fulcrum test and femur stress frx help

TAKE THE TIME OFF. I cannot say this enough. I suffered a sacral stress fracture and was out for almost 8 months of NO RUNNING, followed by 2 months of super light jogging (and I will say jogging). Taking a week even off is better than 5/6 of a year not doing the activity you enjoy. Cross train on the elliptical, bike(indoors, it's cold ;) ), or (I suggest) water run. Please take my advice. I'm finally now running regularly again after way too long.

I'm pretty sure I will take a few weeks, possibly even as much as 4-6. I'm not training for anything at the moment, am busy with writing a dissertation, and I have access to a gym. My only concern is that I'm limited to bike and elliptical and I do have to walk quite a bit to get around the city. If I am in no pain walking, biking, ellipticalling, etc. is it likely that a stress reaction could heal? Do all femur stress injuries require crutches? I would feel pretty silly using crutches when I can walk perfectly normally.

No, not everyone who has had a femoral stress fracture has to be on crutches.

I had two different stress fractures in my same femur, and one time the doctor ordered me on crutches, while the second time he told me that the crutches were not necessary. The first one was in my femoral neck, while the second was further down on the shaft just above the knee.

I would advise you to take it easy for a few weeks and see how it goes. You are better off. Stress fractures are not fun. If you are not feeling discomfort as you are walking around then I would not worry too much. I would just advise you to be nice to it, and use your best judgement.

For what it is worth, when I was standing for long periods of time (say 1 hour while teaching class) I could feel the injury in my leg. If you are walking around and not feeling anything, then it is possible that it is not as severe as a stress fracture.

But I'm no medical doctor, just a very often injured runner.

Good luck on your dissertation!

I coached a girl that had a grade 1 stress reaction in her femur. It presented as a quad strain/dull ache that she could not quite pinpoint or locate. She could run and walk just fine as well. She ended up getting an mri which revealed the stress reaction and the dr put her on crutches for 2wks and only allowed pool workouts for 4wks. After 4wks she coul mix in bike workouts but no elliptical. At 8wks she was put on Pfitzingers return to running program.

I would think that you would be fine w/out the crutches, but this is a serious injury and I think you would want to error on the side of caution with your recovery

You do not have a femoral sfx. You have a labral tear. Run on it. Get an MRI Arthrogram when you come back to the States.