The Second Opinion

Today I had a second opinion on my never-ending stress fracture with a surgeon. Why a surgeon you ask? Well when I had my follow up call with my regular sports doctor he suggested as much as my leg has officially gotten to a point that is out of his range. After further review of my various scans it was determined that a more invasive approach may be necessary to finalize the healing as I'm experiencing a Nonunion fracture situation. For those of you unfamiliar to what a nonunion fracture is,

"Nonunion is a serious complication of a fracture where the normal process of bone healing is interrupted or stalled....

Since the process of bone healing is quite variable, a nonunion may go on to heal without intervention in a very few cases. In general, if a nonunion is still evident at 6 months post injury it will remain unhealed without specific treatment, usually orthopedic surgery. A non-union which does go on to heal is called a delayed union.

By definition, a nonunion will not heal if left alone. Therefore the patient's symptoms will not be improved and the function of the limb will remain impaired."

My doctor gave me the heads up that the best case scenario I was looking at was being set up with a bone stimulator and/or worst case I would need surgery. As I am now at the six month mark with this injury, I'm long past the point of ruling out any and all options that could finally put this injury behind me so I walked in to my appointment as prepared as I could be after extensive online research of both scenarios. After going over my injury history with a five person staff that made up the surgeon's team, my scans were then reviewed, and a huge breathe was taken before the diagnosis was imparted to me;

I am to begin bone stimulation daily for the next three months. If at the end of that three months the bone still has not fused together surgery will be my only option. I am allowed little to no xtraining during this time, with approved xtraining being swimming and stationary bike with no resistance only, no more than a few days a week at most. I will have a follow up appointment the beginning of December to determine where we go from there.

Worst Case: If the nonunion persists a titanium rod will be inserted down the length of my tibia through the knee, pins will be screwed into my bone to hold said rod in place, and I will be looking at a recovery period of six months to a year. Long distance running will become nothing but a distant memory as the point of entry for the surgery will cause me lifelong knee problems, but I'll never have to worry about another stress fracture in my left leg ever again!

Best Case: If the bone stimulator does it's job and my bone cooperates I will, at long last, be able to put this injury behind me and finally be able to regain my once upon a time, active lifestyle. (When applied over a fracture site, a bone stimulator produces an ultrasonic wave, which delivers mechanical pressure to the bone tissue at the fracture site. Electrical stimulation therapy has been found to be effective in healing Nonunions.)

And that is that. I don't really know what to say, feel, think, or even do at this point other than to get the bone stimulator, hope my insurance covers it, and pray that it will get the job done in the time specified to avoid surgery.