Radiologist and Orthopedic doctor disagree on my stress fracture diagnosis

Just this morning, during the live Stress Fracture Masterclass I had an interesting question. 

The story went like this. An athlete who is a State ranked high school cross country and track, had to suddenly stop running due to intense pain that started about 15 days ago.

He went and saw a doctor. He got x-rays. He got an MRI, had a physical exam where the orthopedic doctor poked around and tried to figure out what was going on. The Orthopedist gave on diagnosis, but the Radiologist suggested a different diagnosis.

This is where the trouble comes in.

So, the runner was told a couple of different things, 1) a stress reaction, or 2) stress fracture, possibly of A) the third metatarsal or B) intermediate cuneiform bone, at the base of the third metatarsal.

Confused yet?

So was this runner! 

What do you do if you think you have a stress fracture, you see an orthopedic doctor and the radiologist who reads your images s disagrees about your diagnosis. 

Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.