Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about a question from a doctor who has a runner who’s been running on a stress fracture for about two months.
Before I get started in this episode, I just want to let you know, if you have a stress fracture and you’re wondering what to do, I might have something that’s really useful for you. It’s the Metatarsals Stress Fracture Masterclass for Runners. I’ll explain more at the end of the episode, but you can check it out and you get it free at docontherun.com/stressfracturemasterclass.
II was invited to give a lecture today on stress response, stress reaction, and stress fractures in athletes. And in this talk, I was basically trying to explain to physicians about why it is that I think we have to treat runners differently than normal patients, and we have to try to do something to accelerate their healing as quickly as possible while helping them maintain their running fitness. That’s the big key.
And at the end of the session, we got a couple of questions from the audience. I did a live Q&A where the physicians in the audience could ask me specific questions, and I have the audio recording of that and I’m going to share that with you today because it’s the actual answer that I gave to this physician who asked a question. Now, what she asked specifically was she said that she had a runner who had been basically running on a mild stress fracture, which I would really consider a stress reaction, for a period of about two months but wanted to do a race.
I was just given a talk at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation’s 40th Annual Hawaii Seminar. This is where physicians, like podiatrists and sports medicine doctors, and foot and ankle surgeons, go to get their continuing medical education credits every year as a component of their continuing education to keep learning and stay current in what’s going on.
Her question was what would you do with this runner who’s been running on a stress fracture that’s not visible on the x-ray? It’s really a stress reaction. She called it a stress fracture, but if you don’t see it on the x-ray, it is a stress reaction.
She wanted to know that since it’s relatively mild and the runner wants to run and actually do a race that they’ve been training for, but they’ve been losing their fitness and sort of dumbing down their runs and getting slower, running less and less and less, but they still want to train or do their race.
What would I do?
I’m going to share with you now is the answer from that session. The recording quality is not really that great. It’s just an audio file, but I think it may be useful for you to hear my answer from that session. Check it out.
#471 Rehab after tibial sesamoid non-union removal surgery in both feet »» |