For the last few years, I ve been experiencing what I believe to be severe shin splints , any time that I am active in sports that involve lots of running, like soccer and cross country. I first noticed shin pain when I started running cross country two years ago, and it developed about a month into the season. It made it so that my legs would feel tight and weak, like my legs wouldn t push hard enough or lift off the ground enough to run as I normally would. So, I went to a sports doctor and he told me the same thing everyone will tell you to treat shin splints: ice, wrap, tape, and stretch . I tried all of these, and the only thing that helps remove the tightness and pain even slightly is to have someone pull the top of my foot to stretch out the muscles in my shin. So I resorted to taking ibuprofen before race days, and some practice days. The pain went away as soon as the season was over, and I didn t really have any problems until I started running again. I would get in cycles where I would run, and my legs would start hurting again, so I d run less, and eventually stop for a couple weeks before starting to run again. Anyway, I am now in my last year of soccer (I haven t played soccer in a few years) at 18 years old, and I m starting to get very severe pain in my legs, the same pain I used to feel, but worse. We ve been practicing for about three months now, and the pain probably started two months ago. I ve seen a couple sports medicine doctors, and the first one said the same thing as the first one I saw. The last one told me a few new things: that I should re-learn to run on my toes (I used to always heel-strike when I ran, which I now know is bad), I needed insoles with arch supports, and I need to focus on strengthening the calf and shin muscles. He also told me to take three doses of 4 ibuprofen per day (morning, noon, night) to reduce inflammation. The pain went away for that week, and all I really felt was tightness during practice. So I figured the ibuprofen helped a lot. I bought the insoles, I never noticed them helping at all, and I also learned to run on my toes (POSE running technique), which I think helped slightly. So in desperation, I began taking gradually larger doses of ibuprofen (started taking 2, now up to 4 or 6), only before practice, and sometimes at night when my legs still hurt. If I don t take my ibuprofen and I do more than 10 minutes of even jogging, my legs will hurt so severely that I have a very difficult time standing, and the pain is sometimes so bad that I cry. Okay, so now that I have all the details out of the way, here s what I m trying to get at. Last Saturday, we had our first game. I played the entire first game, and our second game I played about 60 minutes of. I m decently quick, I have good endurance and I m in very good shape at this point of my life. I play defense on my team, so I do lots of sprinting and running to catch up to the other team s forwards. I took 4 ibuprofen before each game and I stretched for 15 minutes before and after each game. I drank water all day so that my body wouldn t get tight. Since our game, I ve had very severe pain in my lower legs. And it s been 5 days since the last time I played and my legs are still hurting. I ve skipped practice all week because of the pain I feel as soon as I start running. At night, I have to take ibuprofen, sometimes twice because of the pain. And all week, I have resorted to taking ibuprofen at different times throughout the day just so I won t feel the pain, except when I walk up or down stairs. I m starting to worry that I may have hairline fractures in my legs, especially because normally when I first get shin splints, the tightness I feel is in the upper outside part of my legs. Now, the pain is near the bottom of my shins, towards the top of my feet and all the way around to the very bottom of the calf muscle . It feels like the bone is splintering if I put pressure on the back of the bottom part of my calf (towards the ankle) or if I touch the outside or inside of my shin bone by my feet. What can I do? I m starting to worry that this is the end of my soccer season, but I won t know until tomorrow when I go to see another sports-medicine specialist. Does anyone have any similar experiences? Will surgery help? Does ANYONE know how to get rid of this pain? because I m getting pretty @%&#! sick of it....