Forums >Health and Nutrition>Hip Stress Fracture
My wife has been recovering from a left hip stress fracture that she sustained this past August. She tried to run through it (before we knew what it was) and finally had to stop early September. Through an x-ray and MRI she was finally diagnoses and has not run for 8 weeks now. She had a follow up appointment yesterday and the Dr. (a sports orthopedic doc.) finally gave her the OK to SLOWLY return to running. It's great that she can start back, but my concern is that we really don't know what caused it in the first place. She recently had blood work done and this didn't reveal any issues. She didn't ramp up her mileage or dramatically increase the intensities of her runs during the time when she became injured. She did have a serious calf strain (right calf) and was favoring it for about a month. Would this be enough to throw her gait off and cause a stress fracture in her left hip?? I'm very glad she can slowly return to running, but just fearful of her getting another fracture. She's been a runner for 3 years know and has slowly progress to running about 25 miles per week. She's grown to love the sport and it's been hard to watch her struggle with this injury. Any advice is feedback is appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris
Feeling the growl again
It's tough not knowing the cause, but sometimes they just happen. Really hard to say. It's when you keep getting them that you have to really worry about what is causing it. Once is a fluke.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
runktrun
Yeah, sometimes they just happen, but the hip is an odd place. Minor overuse stress fxs usually occur in the tibia/fibular or metatarsals. Hip stress fxs are usually do to serious overuse coupled with poor nutrition. The hips are pretty hardy and tough to bust. You're right in thinking that the cause might have been favoring the right calf. The right calf/left hip makes sense. I would have her scrutinize her diet to make sure she's not just getting enough calories but enough fat, calcium and vitamin D. 25 mpw should not be enough to to generate an overuse injury like a sfx unless it was precipitated by less than ideal nutrition and a change in mechanics. She may feel "phantom pains" or just be really paranoid about coming back too quickly. If her ortho did not give her a specific plan to follow, I would suggest starting off with a run/walk routine for a week and then transitioning into regular runs every other day for a few weeks until she feels confident enough to resume regular training. Best of luck.
Not running for my health, but in spite of it.
SMART Approach
What was her Vit D level on blood tests? Most experts and Vit D researchers want it above 40 but preferably above 50. In my line of work I see stress fractures often and in most cases Vit D levels are very low in the patients. Most advocates recommend 5000 iu as a maintance dose. Vit D is vital for optimum bone health and crucial to help calcium get to the bone. Magnesium is also very important. Most of us are deficient in Vit D unless out in the sun regularly without sunscreen and closer to the equador. I personally take 7000 iu daily and year round and my blood level is 60-70 which is optimal. Anything under a 100 is perfectly fine. Blood levels above 100 are probably harmless but unnecessary and also uncommon.
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Want to thank everyone for the responses as the information has been very helpful. I don't know the specifics from her blood work but her doctor wasn't overly concerned about her numbers. She has her test results and we'll have to go over them again tonight. I do have to report that she successfully completed her first run last night with no issues. She completed 5 - 1 minute jogs in the middle of a 2 mile walk. It went very well and she said there was no discomfort. She's also feeling pretty good this morning and said the hip feels OK. Have her doing some stretching after her runs to keep things loose. This is a good sign and have to keep things easy for awhile.