Advice on potential stress fracture

Well, I am up to 4.5+ miles running barefoot and am loving it. Last week on a normal short and easy run I diverted my attention from my running for a moment and stepped on a rock.

1 mile later I was limping and had to stop. I was barely able to walk home. It was really tender on the bottom, but by the next day it was only sore on the 2nd metatarsal close to the toe (left foot left side of toe. This area seemed to be directly above the impact zone.

I am training for a 70.3 half ironman, so I went to have it check so i would have an idea whether I should cancel. It was not broken, but after I mentioned BF running the doc said it could be a stress fracture and might not show up for 3 weeks. It still hurts, but as I said only on the top. It is impossible to roll to the ball of my foot.

Anyone have any advice on an injury of this type? I guess I want to know if it is just a bruise and if someone has a similar experience they could share their wisdom.
 
Hi TMo.

I do see stress fractures quite often in my often - for both shod and BF runners. The way you are describing your symptoms and site of pain it definately does sound like a stress fracture.

Stress fractures are most common in the 2nd metatarsal - in the neck of the bone - so this is going to be close to your 2nd toe joint. (Again sounds like the area you are describing).

Because stress fractures do not show up right away on xray - it is purely a clinical diagnosis and should be easily picked up by an astute Podiatrist.

I would treat it as a stress fracture if I were you - that means get into a surgical shoe - or stiff bottomed shoe. I give all stress fracture patients a bone stimulator to accelerate bone healing. In addition I start most patients on Vit K2 regimen to also assist in bone healing.

What did the Dr say? Did they begin treatment for a stress fracture?

Good luck!
 
The pain can also be a joint capsule sprain. As far as stress fractures being seen on x ray, Dr. Emily is right about them showing up later however there are other possibilities such as the ankle mortise locking up, something that can be handled by your local sports chiropractor. Of course, without examining it first hand, it is only conjecture.

I good sports chiropractor can likely get you on the road quickly.
 
What is a bone stimulator? It was a stress fracture and I have been in the boot 3-4 weeks now...walked around 2-3 weeks before the boot. I am desperate to run....

Not a Doc just a word of caution about the bone stimulator.
A bone stimulator is a device similar to an ultrasound massager I believe but I could be wrong, its intended purpose is to speed up the healing of the bone(I could be wrong here too).
My husband had a stress fracture of the fibula and he was put in the boot and given a bone stimulator well the stimulator made things worse. The stimulator grew extra bone around the intial fracutre then the Docs had to go in there and shave the extra bone. It took a loooooooooooooong time for all of that to heal.
And sorry to hear about your injury and I truly hope that you heal quickly.