using crutches while recovering from Femoral Neck Stress Fracture

if i ever got a stress fracture in my neck i would find a new sport. Cycling? swimming, b-ball

obviously your body aint right for running long periods of time

I'm actually recovering from the exact same injury. I was on crutches for 5 weeks, up until two weeks ago. I "cheated" fairly often, like if I was taking a plate from the counter to the sink, or doing something else that required moving a very short distance, and it didn't seem to effect my recovery. I would say to use the crutches as much as possible, but don't fret about walking across the hall or something without them.

Yeah that was the gist of what my doc told me. How did you end up getting your SF? What stage are you at in the recovery now? Best of luck.

I'm not sure exactly how my SF happened - basically my leg started bothering me a lot one evening, about a week after a big race. I thought it was a groin strain at first and tried to run through it - I even PRed in the 5k on it - but it continued to get worse. I had been running a lot more mileage this past year than I ever had, and I think it finally caught up to me. Right now I'm building the intensity on the stationary bike. My doc said to do that for two weeks, (I'm on the second week), then build intensity first on a stairmaster and then an elliptical for two weeks, then try running a little. I've mostly been stationary biking. I would aqua jog, but the pool I have access to right now is really shallow and therefore no good for aqua jogging. I have been swimming about a half hour a few times a week. I would definitely try to aqua jog if you can, and also to do some stationary biking on a very low level. I feel like I've maintained my fitness fairly well with the cross-training. Good luck!

gimpy, thanks for the insights, just one more question--what effect (if any) has this had on your shirtless sweaty dancing?

Dancing in general took a huge hit while I was on crutches, but I don't think it will affect my performance in the fall.

had the same injury 4 years ago. i continued to race and train on my stress fracture for 6 weeks before i got it checked out. i too was able to PR twice while dealing with it. anyways, the doctor i went to is very well respected and deals with most of the pro teams in town. He strongly advised no crutches! his point was that it'll actually stimulate my sf healing process by not taking the 'stress' off of it. i was working 6 hours a day mostly on my feet at that time. all in all i think that approach worked well for me. i took 4 months competely off from running and never had another issue after that.

Good to hear you are recovering well. Mine seemed to pop up out of nowhere and I stopped running immediately so hopefully I caught it early.

I'll go back to the doc in a couple weeks and find out the next step.

Anyone else out there with experience in this?

do you really need to use crutches?

isn't it enough to just stop running to let it heal?

I had the same injury 2.5 years ago. My ortho basically just warned me that the risk is the hip not healing which leads to surgery in that particular area. He basically said, "Just be conservative and suck it up for 7 weeks and you'll get it to heal." I followed that advice and then started with a walking program until i could do 4 miles walking under one hour. After that i figured the bone was strong enough to tolerate running so i started slowly. It took a good 6 months for me to build back into a 70 mile week, but i felt like it was worth it because i never reinjured it.

I know a lot of docs are very very conservative in this particular area with treatment. Most will tell you to avoid exercise altogher for a while. The iliopsoas attaches right in the area of the fracture, so even performing swimming/biking can irritate the area.

I also found that i was pain free pretty quickly, even when i was on the crutches, i just wasn't brave enough to risk messing around with it. The 7 weeks sucked, but in the long scheme of things it doesn't seem like it was so bad. Good luck, be careful with it!

I would give the same advice as RIPT. I had the injury 2.5 years ago and tried to walk and cross train too soon, the fracture actually got worse. I ended up getting the surgical fixation which meant another 3 months of zero activity. It's worth waiting it out... the surgical route is not a good idea. Use the crutches and take it easy!

RIPT has some great advice. It is much better to aire on the side of caution with this type of injury in the beginning. From what I hear, you want to avoid potential surgery at all costs.

I was diagnosed with my FN stress fx back at the end of febuary. I was on crutches for about 8 weeks. The first three with no weight bearing, then gradually increasing the amount of weight I put on my leg. By the last week I was only using the crutches when I had to go longer distances around campus. The pain disappeared pretty quickly, but I would get sore every now and again, especially when I started walking again. During the time on crutches I was advised not to do any form of cross training and just let it heal. That was ridiculously hard, but I think well worth it for the healing process.

At the end of May I was going on "training" walks (as I called them) and was cleared to begin running again. Instead of jumping right back into running like I would have liked to, I took all of June to focus on rebuilding strength and working out any muscular imbalances. I started crosstraining again (ellip/bike/pool), and reintroducing form drills. I started "running" again at the beginning of July, and did my first mile this past weekend. It is so little, but it was really fantastic. We are being ridiculously conservative with my comeback, but I am really confident in my healing and believe the patience will pay off in the long run.

