Neil,
I was diagnosed in December of 1998 with a hip stress fracture, near the neck of the femur. I was told that you can not get a stress fracture in the same spot. I noticed I get them after finishing the marathon. I never have any pain training for the marathon it is after.
In 1996 I ran the Detroit Marathon in 3:03 and I took 2 weeks off due to my hip feeling like it locks up after I finished the marathon. This finally went away after a month off. Then in 1998 I ran the Kiawah Marathon in 2:56 and noticed right after the same hip pain. Well this time I continued to run on it and then in got to the point where I couldn't pull my knee up to my chest or stand on one leg. I decided to find out what is causing this pain after a marathon. I had an MRI and was diagnosed with the stress fracture. I was off for 12 weeks and then started back running. I started competing in 5 and 10k races and found my pain started back up again. I took another 8 weeks off and have been running pain free so far. I thought stress fractures only took 6 weeks to heal? A friend of mine told me I may need to have a pin put in my hip. What is your opinion?
Kim, Stress fractures occur for a couple of reasons. Naturally, the repeating pounding leads to mechanical failure of the trabechula of the skeleton, but there are other concerns. As a female, you need to be very concerned about osteoporosis, and should have a DEXA scan as soon as you can to verify you bone density. The other concern I have for you relates to your nutrition. How much coffee you drink, how much soda you drink, whether you take supplements, hormones etc. Calcium depletion is a significant problem for women, and nutrition, supplementation and hydration are all relevant issues.
Before you start thinking about pins in your hips, address the bone density issues I've raised.
