Does this sound like a Femoral Stress Fracture/Reaction?

I couldn't tell you whether you have a femoral neck stress fracture, but if you've never gone above 56 before and you jumped from 57 to 69, that'd be a pretty good cause for a stress reaction/fracture or whatever it is. I'd say you're definitely jumping the gun on the mileage increase, especially when you went roughly 5, 7, and then 10 on your 3rd day back from the injury. You have to let your body adapt to the mileage; 10's tough to do so soon.

Also, I just wanted to comment that your high school freshman to junior progression is actually quite nice. 6:20 to 4:25 in 2 years .. if that's true, wow.

MPM99 wrote:

Also, I just wanted to comment that your high school freshman to junior progression is actually quite nice. 6:20 to 4:25 in 2 years .. if that's true, wow.

Yea it's true, I did a lot of general strength training (hurdle hops, bleachers, crab walks across the football field, weight room everyday, average 150 ab wheel rolls a day during the summer between hsfresh and hssoph. Not that it's relevant but, I was pretty good for a freshman and sophomore at discus: 100'/discus @ hsfresh outdoor, 33'/shot-put @hssophomore indoor, & 122'/discus @hssophomore.

I'm trying to get consistent and get back to my times and hopefully greatly surpass them. It seems like I get injured more and more, although my uninjured cfreshman cross country season was surprisingly free of discomfort.

Sounds a bit like a femoral shaft stress fracture. Here's what I've experienced with these kinds of stress fractures:

-In early stages, pain may be present some days and not on others, even while running.

-Thigh feels "dead", especially during running. Dull disembodied ache when not running, but nothing severe enough to cause terrible concern.

-Feels like something you can run through, gets worse over a period of days

-Could be mistaken for muscular pain

-(Eventually:) sharp pain during running with each step on the leg

-After running pain can be referred to the knee and/or groin

-Toothache in your leg

-Pain is worse in the morning

-Hurts when sitting with feet unsupported ("hang test"). Occasional sharp pains when you move to sit/stand up from this position.

-Tends to hurt at the moment when you shift weight OFF the leg. Sharp pain.

-Hurts when you lay down to sleep, mostly a throb that's not severe, but difficult to ignore.

I can't comment intelligently on the muscular factors you've discussed. I can say that I've been told femoral shaft stress fractures are usually caused by the adductor magnus doing more than its share of the work extending the hip. I don't think that relates much to what you said about your muscles being tense, but it could be related to favoring your right leg slightly.

I'm not sure whether to hope for you that it is or isn't one of these. On the one hand, they're pretty simple to deal with (rest 10-12 weeks and then slowly rebuild) versus having no clue whats going on (which could leave you doing this one week of swimming here, a bit of running there thing for a while). On the other hand, that's an awful long time off and it's not a fun injury to have on your record.

If it's been over 2 weeks since you first felt the pain (your timeline indicates this is a go), go ahead and get an x-ray if you'd like. Unless the pain is very bad already, it probably won't show up without an MRI though.

Advice if it is a femoral stress fracture:

-Check Vit. D, bone density (DEXA), endocrine

-Check for adequate caloric intake. Have you lost weight with the increase in mileage? (My doctors were obsessed with this, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a factor for me. I figure it's due diligence to throw it out there.)

-Have your running biomechanics professionally evaluated.

This may sound like a bit much, but it's not normal to break the strongest bone in your body just by running 50-70 miles a week. Personally I think that there's a biomechanic factor if you're breaking your femur before your tibia. I think the fact that you tend to favor your right leg more actually supports this, as my fractures have been in the leg that I would say I tend to favor slightly more. The doctors tend to favor the other ideas I listed above.

Obviously this post is basically assuming you have a femoral shaft stress fracture. Don't freak out though, because a stranger on the internet has no idea what's going on in your leg. Hope you figure it out.

Can you describe the type of pain you are feeling in your leg? i.e dull, deep, nerve or "toothache-like", sharp etc...

"Feels like something you can run through, gets worse over a period of days

-Could be mistaken for muscular pain

-(Eventually:) sharp pain during running with each step on the leg

-After running pain can be referred to the knee and/or groin

-Toothache in your leg

-Pain is worse in the morning

-Hurts when sitting with feet unsupported ("hang test"). Occasional sharp pains when you move to sit/stand up from this position.

-Tends to hurt at the moment when you shift weight OFF the leg. Sharp pain.

-Hurts when you lay down to sleep, mostly a throb that's not sharp "

This explains it perfectly. Also it is just a dull feeling at first then it gets sharp when running.

Try the hang test. Put your leg over something like a chair and let it hang if you push down on your knee and there is pain i am sorry this could be a fracture. But may be a reaction if you caught it early enough. Also do you do a lot of squats and lunges because i thought mine was coming back but it was just pain from lunges with to much weight.

It feels like a straining medially towards my groin on the adducters when I put weight on my left leg. When I release the weight it feels like the pain goes from my groin to faintly towards my knee then disappears. While sitting down with my feet on the ground and my legs bent as one would normally sit. flexing my thigh causes pain in my groin. It does not hurt to palpate anywhere on my thigh.

