#NOTTODAY - femoral shaft stress fracture

Sports Doctors, Bone Scans and Stress Fractures … oh my.

I’ve been meaning to update this for a while, but my training situation has been such a bummer I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it.  

My injury story …….. perhaps it will help someone else out in the future.  Two weeks before Victoria marathon (in October) I started getting running associated pain, similar to runner’s knee, but migrating a bit. Went to physio to have it checked out, was diagnosed as runners knee, misalignment, muscle imbalance… the usual, did some maintenance therapy and decided we would deal with it after the marathon, however the marathon was probably safe for me to run.  Ran the marathon in a significant amount of pain, but adrenaline and my competitive nature got me to the end in my goal time.  Next day couldn’t walk, not because of sore muscles but because of stabbing pain.  Started taking time off (except for an aquathon that I shouldn’t have gone in).  The pain lasted quite a while and I completely took off running (including water running) for almost 8 weeks.  Pain slowly got better, religiously did my physio strengthening and balance exercises and overall took it easy focusing on swim and maintaining bike. Dealt with the pain day to day, taking tons of anti-inflammatories and icing it.  Finally seemed like the pain was gone so I started a very conservative run-walk program.  In all honesty, there wasn’t a single run where I didn’t “feel” discomfort of some respect in my right leg but assumed it was mental or not important. Started building up to 40 minute run-walks over Christmas (4min one, 1 min walk X 8) etc….. I can pinpoint one run where it went from discomfort to stabbing pain. I felt nauseous for about 3 days after this.  Thought it could be a Christmas hangover. I was wrong (and I’m pretty much never wrong).  After this point I can’t remember a time in my life where I’ve been in so much chronic pain.  Stabbing pain in my hip, inner thigh, near my knee…. Migrating, never the same. Hurt to walk, sit, sleep. Back to physio….. my legs are stronger and more even than ever.  Diagnosis… facilitated segment.  After another 3 weeks of not running and being in major pain I finally allowed my physio to perform IMS on me  (dry-needling… google it).  It was quite a painful treatment, but within 48 hours I was pain free! Hurray! We had figured out my problem.  I felt so much better and was so confident that this would cure me if I got the IMS treatment for a couple more weeks that I tried some more short run-walks…. Slowly and surely the pain came back with a vengeance.  Out of sheer desperation I started googling sports Dr. all over Vancouver and found a name I recognized. I had participated in some cycling studies last year with an on campus sports med lab and as it turns out the principle investigator in this lab who helped me out with some asthma issues associated with the study, is a local sports med dr. as well.  I contacted him to see if he could refer me to someone.  He told me to come see him right away and examined me in his lab.  Found that I was balanced and my legs are quite strong…. And then asked if I’d be checked for a fractured femur.  Wait What.  Nobody had mentioned this to me.  My google searches never came up with this…. After almost 6 months of pain… must be a ludicrous idea, but hell why not rule it out with a bone scan.  He was able to get me in for a bone scan that Friday….. and what did we find.  A god damn mother effing fracture in the shaft of my femur.  Turns out stress fractures are common in endurance athletes, not so much the femur.....  I had no idea. Also turns out that anti-inflammatories are bad for promoting bone healing. Shit. And I should have been on Vitamin D etc. for the past 6 months. Double shit.  So yes. Frustrating. But now I have a solid diagnosis.  

 And now I wait…. I wait for the pain to go away. I wait for Ironman.  No longer ironman couere d’alene… huge bummer.  Had to switch to ironman Canada… just to give me time to hopefully start running safely again, which means I likely will not be in top notch shape a month later for worlds in Edmonton, but as per my previous post on adaptability, its part of life. You want to be in the best possible condition and shape for every race, but in high level endurance sport it just isn’t an option, you’re either injured or on the knifes edge if you’re pushing your body…  So for now I will continue to wake up everyday , take a few tentative steps to see if the pains gone…… so far it’s been all #nottoday.  Lucky for me I’m surrounded by amazingly supportive friends and family who keep my spirits up, priorities straight and perspective in the right place.