you're young and healthy (assumed) and you have a good fitness base/background to fall back on. you're already ahead of the game. make sure you go to and are compliant with your physical/physiotherapy and do your best to maintain overall strength throughout your other unaffected body parts and you'll be fine. once the bone heals you're good to go to start weight bearing and stressing the affected limb as tolerated.

i just discharged a 24 year old patient after breaking his femoral neck. he rehabbed for 2 months, was extremely diligent and is back to 90% of his prior level of function.

john

Well I was on the opposite and can confirm, stress fracture in same place and I didn't run for 6 months per ortho and PT instructions.

Well, you definitely absolutely don't want non-union, because then you'll need surgery, and hardware, and then even if it heals well you'll probably want the hardware out someday. All of which sucks.

So don't push it. Do exactly what they say as far as how much weight bearing (or not). When they do say you can ride, make sure you and the doctor are on exactly the same page when it comes to how hard/long you are riding - your notion of easy (or whatever subjective terms are used for prescribing activity) as a serious athlete can be very different from theirs.

Actually, I did that surgery thing already and I have a plate and a screw (only one, the French are conservative). Forgot to mention that little detail, sorry. You are also right that they will take it out after about one year.
That is what worries me. That the doctor says it's cool to do water running and the static bike and has no idea of what I'm doing. Anyway, I will discuss this when I meet him two weeks from now. Up until then I am not putting any weight on the leg.

Hi Marcus, I'm really sorry to hear about your injury. I've broken a few bones but haven't sustained this particular fracture. I can, however, recommend you have a look at Krista DuChene's blog. Krista is one of Canada's top long-distance runners and she sustained the same fracture and surgery as you. She fractured her femur in late April so her blog will give you an athlete's perspective as to what's coming up ahead.

http://kristaduchenerunning.blogspot.ca

In February 2013 I got a stress fracture in my femoral head. It took doctors a couple of weeks to diagnose after which they put me on cruches for a month. The fracture actually got worse over that month, so I had surgery and they put in three screw. I was on crutches for another month. I started going to PT as soon as I was able to do any weight-bearing and it made a huge difference. Started swimming and spending some time on the trainer about two months after surgery, but no running until about four months after the surgery. It was a long slow process, but being conservative with the running and focusing on strength training - especially the targeted exercises my PT gave me - made the recovery relatively fast.
This season has been a bit bumpy with some other minor injuries cropping up, but I have done a few olys and am training for a marathon in October. If you find a good PT and are patient with the healing process you should be fine. Hang in there.

Hey, thanks! Great reading. Everything is so familiar, down to the dizziness and weakness after the surgery (which was performed within hours after completing two thirds of the race, while some of my friends were still running the marathon).
Unfortunately, since my fracture is in the femoral neck and not in the femur bone it will take a little longer to heal completely. It will probably require some six months before I am able to start jogging and running. Funny, though, she has an almost identical plate and screw as I do. Only difference is I have only one supporting screw in the femur bone, not two. The surgeon in the emergency room was probably in a hurry, or they were out of screws.
I felt the same after my accident. I didn't start asking myself why it happened to me, even though I have had my fair share of injuries before. It was easier to accept because there were so many crashes that day.
Also, it occurred to me as well that this injury went straight to the top in my pain scale. Before, I thought that a stress fracture hurt. I thought that broken ribs hurt. But this was pain. Fortunately, I feel similar to Krista in the sense I have had almost no pain at rest after the first week. Only the stabbing pain when I do something I shouldn't do, I lose balance or do any sudden movements. But the pain is not so sharp anymore as it used to be. No crying out loud.

Check out Steve Tilford's blog. He broke his about 4 weeks ago.

http://stevetilford.com/

I broke mine when I was 14 (completely snapped requiring 3 6-inch screws to patch) and at 39 had a full hip replacement. I've since done a full IM, 4 HIMs and several half marathons and various other races. You can definitely come back but listen to your body and be careful.

I had a few setbacks that would take several weeks to heal but patience paid off.

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