Stress Fractures are slight cracks in the surface of the bone. The most common sites are the bones of the feet, legs, and hands.
Diagnosis and Treatment
How can you tell that you have a stress fracture?
Use the finger test. A stress fracture usually hurts when you press on it with your finger both from above and below. A tendon or ligament usually hurts only on pressure from one side.X rays usually are not sensitive enough to pick up small cracks in bones. It is not until two or three weeks later, when a callus - a layer of bony material - forms over the crack, that an X-ray diagnosis of a stress fracture can be made. By this time, if you rested the fracture, the pain should have abated.
A sports medicine physician usually will not apply a cast to the injured area. Stress fractures heal by themselves in most cases. The immobilization caused by the cast makes the muscles smaller and weaker.