How to recover from a metatarsal stress fracture?

Wear shoes with arch support. By that I mean a noticeable arch on the shoe so that your foot isn't flattening when it contacts the ground.

I've had a 4th m.t. stress fracture. I wore a boot because it seems to me that walking IS using it so might as well go 100% no-use as long as you're not running. I can't prove that it heals faster but it just seems odd to me that they always will let you walk on it despite it being fractured.

I had what I am certain was a metatarsal stress fracture, although the idiot doctor my HMO sent me to see had never heard of stress fractures. I figured the only useful treatment was rest, so that's what I did. I did my best to minimize anything that caused pain, which meant never walking barefoot and wearing the stiffest shoes I could find. No running, but I did ride my bike, bike shoes being nearly as stiff as a boot. Mine healed completely and has never recurred ten years later. So no, I don't think you need a boot as long as you are careful.

How bad was it? Was it seen on an x-ray?

How long did it take to heal?

Mine was not apparent on a regular x-ray. I could scarcely bear to walk on it for the first couple of weeks, but I had almost no pain when riding a bike in stiff cycling shoes. I was very careful, and didn't start running again until I was essentially pain-free, which I believe took about 10 weeks. Once I resumed running I never had a setback in my recovery.

How do you know? My foot hurts when I point it up and turn it outward. Or point down and out. Top of foot pain. I can't differentiate tendonitis or sfx. Waiting 10 weeks is a long time...

Mine seemed to hit exactly all the indicators for a stress fracture. #1, it came on quite suddenly, toward the end of an otherwise normal training run. I started hurting about 1 mile before the end and barely made it home before the pain became too severe to put weight on the foot. #2, it was very painful when flexing the forefoot under any load, but much less when held rigid, even with weight on it. #3, the pain was very, very localized--pressing my finger on a particular spot on the third metatarsal just about sent me through the roof, but I could press all around that spot with basically no pain.

Stress fracture or tendonitis, anything that hurts that much requires time off from running. I agree, though, that tendonitis it shouldn't require 10 weeks.

What you have sounds to me more likely to be tendonitis. But I'm no expert. Read as much as you can about the symptoms of each. Or see a doctor, but that won't necessarily help if the person you see is as incompetent as the one I was sent to.

Everything I have matches except for the localized spot. I can't find such a spot, I have an small area that is just sore. Do you have any advice to speed recovery?

Sfxproblem wrote:

Everything I have matches except for the localized spot. I can't find such a spot, I have an small area that is just sore. Do you have any advice to speed recovery?

'Fraid not. Everything I read said that for a fracture there's not much you can do except rest. I'm aware that there are some gimmicks that are supposed to speed bone healing but they sounded like snake oil and expensive, so I went with rest. I suppose it only makes sense to be sure you're not calcium or vitamin D deficient when trying to heal a bone.