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The response to the question below was authored by Marc Mitnick DPM

Leg and foot pain from running

by Savanna
(Tupelo, Ms)

I am having a weird pain in my leg mostly when I put pressure on it(walking etc..) I am very active and I haven't ever had any problems with this leg before. It started a day ago I haven't done anything to my leg or foot some I'm not sure what's wrong. I had to run across the building to fix something Friday and it didn't start hurting until Saturday morning. The pain starts right under the left knee(the muscle is tight on that spot) at the back and goes down to the top of the left foot(not any pain on the bottom) and now today it feels like the muscles in my thigh(toward the right inner area) are tight. I thought it might be a pulled muscle or a pinched nerve, should I have it checked out?

RESPONSE

Hi Savanna,

Because of the way the pain seems to be traveling and because this seems to have occurred as a resulting of running, my first guess would be that you strained a muscle, perhaps might even have partially torn a muscle.
I know nothing about your overall health or fitness or your age for that matter, but I do know that running on hard floors in a building is not the best surface to ever run on. I do not know if you were wearing dress shoes or sneakers, but certainly any thing less than sneakers would have made you susceptible to sustaining an injury.
The fact

that the pain started a day later would lead me more to the possibility of a muscle strain rather than a muscle tear, because if you had actually torn a muscle the pain would have begun immediately.
There is also the possibility of a stress fracture having occurred in your lower leg which can happen from running particularly on hard surfaces with or without proper running shoes. But, again, I would suspect that the leg would have started hurting immediately rather than a day later.
Now, it has only been a day since this injury occurred. Do you need to run to the doctor? If you are in a great deal of pain, then the answer would be yes as there could be other issues going on here.
But, if the pain is tolerable, not causing you to limp, then you could wait a couple of days to see if the pain subsides on its own. If you can tolerate them, you might consider some anti-inflammatory medication, along with moist heat (I only recommend ice during the first 24 hours after an injury). Additionally, I would refrain from any athletic activity for the next few days.
If you see gradual improvement each day, then you are doing fine. If you do not see any improvement, again, that might be an indication of something more severe than what I have discussed here and that too would be reason to seek medical attention in your area.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Mayo Clinic

Johns Hopkins Medicine

MedlinePlus

Arthritis Foundation

University of Rochester Medical Center

Harvard Health

Drugs.com

American Academy of Pediatrics

Penn State Medical Center

National Institutes of Health

Columbia University Department of Rehabilitation

ScienceDirect

Stanford Health Care

Illinois Bone and Joint Institute

Mount Sinai Hospital

Institute for Chronic Pain

University of Florida Health

American Family Physician

Cedars-Sinai

University of Maryland Medical Center

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San Diego, CA

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Wonderful advice

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This is the best site for foot problem info.

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Thank you for your response. It sounds like a good plan to me. He did not cut the wart out first ...

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