Lower leg/ankle injury....diagnosis?

Hi,

I am fairly new to running, middle distance usually. I started to increase my sessions with a club, 2 interval sessions a week (8 x 1 K), circut training one day a week with short sprints, followed by a long run at weekends. In between were a couple of 'easy runs'. Running/Training therefore about 5-6 days a week. My trouble is that I think I developed shin splints a while ago (pain running down along the side the tibia). They weren't too bad and i could still run (although I eased up a bit). They started to get worse and I kept training (naive of course....remember I'm new!). The pain spead to behind the calf muscle (pain above the achilles and just below the calf muscle, pain appeared to be centred inside the lower calf muscle (p[ossibly near the tibia.....hard to judge exactly where the pain was as it was not 'on' the lower calf muscle but inside nearer the bone). Eventually my ankle gave trouble too, it didn't swell much but now as I bend my knee and my ankle moves with it, it makes a cracking noise every time. Also, if I move my ankle in a 360 degree angle it makes a scrunchy noise every time too. My ankle is now very weak, I can't even jump up and down off this injured leg. So what I want to know is......has anyone ever had the same problem? I kinda know what I must do.....give it a rest of course!. Has anyone any handy hints on how to have proper rehab or anything else that might be of use?

Thanks a lot!