Running Stress fracture

[ithinkifeelaliveagain]

I think i have stress fracture above my ankle (fibula?) been to the gp twice, the second time gp agreed that the symptoms pointed to stress fracture and was told they would refer me for an X-ray but no referral materialised, and now being told I should just get advice from a private physio which I can’t afford.

Can anyone who had had this injury tell me how they recovered? I didn’t run for 3 weeks but I walk around 25000 steps at work 5 days a week and although it’s not swollen anymore or intensely painful it is achy at the end of the day and first thing in the morning and still painful to press on the bone.

I had been hoping it was getting better but I was late picking my ds up from nursery this week and had to run for around 3 minutes and the pain was just as bad as before so clearly there has been no real improvement in this time. I’m so desperate to be able to run again but it feels like this will never improve if I have to keep walking on it all day and can’t get proper diagnosis or advice.

Could it be shin splints?

@massiveclamps no definitely not shin splints. I’ve been running for 13 years so well acquainted with most of the usual niggles!

3 week isn’t a lot especially as you haven’t had it stabilised and walking about

gitl at work did DSS me she paid for private X-ray to find ut and bought on of those plastic boot things they use instead of a pot

it’s a long job sorry

Could you go back to the GP (ideally a different one at the practice) and say it is getting worse, so please can they refer you for an X-ray?

Either that or go to a walk-in centre and ask them to refer you.

I had a stress fracture a couple of years ago, nightmare, It took about 4 months to heal (ages!) and when I started running again I wore a support on it for about a month to protect it as I was terrified it would happen again . I also become obsessed about my bone health and, upped my calcium and vitamin D and also put myself on HRT as I was Peri menopausal .
I was lucky though as I could rest my leg I didn’t need to do the steps you do though so I really feel for you
On the plus though I have been running ever since and it has not happened again so fingers crossed it will heal soon for you and you will be back running again

DH has a stress fracture currently in his femur that he had last year and didn’t allow to heal enough before getting back to it. He took 2 months off last year but then got back to training for an international games and did it again. He’s not run for 3 months this time. Only this week has he said it’s feeling better and got back on the turbo before getting back out to run next week. At least this time he doesn’t have a stressful target he’s aiming for - just a winter of xc. He also has a job where he does a lot of steps and he really had to prioritise sitting whenever possible, even if only for a couple of minutes. Lots of icing and resting at home.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone, it’s hard to explain to people how stressful it is knowing that I probably have this injury but not having a clue how to treat it or if it will even get better at all because of the work I do. I have 2 weeks holiday coming up so I’m going to try and walk as little as possible over that time and hope that’s enough to get healing started. and then just be really strict about resting whenever I can and not running a single step for the next wee while…not even when I’m late for nursery 🤦‍♀️

@Puravida23 I’m glad to hear you are back on track now! can I ask how yours was diagnosed?

Mine was diagnosed similar to yours by a GP. (I had a pinpoint of extreme pain on my femur which was agony if knocked/pressed) He did suggest confirming it with a scan but stated a lot of stress fractures are missed as hard to detect. As the treatment is just rest I didn’t bother and eventually it just healed it self. I still don’t know how it happened as I was just mid run no trauma or anything I didn’t stumble . It literally just went . I was doing a lot of miles at the time though mostly on pavement so it was probably just over use

@ithinkifeelaliveagain

do you mind me asking the outcome of your stress fracture? hope yours is better now?
I'm pretty sure I have one but I'm not a runner (other health issues) and was wondering if yours hurt to walk on or was it just painful at rest?

Hi @ithinkifeelaliveagain
I currently have a stress fracture at the back of my tibia.
I originally went to see a consultant who specialises is sports injuries with calf pain and he sent me for an MRI. He diagnosed a stress fracture and said no running for 8-12 weeks (very annoying as I was supposed to be running a marathon in 5 weeks time!)

I’ll see him again in November/December to be re-scanned. I am lucky that I can still cross train on the bike. He said to minimise walking as much as possible (anything weight bearing).

He also said that most people don’t give stress fractures long enough to heal before they start running again, so they only partially heal and then start to get pain again and are back to square one.

HTH x

I have a suspected one at the moment, on the metatarsal, and going for a xray next week. The advice from my doctors has as per Ellie: minimim six - eight weeks without doing impact activity. I'm at the six week mark and it is a lot better but not there yet. My doctor is also sending me to me to a podiatrist to make a special insole to use in future to try and avoid it happening again.

I got one in my hip marathon training a few years ago. Gutting. Basically gave up running and never returned to it properly.
Just left it to heal itself in the end.
Now I focus on a lot of strength training as it made me fear for my bone health!

sorry to hear about your stress fracture @Ellie2105. I did eventually get an X-ray which showed a significant fracture in the fibula which was mostly healed by that point. I’ve now been recovering for around 14 weeks since the initial injury and have built up to running around 30 mins 3x a week but now have pain around the site again so will probably have to stop running again. I dint understand why it’s not healing fully as it supposed to be a fast healing fracture site, but without being able to access private medical care I will probably never find out. I suspect after 14 years of running I’m finally out for good 😞.. the only other option I can think of is just to keep running in it until it fully fractures and would hopefully get the care I need to heal it!