Staying active and exercising regularly is recommended throughout your entire life! While daily exercise is a good habit to get into, it can raise your risk of injury.

Minor injuries like sprains and strains can be remedied in a few days, but more serious injuries like stress fractures can take quite a bit longer to heal.

If you are experiencing pain while exercising, stop what you are doing! Exercising through the pain can make a stress fracture worse. Come see us at AFC Urgent Care Easley for a visit and X-ray, and read up on what is involved with a stress fracture injury below.

Are My Bones Brittle?

The majority of stress fractures occur because of some type of repetitive motion on your body. Oftentimes, they occur in the leg and foot bones because of the continued pressure of things like running or jumping. Overuse injuries like this happen because the bone can no longer support the repeated motion and tiny cracks can form.

That is not the only cause for stress fractures, though! They can also occur in people who have poor nutrition or medical conditions like osteoporosis. These two situations can cause your bones to become more brittle and prone to breaks and fractures while participating in everyday activities.

Indications of a Stress Fracture Injury

• Pain when exercising
• Tenderness at the site
• Mild swelling and redness
• Pain that gets worse over time

How Is a Stress Fracture Treated?

If you are experiencing pain, our team can help! We can do a full evaluation and discuss your exercise routine, and we can perform a digital X-ray to help locate the source of the pain. Once we have a better idea of the extent of your injury, we can make a plan to help you recover fully.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to stress fracture injuries is that you must rest and take a break from the exercise that caused the injury in order to have a full recovery. If you don’t, you could make the injury worse or even cause a full break of your affected bone.

Steps to Help Aid in Your Recovery

• Rest and avoid the activity that caused the fracture.
• Ice and elevate the area of injury.
• Compress the injury with a bandage.
• Skip weight-bearing exercises for the time being.

If you suspect a stress fracture or broken bone, come see us at AFC Urgent Care Easley.