tibial stress fracture

Sorry to hear about the injury. I had a couple stress fractures in college and it was no fun.

With regards to healing time, it can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks (usually) -- it will depend on how long it takes for you to heal. Cruthches are no fun either, but if you can, they may help speed the healing process.

If you want to get back to competitive running soon, I suggest working hard in some type of cross training (so long as it does not hurt your leg). Aqua jogging can be really boring but if you work at it, it can really help you stay in shape. Biking is another option if you have a bike and like the roads (or have access to a stationary bike). A final machine that many people use now is the Elliptical Rider, which might be the best running-simulation machine for injured runners available.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

get yourself an Aqua jogging belt and plug on.

teresa,

i wish i knew, too. i have a had a few tibial stress fractures, and the first one took about 4 or 5 weeks while my most recent took 9 or 10 weeks.

Right now, i have another and it's been 6 weeks. it definitely feels a lot better, but i don't think i'm going to try to start running on it for another 2 weeks at least.

i'm wondering if a follow-up MRI might be able to tell if it's healed and i can get back at it...

yeah i am just coming back from one-i was out for like 5 weeks maybe. i'm running b/t 1 and 2 miles a day right now but i'm still doing pool workouts. yeah the pool is good for keeping you in shape if you do workouts and get your heartrate up. and the bike helps when the pool gets too monotonous. just dont' come back too soon and reinjure yourself. take the time off now and you most likely won't have to take more time off later on down the road. good luck-i know how much it sucks.

Get a removable plastic boot to walk in. It takes the pressure off of the injury, but you dont want it totally immobilized or unused. Your bones grow and regain their strength from pressure caused by using your muscles. Cross train your balls off. You dont have to lose fitness if you dont want to. Do water running as well as biking. They are both good cardio workouts but water running works your hipflexors and lower abbs which help with knee drive and leg lift. Biking helps with quad and calf strength. As for time, Ive heard as short as 4 weeks. I came back after 9 and got a bone adema eventhough i felt great. Before you start running, walk. Wlak for 30-40 minutes before you begin running. Be patient.

thanks for all the info. i'm doing more biking than aqua jogging. it doesn't hurt AT ALL while i'm riding the stationary recumbant bike, so i'm assuming it's safe.

for those of you who took 10 weeks to heal, did you try to run earlier and it still hurt? where was your fracture on the tibia? mine is near the middle of my tibia, but a little towards the lower third.

thanks!

I kept coming back WAY too soon, although I was following the prescribed 4-6 weeks off. Anyhow, I ultimately stopped running for 6 months this year (mid-May to mid-September). My fitness now sucks, but I am not feeling any pain (knock on wood). Be smart about it and come back gradually.

I'm in the process of dealing with one right now. I was diagnosed on August 4th and took 5 weeks off and began running every other day only 15-20 minutes. It dind't really bother me but after the 4th and especially 5th day the pain began to come back more and it once again hurt when i pushed in on the right spot. So i was ordered to take an additional 4 weeks off. Right now I have two weeks to go, so all in all It will have been 11 weeks or so with the exception of the 5 days of very limited jogging. With 2 weeks to go before testing it running again it has improved alot but it still is not better. I'm cross training 6 days a week between 90 minutes and 2 hours a day in the pool and on the bike. I noticed some discomfort the other day after a long (45 minutes or so) walk, so its not ready yet, hopefully after the next 2 weeks it will be 100%. Any advice on how to know when its ready without reinjuring/prolonging the healing process like I did in September????

If you can get the doc to do a second MRI when you think it is ready to start doing stuff again, that is a huge step to knowing the condition of the bone. Each time, my SOB just did the rub/pressure test, which I passed without feeling any pain or stress, even though I was not totally healed (20-20 hindsight). Anyhow, had he done a second MRI after the initial 6 weeks, we would have known it was still there. HMOs (and docs) can suck and don't want to spend the $$$ doing that second test.

Also, be careful if you do take up cycling to compensate. I spent a great deal of time riding and probably prolonged the injury doing this. It never hurt, but I am convinced it is why things took so long to heal. Running in the water and swimming laps are the best things to do....no impact, but it is boring as all hell. Makes you appreciate the ability to get outside and be able to run.

When you first got diagnosed, how much did your shin hurt? I am told I am "borderline" stress fracture in the same spot right now, but I haven't had my bone scan yet. My plan is to try to run through it by cross training 4 days a week... Just wondering how bad your pain was before you stopped running, in case I'm already there and the situation is hopeless!

mine would hurt when I started running or when any pressure was applied to the hot spot. after a brief warm up, the been would subside, most of the time. there were a few runs were I couldn't even walk without pain. i was popping celebrex like tick tacks.

mine is the same as Weak Bones. it would feel worse at the beginning of a run and then sometimes it would feel better later on in the run. some days of running were better than others, but afterwards it hurt even to walk.

i had a bone scan done. i wouldn't recommend running at all if your bone scan is positive. my ortho said if you keep running it could cause a total fracture, which could mean a plaster cast for 8 weeks.

