really bad stress fracture: what to do next?

hey i had an extremely similar situation. missed senior track season because i developed a tibial stress fracture. The biggest thing you can do is rest it and do not even attempt to run on it until is MORE THAN 100%. Literally. Here is my brief story:

-SFX In early april.

-Couldn't Run on it anymore starting early may

-Late may bone scan showed sfx

-6.5 weeks(Late June early julyish) off doctors clears me to run.. having small pain but says im okay

- On and off pain rest of the summer.. continue to see doctor and he says its normal

- mid august CT Scan shows it's still there so i head off to xc at college

-Only run about 2 days a week from august-october, coach says we'll try to work through pain but finally in october I got sick and tired of it

-Late October had another CT showed it was WORSE

-Took off all of November and December NO RUNNING AT ALL and started running in January and felt great, no pain at all

CONCLUSION: It's such a high area of stress on the tibia that there has to be no pain to the touch or while walking or running... otherwise it will just come back, or get worse.

Take it easy and don't worry about missing xc... you need to be healthy

I ran on a hip stress fracture for 2 months(my doctor said it was probably closer to 4, it just took time for the pain to register) the spring of my senior year of high school.

I did no physical activity for about 6 weeks because everything hurt, swam with a pool buoy between my legs for 2 months then moved onto a more aggressive cross training routine in mid-August(combination of swimming, pool running, and elliptical) and was finally cleared to run in late October. I very, very slowly built my running mileage back up, continuing to do a lot of cross training. I red-shirted my entire freshmen year and was able to improve significantly from my high school times when I finally returned to competing my sophomore year.

I would say your situation is likely not as dire, in general lower-leg injuries are less serious than hip ones. Also its only February. You have 7 months before cross country starts. That is plenty of time to heal and get back into shape but you need to seriously look at all factors of your health and figure out what you can do to prevent a future injury. I have stayed injury free because I was able to identify what likely led to my injury and remedy those factors. Get your bone density tested, iron levels, see a nutritionist, get physical therapy, sleep more, and cross train smart.