurt when I would run. At first it wasn't much. I would have to run 10-15 minutes before I noticed it. And it was only every once in a while. As the weeks went on, I started noticing it sooner and sooner, around the 5 minute mark. I couldn't run for 5 minutes before the pain started. When I was biking, I would feel fine there. So I stopped the running, and started stretching more (I confess I was not stretching everyday like a good runner should to take care of his body), and was only biking for a couple of weeks, and then I started to notice the same pain near the end of my biking- standard road bike- feels like it does most of the work for you compared to a mountain bike. This pain was dull a few weeks prior, but getting into the end of September, it became a little sharper. Now, I've had a stress fracture in my right leg before, back in 2011 when I used to run cross country and track in college. Took time off for about 19 weeks, and did some physical therapy, necessitated by the athletic trainers at my college. At the time I had to deal with my coach telling me he thought I was faking it. He can suck it because that kind of pain is not something you can fake. He ended up getting fired later in the track season, and thank god. But, that is beside the point. I have also had a hip flexor strain in my right hip flexors (the groin area) when I was a senior in high school in April-May of 2009. The athletic trainer at my high school told me to stop training immediately, or else it could tear and get worse. I stopped running for about 8 weeks or so, never went to state in anything that year, but that's ok, better safe than sorry. The trainer did have me do some pt exercises for a couple of weeks.
Continuing on, the trainers I had in college said I had the hip of a 60 year old, and that was when I was 21 (right hip) because he said it would hardly move. He also said my right hip was impinged. I don't know what that means, but I wanted to heal and ease my way back into being competitive again. I also had another athletic trainer start me on physical therapy for my calves (both sides) with one of those blue rubber bands, the long ones, and he had me doing some weird exercises where I'm sitting or standing and I rotate my foot inwards a certain number of times. And I also had the issue with my right toe where the sesmoids were inflamed, so the trainers had me pick up small rocks for physical therapy to strengthen some of the muscles in there, and ice bath, or rub an ice cup on that particular spot. These were all at the same time when in 2011 (not the hip flexor strain though).
So, there's my injury history. I do have to go to the chiropractor once a month now, because in 2013, I joined the army, and since getting out my back has been absolutely horrible. And when I was doing a lot of running and biking, I needed to go in more frequently, about once every 2-3 weeks. My back goes out of alignment pretty quickly. So, in about August of 2017, I started working out again, as I hadn't been for the past few months prior to then. With work and everything, I just couldn't find time until after I moved. I was biking about 15-20 miles in one workout, which would last me about 50-60 minutes, and some days I would do a shorter bike workout and run for 15-20, sometimes 30 minutes. I guess I was doing too much because the pain started up. I stopped working out for two weeks in October, because I got a concussion at work late in September, and that's how I knew that when the pain came back in October that it was something pretty serious, what with my history, I figured I needed to think about what it might be. And then oddly enough, after I stopped working out, I noticed after a couple of weeks, the pain went away. I got a new job in December of 2017, and it requires a lot of lifting on the job, and I would notice that the pain would come back in the same spot anytime I was carrying anything that put more weight on my legs. We're not talking about 1-2 lbs, this was heavy stuff I had to lift at work, up to 100 lbs sometimes. So I told my boss, my work started a work comp thing, because no doubt work contributed to it at least partially, and was keeping it from healing. I am not able to work for what the doctors have said will be three months, now, so back to work I go in March. I'm having a doctor take a look at it this upcoming week (1/17/18)- that is the soonest appointment I could get here, but I know the physician really well already (family friend), and he's let me know that he'll get my work comp. pushed out farther if there is anything like pt that will push back the recovery time so that I don't exacerbate it by returning to work too soon.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on this. I've heard the things about IT band syndrome. That's a little too high for it to be ITBS. Any doctor who says otherwise is just implying he wants you to get another opinion (someone who will actually listen to you). All I hear when a doc says that is, "I am incompetent." So. I've heard it could be compartment syndrome, or the fibular head not being in the right position and pinching on a nerve. Sounds great. Just hoping it won't require surgery. If so, VA here I come, hopefully with a referral to somewhere outside the VA, but I won't get my hopes up.