I was out for 6 months with a tibia stress fracture. Then 3 months to get back to form. I had a friend with the same injury and he took 3 months off and then he went back to it to fast and he reinjured it and it has cost him even more time. Be careful, depending on the severity I would say between 10-30 weeks off.

have fun in the pool.

f-ET

I've had a ton of stress fractures, most recently last May when I had one in my tibia (same spot as you, mid-tib toward lower third). I had initially aimed to be back to easy running by six weeks, but still had pain even walking. I did intense water running two times a day nearly every day during the six weeks.When I felt it was not healing quick enough, I went to the doctor at week 8. I still had a little bit of pain when he pressed hard but didn't tell him. He said it should be close enough to start back slowly as long as the pain was minimal. He said no hard surfaces.

So after 9 weeks in the water, I finally ran. On grass.

I ran on grass and trails all summer, never on roads, and my pain diminished.

When I went back to school, there are not many soft surface areas to run, so I was forced to run the roads again. I was worried at first but still no stress fractures, nor any shin pain after a month and a half ont he roads.

My suggestions in summary:

Do not run till you're ready to come back

While waiting, x-train like crazy (anything that doesn't irritate the fracture) I thought water running was best but make sure you do hard workouts

When you do start back, start easy (It was awful, but the first week back, I ran every other day for 20-30 minutes. Build up your mileage gradually)

I think the most important thing is to run on grass or trails for an extended period of time. No roads at all for awhile. It'll work, trust me.

Finally, preventitive ice! Even when you think your leg is fine, stick it in a bucket of ice and add some water for 15-20 minutes. This will keep it feeling good.

Also, my doc told me that some pain is ok when recovering from a stress fracture, just get concerned if the pain worsens or gets sharper.

Good Luck

Funny you should mention it---I've got a tibial stress fracture, too.

My question: Is it common for secondary or compensation injuries to accompany stress fractures?

I haven't run for about two weeks now, and the pain against the shin is gone. However, my ankle is still just a mess, almost like it's severely sprained or something. The pain even extends up the leg to the calf sometimes.

The ankle pain was part of the orginal symptom picture presented to the doctor. But he focused on the X-ray results almost exclusively.

I probably had the stress fracture for about two weeks prior to diagnosis, during which time I unknowingly continued my training, even running a half marathon. The pain wasn't that bad really. It seemed like the standard training issue (when you're 38). I would hobble a bit until I got warmed up, and then everything seemed fine. There were a lot of hills in the race, and the left leg never recovered from what I thought was the typical post-race soreness.

So, it seems it's possible that I was compensating for the stress fracture by adjusting my form and ended up injuring the ankle.

Is it common to end up with an secondary injury with an undiagnosed stress fracture?

Find a progressive doctor that will prescribe growth hormone for you. Also, you could take the long chain form of IGF-1 for a month. Both would rapidly increase the healing process.

Biking is excellent while you are injured. Bike like a madwoman and do the elliptical trainer too and do not come back to running to early...wait an extra 1-2 weeks if you can stand it. You will come back stronger than ever. When you do come back, just start with every other day runs on soft surfaces like dirt...and very low miles...like 2-3 and then build up. Good luck.

Hi,

I have a related stress fracture question for the tibia. Anyone have one in the upper third of the tibia more towards the knee? I have one their but I rarely felt the pain their. It was mostly down towards my ankle and lower tibia.

Any feed back would be appreciated.

butter wrote:

Hi,

I have a related stress fracture question for the tibia. Anyone have one in the upper third of the tibia more towards the knee? I have one their but I rarely felt the pain their. It was mostly down towards my ankle and lower tibia.

Any feed back would be appreciated.

Very similar to my situation (see above). The stress fracture was on the anterior side, about 6" below the knee. But what hurt most was my ankle.

I was told to rest it for six weeks and then start back gradually. However, after six weeks the tibia may have been fine, but my ankle was so messed up that it would nearly buckle when running or bounding up stairs. I ended up taking an additional eight weeks off and coming back VERY slowly (like 1-2 miles every other day).

I've had no other problems with the tibia or the leg, but since then I've had pretty bad problems with the sciatica and priformis on the other leg. In fact, I haven't really been the same since the stress fracture.

I took an additional 10 weeks off this summer due to these new issues and am only now beginning to feel normal again. It's been nearly 14 months since the diagnosis.

I'm not sure all the problems are related. But there's my feedback, for what it's worth.