Stress fracture or 'real' fracture that shows on an xray? I had a stress fracture half way down the shaft on the inside. It was 7 yrs ago and I'm foggy on the details but I don't think obvious cracks could be seen on an X-ray but that area lit up when I did the scan where they make you down the radioactive drink. Let me know more detail on your situation, although I'm not sure how much help I can be as I'm not sure how similarly the body would heal from a mid shaft vs condyle fracture

My experience probably won't help too much.

I had a nasty fracture of the femoral neck, doctor gave me a 6 month timeline where I could only even weight bear 50%

This meant crutches, walker, HEAVY HEAVY cane use for that whole period ( didn't want me using the cane, but at first the bone wasn't seeming to grow, but as I got more comfortable, and was using the cane, probably getting roughly 60% weight on the leg, it seemed to be stimulating bone growth better, and the doctor was ok with this )

It actually ended up being 7 months til he was comfortable enough with the x-rays that I could walk again unsupported.

Running? I was banned for 2 years, cause the location of the fracture on the femoral head was an area of low bloodflow and I ran a real risk of avascular necrosis, bone death due to lack of blood flow essentially. Wearing down the femoral head when your body can't supply the materials to repair it properly tends to be a poor idea.

Once I hit that 2 year mark I eased back into it, and about 6 months later after a run focus was running better than ever.

Mine is an actual fracture. It's an avulsion fracture of the medial condyle. Luckily I didn't tear my MCL, but nonetheless it seems to have hit a wall in the healing process.it has been 9 weeks since the accident. An X-ray last week shows much better than it did the day I broke it. The issue I am having is the inconsistency. Around 6 weeks it started to feel much better and could actually lift weights (lunges, step-ups,etc) no issue at all. I thought lets wait another 2 weeks before I start running. First run ran super easy for 3 miles and no pain or anything, waited 2 days later and halfway thru it got cramps and then pain so walked home.I feel like that has put me back a few weeks where I was. Curious of anyone else's experiences in the healing time and what they did/did not do with regards to that.
Thanks again,
J

 

I had a mid-shaft femur fracture 2.5 years ago. Mine was a clean break, so best case scenario. Was 3 months until I could start to "run" (peg legging around for like 10') but more like 4-5 months before I could do some real running. Close to 10 months before I was in decent run shape, almost 1.5 years before I could run without pain.

Do all your PT exercises, get in the gym and ride your bike, don't rush the running. My biggest problem was my hip muscles got really week from lack of use, so then my knee was tracking all over the place when I ran.... so then my knee hurt, etc.

Ok with an actual fracture I can't really add anything specific in terms of healing time but I'm thinking 9 wks is not enough time to heal so be patient. I'm basing that on the assumption that a fracture would take longer to heal than a stress fracture and I was told to not run for 10wks.
During that 10wks off I think what helped keep my run fitness was shallow water running...I was pushing off the pool floor but with the water at just past hip height the impact was very light. It was a good workout. I even wore a heart rate monitor and looked like a total spaz!

After the 10 wks my first run back was 5 min doing laps on soft grass. I added a minute or two every second day and built it up over a few weeks. I don't know if your situation will be the same but I was told I would have discomfort in my injury area for a while because the new bone being laid down wouldn't be smooth and would rub the muscle and I found that to be the case. I would get tightness and soreness in that area, which was a bit unnerving, but it was easily distinguishable from the pain I had in the first few weeks after the SF, which at times could be really intense and radiated all over from hip to knee.
My injury happened just before a spring marathon which was mentally devastating for a bit. I got back to running in June and ran a marathon PB(by 10-15 sec!) in mid October...during the build up for that marathon I did have soreness in the SF area but no major pain. I also kept the run mileage to a minimum and supplemented training with extra biking and the aforementioned water running

I wish you a speedy recovery. I'm just getting over(hopefully) my first injury (plantar fasc)to force me out of running since the stress fracture. I'm doing a 5min run today and taking it from there

Thanks for the feedback! Ironically this is making me swim huge volume (I need to work on my swimming) and I can bike as much as I want. My run fitness will come back fast (ran a 2:40 ish marathon early March.) Have an Ironman in October so should be ok :)
Juan

I had a lateral condyle fracture in 2010 and from the diagnosis, I did not walk for 4 months (used an unloader brace for when I had to walk), then walked for a couple months, then started riding (swam the whole time) and about a month later began to walk/jog. From there I took 3 months to get to to the point I was running a full 30min. Basically 10 months from the injury to fully healed.

One thing to note, I lived in London at the time and walked 3-5miles every day, and so when I injured it (did not get a good diagnosis for about 2 months) I continued to walk, which caused more damage. Had I not been in such a walking intensive environment and if I had gotten a good diagnosis from the start, it would likely have taken less than 6 months to fully heal.

Jack

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Thats what I am trying to figure out...Obviously "if I feel it back off" approach is good. I roll and massage the area around it daily. I think I need more time...thanks again