Have patience and best of luck to you!!

here is the link to my post this past spring, there may be something useful there for you:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1852484&thread=1850989

I actually took quite a long time coming back too...again voluntarily. Like slightly less broken, i began with a walking program starting with 5 minutes and working up to 60 minutes. During that time i worked on correcting muscular imbalances. My quad had atrophied a little bit in that time, but it came back with the strengthening over time. I was also advised to start by running for 1 minute intervals X 3 and then work it up to 2 minutes X 3 etc. Finally, the last piece of advice given to me was that if at any point during my rehab i felt pain in the area, i had to stop, take a day off and begin again with what i was doing one week prior (?Run on sentence?) It helped, and I only had to do this once in 6 months. I haven't had an issue since.

some great advice thanks all.

Right now I'm doing absoloutley no cross training (and don't plan to). I am walking at work and using crutches religiously the rest of the time. I'm just over two weeks from the onset of the injury and while it is still sore it has improved alot.

I'm planning to just enjoy the summer and not worry much about running or cross training for the next couple months. Ideally I will start cross training in late August with alot of focus on building back strength in the injured leg. Once I am out of the woods with the fracture I'm planning a long slow build to about 70mpw by the beginning of 2008 and then hopefully having a good 3 months of solid high mileage before Boston.

Hi there,

So Im an openly admitted running addict that has been averaging about 30 miles a week for the last few months but has been running for years.

Anyway, I had some hip pain about a week ago on Tuesday Oct 19th or something. On Saturday I went to an orthopedic who said I probably just had a strain and take it easy. Well I then decided to run my normal rout on Monday which resulted in crippling pain all along my left hip and thigh.

On Tuesday morning (Oct 22), I went to a different orthopedics being that he was the only one that could get me in right away.

After a 2 second exam and a couple X-rays he informed me I had a significant femoral neck stress fracture that would require immediate surgery. Opting out the surgery would present a 50% risk of loosing my hip and almost grantee a total hip replacement before my 24th birthday.

Feeling I had no real choice, I had the surgery that night. They inserted three screws into my femur and stabled me up.

They say the surgery went well and the screws went in tight. I have to admit the pain is like 75% better than before the surgery and while the muscles feel tight its not the sharp pain from the bone.

However, my greatest fear is that they are saying I will need to be on crutches for 6 whole weeks before I can just walk normally on it. I am devastated by this news and am in total shock. Taking away my running is one thing but taking away my ability to walk is like death. I honestly don't think I can do it.

Please, has anyone been in a similar situation and found that while it may have taken 6 weeks to be fully mobile again they were able to ditch the crutches and maintain an exercise free existence for a while. I just need to be able to walk around the house or to the grocery store. I know I will not make it 6 months with these things

I had one my freshman year of college, went from a 10:06 2 mile to 15:40 5k but I was overtraining like 70-80 mpw., started having groin pain after a meet and soon I was limping with horrible pain and was diagnosed with femoral stress fracture. it took me almost a year to get over it which was devastating to go from that level of training to a gimp. I spent a few months on crutches and still had pain. I tried all kinds of biking poolrunning, coming back too soon, but that just delayed healing and made me walk around with a limp, finally I just stopped everything that stressed my hip the lest bit until I could walk with no pain for a few months, which took a really long time and eventually I could start jogging again and by my junior yr I was back running 15:20 5k 25:30 8k but it took a lot of patience. my advice would be stay on crutches, for a while, don't do anything that will stress your hip however long it takes till you can walk with no pain or limp, then start thinking about jogging again.

Molly,

I had almost the exact same experience as you, down to seeing one orthopedist who said I only had inflammation of sorts. I ran 17 miles of marine corps marathon before stopping from the same pain you described. Upon seeing my regular doc, he told me everything your doc said, almost verbatim. Anyway, I had gamma nail surgery10/31, It is the screws in the hip as well as a pin in my femur. They made me full weight bear with crutches the first morning after surgery. I have been walking without crutches now for almost a week. I have weird feeling from the pin, and get really tired, but am able to walk for 20 minutes or so several times per day. Doc also said I could start running in 6 weeks or so. I hope you don't have to do the crutches for six weeks, that's really tough!! Good luck.

Hello, I have a compression hip fracture from running level 1-2. I was told I can swim which was music to my ears. I don't push off the wall, but it still feels funny. I don't want to give it up, but wonder if I am delaying healing or making worse. I also have to cheat as I have three children to take care of. I always am carrying something. Has anyone else been told they can swim with a hip fracture. Did you heal? Thank you!

My doc told me I could swim without pushing off on the wall. She said some soreness is OK, just no sharp pain. But I don't like swimming and don't have access to a pool without paying for someplace. I've been doing short workouts on the stationary recumbent bike and upper body strength training.

I'm not 100% sure I have a sfx because I never had a MRI. But all the symptoms are there so I am treating it that way. It's been 4 weeks now without running. Last week was the first time I didn't have a constant ache. But I went out for a 3-mile walk on Sunday and had groin pain. So I am definitely a long way off from being ready to run again.