Possible Stress Fracture? (Read 64 times)

So here's my story:

July of 2012 I fell off my horse at a jumping competition and smacked my right shin and inside my shin just above that ankle bone that sticks out...i rode the rest of the weekend and the pain went away. I had a pretty bruised shin (i have a picture and it was probably swollen a 1/2" higher that what it should have been where i hit it) and my ankle was just bruised. After a month or so, my inner ankle where i had hit it, was hurting pretty bad. i had my friends grandma who's a PA take a look at it and she said if it was fractured or anything, i wouldn't be walking...and my mom wasn't really convinced it was fractured so she didn't take me to the doctor or anything...so eventually the pain subsided and i only felt a sharp pain when i touched or squeezed the area, and a red/purpleish bruising remained there and is still there to this day. I decided that i wanted to start running in December of 2012. I began running 5 minutes at a time, and then went to 10, and so on. all of which took place on a treadmill....About a month went by and i was up to being able to run for 60 minutes (about 5 miles)...i would kind of bounce between 1 mile, then 2.5, and then 5, and then 3.5 and ran every day on the tread mill as well as lifting weights and using other cardio machines. at the end of January 2013, i started a 5 mile treadmill run perfectly fine, and when i got off afterwards, i felt exactly like i sprained my ankle. but i never landed on it weird or remembered rolling it while running. i had thought maybe i did fracture it when i fell off my horse and the running had aggravated it again. the pain ended up being pretty agonizing by the end of the night. I went to urgent care the next day (i was at college so that's the only place i had access to at the time besides the ER). i told the PA everything i just told you above, and she took x-rays said it wasn't fractured and it didn't have anything to do with my horse fall, told me to RICE, and wrapped it... and said id be fine in 2 weeks. well my mom went ahead and made my an appointment for my pediatrician back at home, because my ankle was continuing to get worse during those 2 weeks. the pediatrician sent me to the orthopedic surgeon. so again, i told the PA i saw there everything i just told you, they took weight bearing x-rays, she said i had a POSSIBLE stress fracture, put me in an air-cast up to my knee, and said i cant do anything except swim and lift weights while sitting down. its been 4 weeks and i go back in 3 days. i have only been walking to class (with my cast on) and swimming for about an hour every day. my ankle does not feel any better. I have a whole slew of races and things i need to be getting ready for this summer and im starting to get frustrated. i knew i should have gotten and MRI in the first place, because this feels more like a tissue thing than a bone thing. i think this because the area that is "fractured" hurts when i swim, like the water as im kicking is irritating the tissue not my bone. so now i have to wait to get an MRI (if thats what the doctor says) and wait to hear what they are going to do to treat it. what do you think it could be?

Either way,you would be treated the same-in boot. That should make you feel better. If a stress fx, it may now show up on x-ray if a healing response. MRI would be next step. Not wise to be doing exercise that irritates condition.