Any femur stress fracture success stories?

how were you ultimately diagnosed? was it easy for them to see on MRI?

I had two femoral stress fractures, my first in 2007, and the second in 2008.

It took me about 6 months to really recover from the second one.

I think you have to be really careful as it heals. Stay off your feet for a while. If you can, get in the pool to do something aerobic.

I recommend coming back really slowly if you can. Are you in college? Do you have the time to come back slowly?

I started running again when the doctors gave me an all clear. My first runs were about 2-3 minutes at a time, no grass. Seriously, 2-3 minutes 5x per week for the first week. Slowly, over a month, built up to 20mins on the grass. After that continued to slowly build up.

If you ever feel pain, back off. Go back to the previous week's amount.

I always got weird healing pains along the way, but you have to know the difference between the types of sensations.

Be really patient, and your femur will heal, and you will run fast again.

By 2010-2011 I set PRs in a bunch of distances. I'm putting in more miles than I have ever done before, training smarter than I've ever trained before, and running faster at races.

I think it took me a couple of really bad injuries to learn my limitations, and to learn how to train the right way.

Hang in there and good luck. Search the old threads to find out how some other people have dealt with their femoral fractures.

Be aware that femoral stress fractures tie in with heel-striking and overbuilt shoes.

I am in college...but my coach is understanding of this stuff. The thing is, when I walked today, the day after finally getting of crutches, I felt a sharp pain. It caused the muscle to tighten up and I couldn't walk properly. It was different than the dull bone-callousy pain I felt yesterday, which I know was normal. To me it feels like all the time I just spent on crutches has now gone to waste. Is it normal to feel a serious sharp pain, and If I do will it set my healing back significantly??

bump

Last year around October I started having pain in my hip that I ran on for about 2 weeks until I got to the point where I could hardly walk. I saw 3 doctors and they kept telling me it was just a strained hip flexor. After 5 weeks total of being misdiagnosed, I finally got an MRI and was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my femoral neck. I was on crutches for 4 weeks, where I really did nothing but sit in my room, do work, and drink way too heavily on the weekends. It was pretty damn miserable. Around Christmas, I was off the crutches and able to cross train for 2-3 weeks and then start a VERY gradual build-up of running. I cross-trained 90-120 minutes a day pretty hard and lifted hard as well. I continued the cross training until I hit 50 MPW around the beginning of February. Coming back into running, once I realized I was completely healed around the middle of January, I was hammering a lot of my runs on top of the cross training and lifting. I initially did not plan on running outdoor track and instead decided to not worry about racing until cross-country. To my amazement, I did a 7k (weird distance, I know) time trial more or less solo, closing sub-16 in early March, off of about 2 months of running. This changed my plans and I decided to race outdoors. By early April I ran a 31:48 10k (~20 sec of my PR) and finished the season off with a 15:28 5k, and a PR in the 1500.

So after that long ramble, yes I did have some success, a lot more than I ever imagined in fact. The key is hitting the cross training hard. Do a lot, and do a lot of fartleks on the bike and in the pool. Also, lift. Coming back from an injury is a prime time to get stronger. Good luck.

Thanks. It previously hurt too much to even swim but now I think I am well enough to at least do work in the pool and maybe bike in a couple weeks.

I had a femoral neck stress fracture this time last year. I was fully in crutches for around 6 weeks and partial weightbearing with one crutch for about another 3-4. I cross trained on the bike and aquajogged throughout but did find that at time I had to stop cross training because it seemed to aggravate the pain. It took me around 6 months to get back to full training and have recently set PRs in nearly every distance. My advice is be very patient in your comeback onceoff the crutches and increase running load very slowly. If you mix with cross training you can be back at full fitness faster than you think. Like previous poster mentioned you will feel all sorts of weird pains once you get back to raining and trick is trying to figure out what is just your body adjusting to increased activity after a period of non-use and what needs to be taken more seriously.

I had a femoral neck stress fracture as well during my senior year of High School. I was totally devastated at the time and lost my entire senior spring season. I was on crutches for 6 or 8 weeks and wasn't running for probably 3 or 4 months. When I did start running, it was a few minutes a day. Mostly, I was cross training (bike, pool, elliptical) for about 6 months and slowly transitioned back into running more and more. It took me about a year from 0 MPW to 60-80MPW, but since then I have been healthy and have gone from 18'+ for 5k to 14'50 in 4 years.

One thing about "feeling" your injury: after my stress fracture, any time that I had an ache or pain anywhere near this spot, I immediately panicked and jumped to the conclusion that my stress fracture was back. You'll get injured and sore again, but if you find out WHY you got a stress fracture, hopefully you can avoid that. For me, it meant getting my bone density tested, finding out it was low, and taking a high potency calcium supplement.

Good luck and know that you'll get through this and you have years of great, pain-free running ahead of you!

I think I might need to return to crutches for a week or two. Walking feels okay, but walking up stairs properly is quite literally impossible.

Totally bogus. Femoral Stress fracture is not associated directly with heel striking. I'm a mid/forefoot striker and have a FSF

Dathan Ritzenhein came back pretty well from a femoral stress fracture in college.

Hi Theresa/ All

I read your stories with much interest, having just been diagnosed with a femoral neck stress fracture. I am so gutted, as I really only got into running this year, and was feeling at my best from it.

I ran through pain, until I really couldn't put weight through my injured leg, and was furthermore misdiagnosed with a sprain for 3 weeks so continued hobbling around.

My question is, did you or any of you limp badly with this injury? I am on crutches, but before this, or if I have to take a step without the crutch, I lurch to one side (the injured side), and simply can't control this at all. Clearly I am compensating, but it worries me. I want nothing more than to get back to my old self, but getting rid of the limp is my foremost concern right now.

I'm only 3 days into diagnosis and crutches, so it's all very new.

Any help would be so much appreciated, I feel pretty down and worried about this...

Tam

all the best man

You're responding to a post that's almost 5 years old.

I had a femoral shaft stress reaction, which did not require crutches, as I was able to walk without pain or a limp. It was very uncomfortable with certain leg movements (getting in and out of the car, movements in bed, walking down stairs), and took about 9 months to heal, but I believe that your injury is actually much more serious and fragile than what I was dealing with. I assume your diagnosis was confirmed with MRI, otherwise, I'd make sure to get one to confirm. You also must get a bone density study to determine if you suffer from osteoporosis, and deal with that accordingly. You may be vitamin D deficient, but regardless, I'd take vitamin D supplements daily. Also, see from your doctor if you can get a bone stimulator. This is either an electrical or ultrasonic device that you apply over the injured area once a day that has been shown to speed up healing in slow healing fractures. It is critical that you do not put weight on this injury if it is painful to do so, as you may delay healing or worse, may enlarge the fracture to the point that it displaces and requires surgery.

Hi tam

How's the stress fracture coming on?

in case anyone is still here: SEE A DOCTOR if your symptoms even partially match those listed and if it is a stress fracture TAKE LOTS OF TIME OFF. an mri is preferable to an xray to diagnose since xrays may not show stress fractures, especially small ones/early ones. personally i took MONTHS off to allow full healing, about a month on crutches followed by about 6 months of careful walking, cycling, swimming while seeing a physical therapist to slowly build back to the impact of running. although i had it band issues when first starting running again and had to go back to pt for a few weeks, i've been training normally for about 4 months now and the femur hasn't bothered me at all.