Does anyone have practical experience recovering from "Dreaded Black Line" fractures? (Read 170 times)

I was just diagnosed with the "dreaded black line" (DBL) in the mid-anterior tibia. My Ortho couldn't really give me a good idea what I could expect as far as healing. He said he seldom saw the DBL type fractures. He just said from the literature he read, that he didn't think it was a good outlook, and I should google (?). He kept mentioning surgery and nails (yikes)

I stopped running, and pain went away in 2 weeks. After 5 weeks I can fast walk with zero pain, and press hard on the tibia bump without any pain. I just started doing a bone stim unit at  week 5. The tibia bump has shrunk greatly to less than half the size of a dime.

Has anyone seen cases where a DBL fracture actually healed and the person was able to run again?

The fact that I have zero pain when fast walking, and no pain even when pressing as hard as I can on the bump (fracture area), does that indicate that healing is taking place? Again, I am looking for practical experience dealing with this...

I agree that a second opinion may be warranted, but the "dreaded black line" is just a term describing a stress fracture. It isn't a type of sfx. Everyone that I know has recovered from a sfx. Follow Dr's orders and you will be fine in due time.

I would seek a second opinion. Any doctor or ortho who suggests googling an injury is an idiot.

This. So much this.

Yeah, actually this guy was Board Certified, and a sports team Doc. Although, I think he was just recently board certified...

Just for the sake edification, here is some background:

I am using the downtime (swimming, cycling) to think about the cause. I see some possible causes.  1) I do a lot of cycling on mountains which really developed by calves dis-proportionately,  2) I was running on a country road that had an aggressive slant to both sides causing uneven hips and foot strike (Although I did try to run in the middle). 3) I did ramp up mileage too fast  training for a marathon. 4)  I banged my shin hard in my garage -and then noticed a lump not to long afterwards on my shin (coincidence or not).

A year ago, I started to have an ache on the outside lower left leg that would disappear after the first mile, but gradually over the year I would feel a twang the day after a run just walking -kinda came and went, but I ignored it (bad). Then, after a year I saw the bump and the pain became increasingly worse and the bump tender to the touch. So I am not totally  sure if I had the signs of a stress fracture, and my stupidity ignoring the warning signs, caused it to develop into the DBL fracture, or if the bang on the shin contributed in some way.

Just fyi, my Dreaded Black Line (DBL) stress fracture of the tibia did heal, albeit with a nice bump, after 6 months.The ortho said he was surprised it healed,  he really thought surgery was going to be needed. I am well aware however that the rate of re-occurrence of a stress fracture is a real risk if I am not careful. I did use the bone simulator diligently for 5 months, but I am not sure it was significant, and insurance wound up rejecting coverage and sticking me with a $1800 bill ! Still, I was very concerned about reading about DBL fractures not healing, so I was needing anything that would get me running again, hence went the bone simulator route ...

I totally did no running for 6 months (just bike, swim). After 6 months I did one or two 3 mile runs per week on a treadmill for 4 weeks. I noticed odd sensations during run around my tibia, and just did not feel I had my normal stride back, but so long as a I kept the pace above a 8:45 minute mile I was ok. If I went below a 8:45 minute pace, I sensed slight pain, so I backed off immediately. At the 7 month mark, I introduced my first weekly pavement run of 3 or 4 miles with no significant downhills, still felt a bit odd around my tibia, and my stride was not fluid, and still  found I needed to keep the pace above 8:45 or slight pain developed. At the 8 month mark, my stride returned during my weekly run, the odd tibia sensations no longer occurred, and my pace was able to drop to 8:30ish over 5 miles (pre injury pace was 7:30 over 13 miles). During all this, I only ran once per week, with an occasional 2nd run after some recovery days.

I am still taking it very cautiously. I have read more than a few people have a recurrence of the stress fracture. I used to run hills a lot, now I avoid significant downhills. I keep my pace slower, but am gradually increasing the pace each month by just 5 percent. Being without running was a major downer in my life, and would rather have some slower running, than no running at all. I hope to get back to race pace,  but will train much more smarter....

The lesson to be learned with bone stimulators is to find out the rules for getting approval from the insurance company BEORE ordering. The reason I had problems with an $1800 bill was that my insurance company wanted documented evidence that we had waited a few months to see if the fracture site would show signs of the DBL gap closing before they would approve a bone stimulator. Looking back, even during the first months while I waited on the bone stimulator to arrive, I could tell the fracture sites was healing. I suspect if we had taken another xray a month or 2 after I stopped running, we would have seen the fracture closing. AND overall even having used the bone stimulator,  it took a solid 8 months to heal fully anyways.