Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Not a Stress Fracture (So Far)

Well I went to the doctor yesterday for my foot. After he took one look at my foot and saw the bruising and tenderness, he said "we need to get you in for an x-ray, and I don't think it's going to be good...." Not exactly the words you want to hear your doctor say.

The good news is that the doctor didn't see a stress fracture in the x-ray, but he did say that sometimes a stress fracture won't show up for a couple weeks because it's so microscopic. He diagnosed my injury as a deep bone contusion, whatever that is..... I'm still trying to figure out how I injured myself....the only thing I can think is maybe I landed on a sharp rock and hit my foot on it just right. There a couple of spots where I run that there are some larger rocks along the shoulder of the road. Might be that. Might not. I don't know.

Anyway, the doctor said I can't run (or play basketball) for 2 weeks, so I am going to change my fitness routine to try to include elliptical or spinning. Anything that doesn't put stress or pounding on my foot. I also want to use this time to work on my core. He said if it still hurts after that two week period, I'll need to come back for another x-ray, to see if there really is a stress fracture. If not, I can start my running training again. If it is, then I'm off for another 4 weeks. Either way, since the OKC Half isn't until April, I should have plenty of time to get back on track with my training plan.

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13 comments:

joyRuN said...

Bone contusion sounds painful :(

Sorry to hear you'll be off the running for a little bit, but sounds like you have a good plan to put the time to good use.

Good luck!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

oh man, that sucks. Not to scare you, but my stress fracture didn't show up on my xrays... only the healed ones did. The bone scan was what showed the fracture... I hope hope hope that it's not the case for you, but i'm with Joy, the bone contusion sounds painful too. Keep us posted! :)

Brandi said...

This does not sound good! I too am currently suffering from a foot injury with a lot of the same issues you are having and I hate to say but I was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture. :( All the doctor told me was over usage. There wasn't anything specific I remember doing to my foot at the time. If you go to this link (http://brandihargis.blogspot.com/2009/01/ok-i-over-did-it.html), you will see pictures of what my foot looked like. Not been fun! I was training for a full marathon March 15th and looks like I may have to pass on it this year. :(

RunToTheFinish said...

have you gotten new shoes lately? my issue was completely my shoes and it's going away just by relacing... gosh hope things get better soon

Being Robinson said...

Oh wow, I'm so sorry! I had a full on stress fracture, and my dr. knowing me well sent me to have a bone scan just to make sure. I ended up on crutches for 5 weeks because it hurt too much to even put pressure on it! Had to drop out of marathon training. So take it easy, it's not worth it!! :) My Stress Fx did cause me to start my blog though so....

On a side note of advice, try swimming as well. I couldn't do spin OR elliptical because of where my fx was and how bad it was, so I pool ran and started swimming laps. It helped a ton! There are some great spin classes at the North Y, FYI.

TiredMamaRunning said...

I was going to tell you exactly what Melanie said-stress fractures aren't going to show on an x-ray so PLEASE be very careful and consider taking at least a couple of days off altogether before even starting cross training (I had a stress reaction, precursor to sfx diagnosis, last fall and can say it was WELL worth the week totally off and XT after that to allow healing).

Hope you heal up quickly!

Aron said...

ouch!!! that doesnt sound fun :( i hope it doesnt turn into a stress fracture!

Unknown said...

Ouch. I hope you feel better soon. Probably a good idea to change up the fitness routine until in heals up.

Unknown said...

Ouch!

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to heal.

Being Robinson said...

Yep, got it in September last year, I was 6 weeks from running the Wichita marathon, pretty depressing. It took me 5 weeks on crutches, 2 weeks in a cam walker, then waiting until my orthotics were ready and was back to running full on finally just this January. It was rough.

Brandi said...

I am actually off of it for 6 weeks. I spent 1 week on crutches and then am now in an orthopedic shoe for 3 weeks. I go back to the DR next week and hope to be released! If I can't do the marathon in March I may look into the OKC race in April. This has all been really traumatic for me. The first thing I am going to do when released is get fitted for a better pair of shoes. I don't want this coming back.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know stress fractures could take longer to show up on x-rays... kind of interesting. My right wrist has been getting more and more painful since I fell in my race a couple weeks ago. I may have to investigate further. Thanks for sharing that bit of info.

I hope you heal quickly and that there isn't a fracture. Good plan to work on other things in the interim!

ShirleyPerly said...

Fingers crossed it is not a stress fracture. I've bruised the top of my foot before by having the laces too tight and stepped on things that have bruised the bottom of my foot. Both times I worried it might be a stress fracture but the pain went away within a couple weeks (bruises take a long time to go away on me) and was never too severe, although I did back off from running to try to let it heal.

And thanks for the comment on my post about my husband's trip around the world. He just got back tonight and seems quite happy!