2nd Metatarsal Stress Fracture - What Now?

Larry

Barefooters
Sep 13, 2012
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Hi folks, just a call for ideas and advice, and perhaps experience from those who have been there before.

I'm now into my seventh week off with a stress fracture in my second met, and I'm trying to come up with a plan for the next six months to try and make sure I can eventually get myself running again without re-injuring my foot. I have spent the last 6 weeks in the medical wringer - doctors, X-ray, MRI, orthopaedic clinic, and I'm now being told there's no need for a CAM boot (I have been walking carefully on it the whole time) and it is healing. Ortho dude tells me it can be up to six months before the bone is back to full strength and I should modify my activities in the meantime. No specific advice beyond that, and no suggestions around the likely cause (although to his credit at least he didn't just point to BF running as the obvious scapegoat). I really have no idea how long I should wait before trying it out, but I know it's not ready yet.

I have spoken to a lady at work who had the same problem and she has recommended a local physiotherapist who goes through a lengthy process of building up strength in the supporting muscles and doing swimming and cycling before attempting to run, and then looking at gait once running starts again. I like the sound of that, but he might not be all that interested in barefoot running as an option (and to be honest, I have to question it myself if I'm serious). Have others had success with this sort of approach? Should I jump back in barefoot or look at a few months in shoes to start with? Can I expect the bone to be stronger after a full recovery or is this something I'm going to have to manage forever?

I'm also thinking about the cause to try to reduce the chances of re-injury. I did it running a fast lap of a 6km track - not a long distance for me, but the track was a little bit rough with gravel and I was pushing it a bit to be running that fast on that surface. I was moving along fine until I felt something go in the top of my foot in the last 200m or so and that was that. I thought it was TOFP, so I tried playing basketball on it a few days later and made it worse. I've been off it since then, and the only active thing I have done is a little bit of gentle bouncing on a trampoline with my daughter and some swimming.

If I look back at the period before the injury, I guess I had a tough few months where I was occasionally spraining my right ankle. My theory is that this led to a reduced range of motion in the ankle, which brought on achilles soreness at the attachment point each time along with a nasty persistent trigger point higher in the calf towards the outside, which I was able to run through after a week or two of rest each time. However, that could have changed something in my gait that then caused the stress fracture. I'm not sure, but I like to think that something has to change for you to pick up something like this. I had been running barefoot for a few years before this and my feet have generally been OK before this. Maybe I was trying to run faster and changed something too, or it was fatigue..

The foot in question does have a pronounced Morton's toe, much more so than the left foot, so I guess that points to more stress on that met, and that's something I can't do much about as far as I know. It could be that I just can't run barefoot on anything other than soft or smooth surfaces due to this, which would be disappointing, but I have to be realistic.

The other factors at play are all along the lines of the (timely) Sock Doc article posted on the homepage - I really wasn't sleeping much at the time and probably ran tired a bit too much. Diet wise I was OK, but I think sugar consumption was a problem - I know I was having some really bad chocolate cravings at the time and eating way too much. Stress? Maybe, but I'm generally a relaxed type. I guess it all adds up.

Anyway, enough War and Peace, feel free to chime in with any thoughts you have and I'll try to work out what to do next.
 
stress fractures happen over time, not at one blow. over training, stress, bad diet, can keep you from full recovery. morton's toe complicates it even more. i would say go to a movement specialist to see if how you move caused it. you don't have an easy road ahead of you but challenges are what make life exciting. good luck.
 
stress fractures happen over time, not at one blow. over training, stress, bad diet, can keep you from full recovery. morton's toe complicates it even more. i would say go to a movement specialist to see if how you move caused it. you don't have an easy road ahead of you but challenges are what make life exciting. good luck.
Good advice, Mig!
 
um, thanks. i wrote that then i saw he had posted the same thing to the sock doc's article so he got the same advice twice. :facepalm:

i do feel Larry's pain though. haven't really run more than a block in a year and i'm itching to go but won't until my ankle isn't such a mess. no need to make it bad again right before it gets better. patience, i hope, will pay off.
 
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um, thanks. i wrote that then i saw he had posted the same thing to the sock doc's article so he got the same advice twice. :facepalm:

i do feel Larry's pain though. haven't really run more than a block in a year and i'm itching to go but won't until my ankle isn't such a mess. no need to make it bad again right before it gets better. patience, i hope, will pay off.
Why is it taking so long to heal?
 
hard to rehab while you're in class all day. only during some lectures can i exercise and pay attention and take notes. it's a full time job at school and then some.
 
I had TOFP, but didn't know how to treat it. An orthopedist took x-rays and said he saw a stress fracture that was invisible to me in the x-ray. His assistant also had trouble seeing it. I then learned about TOFP, began massaging and stretching, and the pain went away. I'm not saying you don't have a stress fracture, but what does the x-ray look like? I would also treat it like it was TOFP. Even if it isn't, the extra massaging and stretching will probably help. I would also use a foot roller away from the painful area, to keep the arch muscles loose while the injury heals. I stubbed my toe in February, and I found that, even though I wasn't running, massaging and stretching the feet and lower leg seemed to help the left big toe's met head heal.

In any case, I hope you heal up soon!
 
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