"When I release the weight it feels like the pain goes from my groin to faintly towards my knee then disappears."

This aligns with my experience a bit, especially if the pain going towards your knee is sharp. Like I said, I've had the pain referred up to my groin, so that could fit too.

"flexing my thigh causes pain in my groin."

This does not fit with my experience.

Take xcrunner988900's advice and try the hang test. Sit in a chair so that your foot is OFF the ground, hanging off the end of the chair. Push down on your knee. It may help to put a fist under your thigh to get a bit of a fulcrum. You could also try the reverse version: sit on the edge of a chair with your foot flat on the ground, push down on the middle of your thigh.

There's a big group of muscles between you and your femur, so you're not going to get much feedback via palpation. I've heard that with tibial and metatarsal stress fractures you can put your finger on the spot to excruciating effect and then move it a quarter inch and there's no pain. Femoral stress fractures aren't like that. If you push hard enough on the thigh, you will experience some pain, but that's true even if you're bone is healthy. If you've got a stress reaction, the pain will be a bit worse. If you've got a stress fracture, you'll suddenly be overcome with the sensation that your bone is about to snap (It's not. Maybe.), but it takes a bit of force. You could make similar comments about either version of the hang test I described, but those elicit a much more distinguishable response than palpation.

For me, the smoking gun is (1) the "unintentional hang test" where you're just sitting in a chair and you shift your weight or stand up and are greeted by a sharp pain in your thigh (ironically, this seems to happen more when the chair has a fair amount of cushion up front) and (2) the persistent dull dead feeling that seems to get quite a bit worse when I lay down to sleep. Of course, if you continue to run on it the sharp pain with every step will let you know as well.

I should mention that my experience is exclusive to femoral SHAFT stress fractures/reactions, which I found tended to refer pain to my knee more than my groin. If you're experiencing pain mostly in your groin it stands to reason that there's some chance it could be femoral NECK. I have no idea what actual similarities or differences there'd be between the two though.

I just tried the hanging leg test, I could not provoke any significant pain, I think I might have sensed dull pain up in my groin when pushing down on my knee, I could just be imagining it because I'm looking for it, however when I got down I did feel a lasting dull pain in my groin that took a minute to diminish.

"I could just be imagining it because I'm looking for it"

This times a million.

If you're not feeling the dull pain randomly throughout the day, I'd say you may have caught a stress injury really really early, or it's something else entirely. Either way, I'd feel pretty good about saying you don't have a stress "fracture". So that's something.

Just sitting down and lying down idly I don't feel anything

Just sitting down and lying down idly I don't feel anything[/quote]

If it doesn't hurt on the hang test, I doubt it is a SF, maybe, as other posted have suggested you have caught it very early.

This below is just *my experience/opinion*

I currently have some similar pains that you are experiencing. Mine began 3mths ago when I felt tightness in the adductors mid way down my thigh. All the muscles were contracting excessively. My Sartorius had tightened ridiculously causing pain from my hip to my inner thigh at the knee. My popliteus also become excruciating,and my ITB. I was experiencing dull pains throughout my thigh which would come and go. I also have a sense of weakness, not physical weakness, but the feeling of a dead leg that is labouring when I run, and the perceived inability to raise my knee when running. After repeated massages and no advance I began seeing a chiropractor. In his opinion, the pain is coming from my lower back. Apparently two discs have moved laterally and are pinching the nerve roots of 2 of the L vertebrae which is consequently sending nerve pain down my leg, into my knee, and occasionally into my calf. He thinks the weakness is being caused by the interruption to the nerve roots as a result of the discs being slightly out of position.

Perhaps, this is completely irrelevant to you, but if you haven't had your spine examined to rule out any issues here, which may be causing pain to refer to your leg I suggest maybe you look into doing this.

Good luck!

Okay so after unofficially concluding that this probably isn't a stress fracture, I have noticed something that provokes the pain. Lying down, lift my right leg up 20°-30° while keeping it extended, then while in that position rotating my leg so that my right foot points inward. That rotation makes me feel a painful strain in my groin/high adducters and upper quad. After I put my leg back down, it takes a couple of seconds for the pain to dull away.

Does anyone know what this is?

Bump

Dude, you're being told you don't have a stress fracture by an 11-year -old right now. Just two weeks after the SF you can't put weight on it. If your abductor muscle hurts its probably a stress reaction. Icing is pretty much your best option, unless of course you tore your abductor and might need surgery. I've had both. If you don't believe that I'm eleven, google "butte to butte results eugene 2012" and you'll find me (sebastien foy) at the 49th minute. Then google "Eugene marathon results 2013" and go to 1:34-mid, you'll find me again (it will list me in the 12-19 age group, but I lied about my age to get in; how can I be 12 a year after being 9.

Yea I had a femur stress fracture...

Did you ever figure out what this was? I am having very similar symptoms.