Wondering if anyone has any experience with a stress fracture of the anterior cortex of the tibia… apparently it’s a much less common stress fracture and is subject to delayed union or non-union (i.e. not healing). I’ve been dealing with it since last June, when another cyclist decided to crash into me at the Mont Tremblant Half Ironman at mile 1 of the bike course and my shin went straight into the pedal before crashing to the ground (and then finishing the race sub 5:30 probably didn’t help). I unfortunately finally got the correct diagnosis only 2 weeks ago after calling it quits with my original sports medicine orthopedic doctor (who despite being a multi ironman and the head doc of a local tri, incorrectly diagnosed it) and I decided to go to the sport medicine center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. My new doc correctly identified the anterior cortex stress fracture and prescribed me a bone stimulator and an aircast and another 4 weeks off before coming back in again for a check up. Needless to say it’s been an incredibly frustrating past 6 months, and now I am back to square one with who knows how much time I have remaining. It’s looking like my 2015 race season is in jeopardy as well, as everything I’m reading online says this takes months to heal.
If anyone has any words of wisdom, or ideas of exercises I can do, I’d love to hear it. I am going to start swimming with a pull buoy (doc doesn’t want me to kick), and any weight bearing workouts on the legs (including cycling) are out of the question for at least the next few weeks. After my next check up in 4 weeks the doc wants to start me in a physical therapy routine, but I am at a loss of what to do with myself until then… thank you slowtwitch
Greetings from Cville. You’re heading down the right path. You really want to be pain free before resumption of training. You’re right that there’s a subset of these that seem to take forever but that’s a minority. Get regular follow up and you should be able to get past this. Good luck.
John
As you start swimming be careful when you push off the wall, I recommend only pushing off with your non injured leg. When I have had tibial stress fractures (x4, all medial tibia) pushing off the wall was painful.
I am curious why your doc wants you to hold off on PT for several weeks, but I trust their judgement. Strengthening exercises are going to be a key part of rehab. Below is a link for ankle sprains, but the band exercises listed were a big part of the rehab I did when I had stress fractures as they strengthen the muscles in your shin.
http://www.aofas.org/footcaremd/how-to/foot-injury/Pages/How-to-Ankle-Sprain-Strengthening-Exercises.aspx
I also did a lot of towel scrunching with my toes-put a towel on a smooth surface, then scrunch up the towel by flexing your toes. You can add a weight as you progress.
I would check in with your doctor to see if it is alright to start doing some exercises at home on your own before starting PT.
Good luck and speedy recovery. It sounds like you are heading in the right direction.
@johnpostmd - Go hoos! UVA grad living in NYC. I’ve been wondering if anyone would ever connect my name to UVA. Thanks for the input.
@EmSher - thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. I’m not sure why my doc wanted to wait 4 weeks to begin PT, I think she wanted to see some healing first in the bone before beginning. Those look like some good exercises and I’ll check with my doc to see if I can do them in the meantime. Hopefully the bone stimulator and aircast are helping too. Btw, checked out your website - inspiring! My sis is currently a Duke undergrad.
I know this is an old post but I was wondering if your stress fracture healed properly and how long it took? I am currently nursing a tibia stress fracture in the anterior cortex and it’s been 6 months now with no signs of healing. Initially I was still allowed to cycle and limited walking but Ive now been put in an aircast and will be receiving shock wave therapy. Its not just this season that has been ruined, but it looks like next season might not be happening either. Any words of hope???