I may have a stress fracture!

I’ve just got back from the physio and am absolutely gutted. It turns out I could well have a stress fracture of my fibula.

The fibula is the smallest of the two bones in the calf – and apparently it’s not as bad getting a stress fracture in this bone as it’s non-weight baring – as opposed to the tibia in the calf that supports pretty much all of your weight.

My physio couldn’t be sure that it’s a stress fracture but he said he wouldn’t treat me at all until I found out – as he didn’t want to make things worse. As soon as he saw me he said that he thought I was overpronating – he could tell due to the angle of my ankles when I was simply standing there.

I also mentioned to him that I had had a lot of achilles tendon pain. He said this was also indicative of overpronating as when you overpronate the foot as basically twisting too much – which means the achilles tendon gets stretched around too much, thereby causing pain.

He had a good feel of my foot and ankle and even when he was pulling it about I didn’t really get any pain. He was quite certain that the tendons were OK (apart from the achilles of course!) but as soon as he pushed into my fibula about 3 centimetres above the ankle it was agony. As it was just bone he was pushing in to it was quite clear that it could well be a stress fracture.

So, running is now out of the question (which doesn’t really matter at this stage as I can barely walk anyway!) for about 6 to 8 weeks. I now need to get a referral from my GP for an x-ray which he says could well show the stress fracture – but there is a chance that it won’t as the x-ray will only highlight the stress fracture if new bone has formed over the fracture, and it may be too early for this to have happened. If it doesn’t show anything then I should have a bone scan too.

Longer term he’s recommended that I see a podiatrist to get some custom made running orthotics. I’d never really heard of running orthotics before. Apparently they’re like inner soles that correct the alignment of your feet. But they don’t sound cheap. They can range anywhere from £150 to £300. But I guess if it sorts the problem out then it will be money well spent.

I’m so gutted that this should happen now. I’ve just run my 3rd 10k race, my times are starting to come down, and I’ve built a good training mentality. Oh well… I guess looking back now the signs have been there that something has been wrong… painful shins, pain in the soles of both feet, achilles tendon pain, etc, etc. I just thought they were normal run of the mill ‘running pains’. I guess I need to listen to my body more in the future!