"Technically Healed" so this is my FINAL post!

Here is my very final blog post. Today is 1st September 2009. The reason for the final post today is because I got this pelvic stress fracture injury in September 2008 and have therefore completed almost 1 year. This injury had literally consumed and drained me this past year as you can see from the previous post.

I got another MRI scan at the end of July (10-months post injury). The results: pubic ramus bone is no longer fractured and is now consolidated. This was wonderful news but still confusing as to why the pain/discomfort clearly remains, particularly increasing the longer I am sitting. As a result I still cannot cycle or take any impact (e.g.: jogging etc). The most frustrating thing is the long sitting periods in work and college. I need to shift and move about often to relieve the pressure. I can go for long walks since June without any time limits but the muscle burn in the groin intensifies the longer I go. It starts as a mild sensation on the surface, only feeling muscular, but as time progresses it moves the longer I’m moving. The radiologist, physio and doctor cannot explain. All they can see is the new MRI scan results which show a fully healed bone and no more extensive muscular oedema or avulsion tears. Therefore the severely stress-fractured pelvic bone has finally healed!

Despite improvement, being much more agile and able to finally walk pain-free and wear heels again after such a long difficult time, the groin burn continues and especially noticeable with certain sudden movements and as mentioned - sitting is the worse. So I dug into further investigation with fellow pelvic sfx sufferers on our group blog about it. I setup this community blog last year and it has been very active since and growing in members. One of the best pieces of advice I have received recently on the blog is from a female radiologist who suffered this same injury due to long distance running. She explained to me that despite the MRI showing stress fracture bone to be finally healed & consolidated, Micro-fractures on the bone will remain for some time after which take longer to heal and still require much rest in order to heal. Therefore I am at a very vulnerable stage and cannot increase exercise attempts beyond walking for now as this would cause the muscle in the area to pull on the pelvic bones thus straining it. Despite the fractured bone healed, it’s not 100% there yet and as the pelvis is attached to many ligaments and tendons these are constantly pulling on and moving pelvis. Therefore these micro-fractures will take more time.

Until then I have more than enough to keep me busy and don’t miss running etc. Being without any real exercise or gym for so long now I have gotten use to it and really enjoy and appreciate long walks with friends. However since August my priorities have changed since starting Masters in college. There is not much time for exercise or much other these days while juggling fulltime job and priority of Masters Course. It's a very interesting and enjoyable challenge but time consuming with constant assignments, study and job to keep me very busy indeed! The increased challenges and distractions for my mind helps ensure continued physical rest also. But I will join the gym again in a few weeks when the short & darker winter days approach. I should then be able to do some gentle cross-trainer and swimming as more of a relief and escape from work and study than anything else!

Overall I am happy with this progress update 1 year later but running and pre-injury state is still a long way off yet. I will continue to share updates on our group blog. Thank you to everyone for your comments throughout my blog, your support and emails through this very tough year+
Things are finally good again and I will work hard on making it continue and maintaining positivity! Any further updates on our group blog only, here:
Group Blog Link