#753 Fibula stress reaction vs stress fracture what is the difference?

If you have ankle pain and you push around on that lump of bone on the outside of your ankle, you may realize that you have pain on the bone specifically.

If so, you might become worried that you have a thing called a fibular stress fracture.

If you start trying to figure out what to do, one of the first things you may find is a lot of discussion about something called a “stress reaction” instead of just a “stress fracture”.

What’s the difference between a fibular stress reaction and a stress fracture in a runner?

Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.

#702 Bone bruise vs stress reaction in a runner

Whenever I speak to a runner who wants to know if they can run with a bone bruise, I get confused. If you were “diagnosed” with a bone bruise, you should be confused, too. A bruise is a very simple thing. You fall down and land on your knee and you get a bruise. You get a bruise because your kneecap crushes the skin against the ground and you get bleeding in the skin that you see as discoloration that we call a bruise. You can’t see that in a bone. When you get diagnosed with a bone bruise, you have to think of it in terms of bone injury, like a stress fracture. The continuum of bone injury includes stress response, stress reaction and stress fractures. You have to understand the severity of the bone injury before you can decide whether or not to run. What is the difference between a bone bruise and a stress reaction in a runner? Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.

#630 Cuboid stress fracture vs. Capsoluloligamentous strain associated with cavus foot. How can a runner tell the difference?

If you have this pain on the outside of your foot near the cuboid bone, you might start worrying you have a cuboid stress fracture.

Cuboid stress fractures are rare.

In fact, cuboid stress fractures account for less than 1% of all the stress fractures that happen in the foot in athletes.

But there is something more common that can feel like a cuboid stress fracture.

Doctors call it “capsuloligamentous strain.”

How can a runner tell the difference between a cuboid stress fracture and this thing called capsuloligamentous strain?

Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc on the Run podcast.

#629 Cuboid stress fracture vs. Degenerative changes in OS Peroneum. How can a runner tell the difference?

If you have been running with a nagging aching pain on the outside of your foot, just in front of your ankle, you might think you have a cuboid stress fracture.

If you then get an x-ray of the foot and it shows a tiny little extra bone sitting just next to the cuboid, well that bone has a specific name and it is called an Os Peroneum.

Sometimes you can get pain from the Os Peroneum, sometimes you can get pain from the cuboid bone that’s right next to it.

If you’re a runner and you have os peroneum pain, how do you tell the difference from a cuboid stress fracture?

Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run podcast.

#546 Waiting for x-ray of stress fracture miss the window

The worst runner to call me for a second opinion is someone who has been in a fracture walking boot or not running for 12 weeks or so. Why is that so bad? Well, they’re extremely aggravated. They’ve seen at least one doctor, probably a bunch of times. They’ve probably had several x-rays. They’ve been waiting and waiting but they’re not getting better and they’re very upset about that. Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re talking about how waiting for an x-ray can cause you to miss your window with a stress fracture.

#544 Stress fracture wishes as fodder for facts

In this episode we’re talking about stress fractures and we’re talking about what happens when you as a runner, wished something to be true and it’s not a fact. It’s really important that you understand this. Some of the wishes are things like, well, I want to run. The second one is I don’t want there to be a crack on my x-ray. Some facts are, well, my podiatrist took an x-ray and there was no crack. So what does that do? Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re talking about stress fracture wishes as fodder for facts.

#518 How long to wait before running with a stress fracture?

I got a question from a runner who’s had a metatarsal stress fracture who’s very frustrated, who’s trying to figure out how to get back to running. He went and saw a doctor and he was told that he had a stress fracture and the doctor told him to take some time off of running. Then he started watching some YouTube videos, started listening to some podcasts, and then asked me a very serious question: How long do I have to wait to run with a metatarsal stress fracture? Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On the Run podcast.

#501 Worst way to tell a stress reaction from a stress fracture

I lecture at medical conferences about stress fractures, trying to teach physicians the difference between a stress response, a stress reaction, which is basically an irritated and inflamed metatarsal bone, and a stress fracture where there’s actually a crack that can cause real trouble. One of the questions doctors ask me is what’s the best way and the worst way to tell a stress reaction from a stress fracture, because it does make a difference. What is the worst way to tell a stress reaction from a stress fracture? Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run podcast.

#498 Best way to tell a stress fracture from a stress reaction

Metatarsal stress fractures are one of the most common overtraining injuries afflicting runners. Much of the time the stress fracture is preceded by what we as doctors call a “stress reaction. ”If you ignore the warning signs of a stress reaction and keep on running in the same way, applying the same stress, the stress reaction will advance to a full on stress fracture they can keep you out of training for months. Most people think and X-ray of the foot is the best way to tell the difference between the stress fracture and a stress reaction. But that assumption is false. If you’re trying to figure out whether or not you’re in the early phases of the stress fracture injury process you have to take action to figure out what is going on immediately. This episode will explain that process. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about the difference between stress fracture and stress reaction.

#470 Doctor has a runner with a stress fracture for 2 months

I was just given a talk at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation’s 40th Annual Hawaii Seminar.
And at the end of the session, we got a couple of questions from the audience during the live Q&A for the doctors.
A doctor in the audience she had a runner who is one of her patients.
This runner 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.
Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we’re talking about what a doctor should do when she is helping a runner with a stress fracture who has been running on it for 2 months and still wants to run a race.