Old Stress Fracture

it sounds like you never let it heal properly. did your doctor tell you to take only two weeks off? i've never heard of a stress fracture healing that quickly, even under the best conditions. and depending on where your stress fracture was, the elliptical could have been bad for it because its weight bearing.

did you ever have an extended period of non-weight bearing to let it heal?

I've had similar experiences to you. You didn't say where your stress fracture was. Mine have been high on the fibula, so much less weight bearing than say a tibia or metatarsal stress fracture, and conducive to an agressive recovery. Sometimes it's possible to feel a calcium deposit at the point of the fracture. I've had nerve sensation in the area of the fracture months afterwards, I'm guessing from the calcium deposit pressing on other tissue in the area.

i have one in fibula and i can run pretty well now, took a few weeks of only pool and biking. But i cant tell if the fracture isnt quite healed or if its something like "doubtless" where i have calcium or maybe some phantom pains

doubtless wrote:

I've had similar experiences to you. You didn't say where your stress fracture was. Mine have been high on the fibula, so much less weight bearing than say a tibia or metatarsal stress fracture, and conducive to an agressive recovery. Sometimes it's possible to feel a calcium deposit at the point of the fracture. I've had nerve sensation in the area of the fracture months afterwards, I'm guessing from the calcium deposit pressing on other tissue in the area.

Up to 6 months after a stress fracture has healed (I'm assuming that this has happened in your case), a runner is extremely vulnerable to developing another stress fracture because the bone has not completely remodeled itself back to its original shape. If you can see an area of increased bone deposition that is not continuous with the rest of the bone (i.e. a bump seen on an x-ray), the bone is still not finished with the remodeling process. You can still train and race during this time, but you must be very careful-->unless you want to be out with another stress fracture. I believe that this is how many runners get on the cycle of getting one stress fracture after another.

Old Stress wrote:

In late Augest I was diagnosed with a stress fracture. After taking two weeks of cross training I was then able to run every other day cross training on the elpictial on off days. for the rest of my CC season. It didn't hurt much by the end of the season but i could sometimes feel a twinge of pain(which ended Nov 7th).

I took one week off and began running again on Novemeber 14th. This week when I am running I only runnning every other day. now it doesn't hurt me when I run. but now I occasionaly feel weird on my leg where my stress fracture was. Is this normal?

It's probably just scar tissue being removed as you start being active again. If it's a non-weight bearing bone, then you're probably okay, if not, then you may not be okay. But trust me, if it's coming back, you'll know. If it's just a dull pain that never really gets inflamed and just kind of pulses a little after runs, you're fine. After it has healed, it's not coming back in the same spot. If it were coming back, you would be in great pain. So, if it's just a little ache, it will go away in about 3 or 4 weeks, nothing to worry about.