You put a lot of stress on your bones, sometimes without even realizing it. Repetitive movements, physical strain, and daily wear-and-tear may cause small stress fractures to appear in key bones in your body.
Stress fractures often affect athletes who regularly push their bodies to the limit. However, non-athletes may suffer from stress fractures, as well.
One of the tricky parts of coping with a stress fracture is simply recognizing that you have one because your symptoms may be so subtle. Once your stress fracture is diagnosed, you can take steps to treat it and restore the strength and integrity of your whole musculoskeletal system.
At the Center for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, Dr. Michael Blackwell sees stress fractures in bones large and small. If you suspect that you could have a stress fracture, contact Dr. Blackwell at his two locations in Tomball or his offices in Kingwood and Conroe, Texas, for diagnosis and treatment.
Take note of these four telltale symptoms of a stress fracture.
Often, the pain of a stress fracture first appears when you’re physically active. If you continue the activity, the pain may worsen over time.
It won’t be like breaking a bone in an accident or sports injury. Instead, stress-related tiny hairline cracks in your bone multiply and deepen over time, causing chronic pain and progressive loss of function.
Stress fractures in your legs and feet often feel more painful when you’re walking or standing due to the pressure of bearing your body weight.
While the pain of a stress fracture comes from the stress of physical activity, the discomfort is likely to continue, or even worsen, after you stop physical activity. You might suspect a stress fracture if your pain is more noticeable when at rest.
If you press down on the site where your pain seems to be originating, do you encounter tenderness or a worsening of pain? That may mean you have a stress fracture. Even a light touch on or near the impacted bone is likely to hurt.
You can think of a stress fracture as a bone bruise that has deepened enough to crack the bone.
In the early stages, a stress fracture is basically inflammation affecting the surface of the bone. As stress fractures form, you may also notice swelling around the affected area. That lets you know you have a fracture in need of professional evaluation and treatment.
When you visit the Center for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine with a suspected stress fracture, Dr. Blackwell asks you about your symptoms, performs a physical exam, and uses medical imaging.
If you have a stress fracture, you may need rest, a cast or walking boot, a splint, or other types of care to ensure speedy and correct healing.
When you pay attention to your body’s signals, you can take better care of your physical needs, including addressing stress fractures right away. If you think you might have a stress fracture, contact the Center for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine online or over the phone to schedule your first appointment.
