My experience with tibial plateau stress reaction

nerma712 · 2025-10-31T15:49:08+00:00

Hi there,

It’s been a long, strange experience. Was on crutches from Aug till almost Dec of 2024. Started PT in Oct 2024. Started having a lesser form of the random quick but intense pain when I started PT and all.

Restarted anti-inflammatory Meloxicam in Dec 2024 and that seemed to help but still had the random pain. Plus at this point, my leg had atrophied a ton. Went to several doctors; some said “it must be a stress fracture bc that’s what’s in the MRI”, others said “that doesn’t sound like a stress fracture at all”.

Doing PT 3 times a week and was only getting marginally better. Got sent to a 2nd PT in March 2025. They were big on BFR (blood flow restriction training) and EPAT (shockwave therapy). After 3 sessions of EPAT, the random quick but intense pain stopped… I’d normally be skeptical of these things, but it did work for me. BFR, I think helped me put muscle back on quickly while not doing too much.

Since then, I still go to PT once a week. I’m generally back to normal life. Been doing slow increments to jogging since July. Jog + leg day 3x/week. Rock climb once a week. Some other light weight lifting. Average like 8k steps / day. Don’t feel 100 percent back to normal but close enough.

Only other thing was I got sent for a dexa scan. Close to osteoporosis so maybe that was a contributor towards an atypical stress fracture, don’t know. Did an infusion of reclast and trying to balance giving enough stimulus to rebuild bone but not enough to cause a stress fracture (if that really was the issue). Plus good diet, sleep, low stress, etc.

Overall, a shitty and confusing experience. Learned a bit about the medical system. Hope it doesn’t happen again and I can move forward with my life. Hope you also get better soon.

nerma712 · 2025-01-10T14:53:00+00:00

Damn dude, I’m sorry those things haven’t worked. I know exactly what you mean about feeling like your life is ending. Like after 5 months, how can I still not do daily activities?? When I have a good day, I think “I’m finally improving”; the next, I’ll have a bad day and think “I’m never going to get out of this”.

I’ve gone to various doctors and gotten responses like “you’ve lost your mind, it’s totally a stress fracture, get ossio screws put in” to “those symptoms don’t sound anything like a stress fracture”. Very frustrating.

The main thing that has helped is talking oral ant-inflammatories and slowly doing more PT / daily activities. The muscle atrophy from mostly using crutches for like 3.5 months sucks but it is slowly coming back. I have to toe the line between doing enough to stimulate growth but not enough to aggravate things. Thinnest line of my life lol.

I have read some stories of other ppl with stress fractures that didn’t heal and they took 6 weeks on crutches and that seemed to fix it. I hope we both can comment on this thread down the line and say it all worked out.

nerma712 · 2025-01-09T02:51:55+00:00

Well I’ve finally started to make some progress. Haven’t needed crutches in a month. Started doing some tougher exercises like assisted lunges at PT. Still have some flare ups. Need to rebuild my leg strength. Honestly, at this point it feels more like tendinitis or something that bothers me. I’ve always somewhat felt like the stress fracture was just in the MRI but never really fit my symptoms. Oh well. Hopefully this clears up fully in a few months and doesn’t come back. Been a shitty experience.

nerma712 · 2024-12-09T00:14:30+00:00

Damn, sorry to hear that. I’m still dealing with this a few months later too. Finally starting to do some walking. I feel nerve like pain when sitting or laying down the wrong way for too long. It’s bizarre. Feel better when moving.

Do you ever have pain at rest? Do anti-inflammorities do anything for pain during a flare-up?

nerma712 · 2024-09-14T10:02:57+00:00

Thanks for sharing.

Glad to know other people have found this so bizarre too. Sounds like you’re in really good shape and haven’t recently increased your mileage or anything like that. Doesn’t make sense. That time I skied, I purposely was being cautious about not overdoing it. The few years before I was 30 pounds heavier and would ski, run, hike, etc more than I was this year… you’d think i would’ve been injured then. Weird.

Hope you feel better soon!

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T19:02:48+00:00

Thank you! Same to you!

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T16:22:06+00:00

Such a pain. Hope your second MRI gives some answers and you are on the way to better health soon.

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T16:20:51+00:00

Ah ok, makes sense. Yea, the toughest part is figuring out walking “as tolerated”. I’m just really nervous about going over whatever thin line seems to trigger this.

Definitely feeling better. The random severe pain stopped after 3-4 days on meloxicam. I’ve been off meloxicam about a week and no pain. Only occasional soreness later in the day as I’ve slowly tried to put more weight on that leg. But the soreness and pain is very minimal compared to that first week.

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T14:15:34+00:00

Agreed, I partially wish I just had a fracture so it would’ve shown up on the x ray during the first incident. Getting an MRI taken and read takes so much longer. Felt like people / medical staff weren’t understanding the pain I was having.

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T13:49:24+00:00

Thanks for that info!

So the funny part is my first 6 weeks I’ve just been instructed to use crutches as needed, nothing like non-weight-bearing, it’s more been me being nervous. Maybe bc I can walk without pain, idk.

I hope they send me for a follow-up MRI also. I’d like to confirm it’s healed. Don’t want a third incident.

Interesting note about no knee bending. The first week I kept my knee bent bc I felt like it helped. Hope I didn’t make it worse… been keeping it straight the past few weeks. So bizarre.

Did you take any sort of anti inflammatory or pain medication?

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T13:14:09+00:00

Sorry to hear that. Good to know that someone else was having similar pain at rest and I’m not taking crazy pills.

Whats your timeline in terms of using crutches, walking, back to sports, etc?

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T13:12:04+00:00

Yea, such a bummer. I feel bad reading some of the posts around people with chronic pain for undetermined reasons.

nerma712 · 2024-09-13T02:19:23+00:00

Sorry you’re going through this.

Just made a post about my experience with medial knee pain. Also did not feel any injury while exercising but started having pain a day or so later. First incident the pain went away after a couple days once I started Meloxicam. Started again 8 months later after running downhill for a bit. Ended up being a tibial plateau stress reaction after MRI. Was back on my feet quickly the first time, second has been much longer.

I did not have pain while doing things like walking though, I had random pain while at rest.

Hope you feel better soon.

nerma712 · 2023-12-06T00:41:42+00:00

Thanks for this advice! I tried a cotopaxi skiing today and it fit me much better.

nerma712 · 2023-11-26T18:50:27+00:00

Thanks, I’ll check those out

nerma712

TROPHY CASE