Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] I had a stress fracture in my proximal fibula about a year and a half ago while playing football. It was misdiagnosed at first, so it was re-broken multiple times. Eventually it was casted and healed . It felt perfect for a while and I played all of the playoffs, but for the last half a year, i ve been having chronic pain shooting up and down the fibula. I ve had multiple x rays and an MRI that all check out fine. It is apparent on the images that the bone has not formed completely, but it is strong. Two orthopedic specialists have told me they don t know why it hasn t healed completely and aren t exactly sure what to do because it is such a rare injury. One recommended a bone stimulator. I m just looking for another opinion on what treatment options are out there.
[|AI|]  Hi, Cannot say in your particular case, indeed I'm not 100% sure I understand the question. If the bone hasn't knitted together and if the area is not cast, obviously moving around a broken bone will hurt and the treatment is to have the area entirely immobilized and probably to not bear weight on it.  Then, on the healing, the options are simple, and so I don't know any orthopedists who wouldn't know all of them:1) the bones have to be touching to stick together. This often requires an operation to bolt them together. On a small bone they might not want to go to the trouble since the bone doesn't do much. They might even be considering plain removing it.2) Immobilization as mentioned.3) there has to be the stuff to heal them. I had a diabetic with no bone in the area of her nerve pain. The nerve damage is certainly enough to cause loss of circulation and loss of bone. She did NOT have bone problems elsewhere if the nerves and circulation were not horrible. Nevertheless, she had low vitamin D and her healing went much better after she went onto it. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.