Hello, I've had a stress fracture since the middle of October. On February 15th I was told it had only half healed, which made sense because I still felt some pain. I've been so eager to get back in to running! I still feel pain around the area.
Just some background info, the day before I got the stress fracture the spot was really, really sore to touch. I thought it was just a bad shin splint, and it didn't bother me the next day before my run so I hadn't thought to tell my coach anything about it. I had run track season and gotten really good compared to the season before. I took a week off and started summer training where I really didn't take my slow days as slowly as I should have. I wanted to be fast, and I was getting faster and faster. Cross country season felt backed off some, but there were way more hills lol, but continued to push the pace in workouts out of fear I'd lose my speed. Mid workout the day my leg fractured, taking steps got more and more difficult until i finally started walking, and then I had to stop entirely because it hurt so badly. I couldn't walk for a couple days. I didn't know it was a stress fracture, doctors told me it was a sprained ankle because it didn't show on the x-ray and I could run in a week. Thankfully another doctor got an X-ray a couple weeks later and told me the truth, as I had started running again once I physically could and I'm sure it made matters worse.
I had a similar stress fracture my freshman year (senior currently). I don't think it was the same leg. That one went undiagnosed and I hobbled around for awhile, but it healed up on its own and I played soccer that spring just fine.
I've always struggled with shin splints.
I suck at eating right and following a sleep schedule, I get about 6 hours on a bad night and 8-9 on a good night. Usually I sleep about 7. I try to make sure I get enough calcium but I don't think I eat enough. That's a whole problem in itself. I'm just worried it's kept me from healing.