What is a stress fracture? Simply put, your bones begin to fracture under continued and repeated stress. It starts out as a small fracture that is easily missed, often called a stress reaction. If continued stress is put on the bone, it develops into a stress reaction I, II, and III, where it will go through the bone completely.
While working with several runners over the last few years, I've seen many of them pound the pavement towards their goals of half and full marathons. They work through lots of aches and pains that are typical for a new runner and for a seasoned runner. What people will continue to overlook is the swelling and continued deep pain that won't go away. If you're new to the sport of running, dancing, etc., the aches and pains are expected. If you ask a seasoned sportsman, they will tell you its part of the process. What can be missed? Aches and pains that don't change. That can spur an entire new blog post, but lets stick with stress fractures. When you start to develop something like a stress fracture, the pain doesn't move up or down your leg for instance. It doesn't always get worse and very rarely will it get better (not without rest or avoidance of the activity that started the problem). Now before you get all excited about pain not changing...staying the same, you've had it for a good week etc., that's not what this post is for. The post is meant to keep you aware of what CAN happen and make you think twice about seeing someone that can help you get to the root of a problem. Swelling can be present or it may not be present. If the affected area is swelling, then all the more reason to get someone to take a look at it.
When getting an expert opinion, get with someone that works with sport injuries. Some experts might take an X-ray of the affected area and show you that nothing is wrong. Be aware...with persistent pain and swelling, there might just be something larger looming. Getting further imaging is always a good idea. MRI scans show much more than bone, which is all an x-ray shows you. I've seen several x-rays that are taken along side an MRI. The X-rays shows nothing, if only a faint line of possible delusion, the MRI...shows a clear stress fracture making its way through the bone.
Continued pressure/stress on a damaged bone only creates more stress and prolongs the issue. Catching a stress fracture early is key to getting it healed properly and getting you back to your sport of choice.
You've heard the saying, once you sprain an ankle...you become a chronic ankle "sprainer" (which can be avoided; I'll blog more on that later)..always an ankle "sprainer". Well, the same saying can also be said about stress fractures. Once prone to a stress fracture, typically (wiggle word) it means a stress fracture should be something you think of if similar pain creeps back into your routine.
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