I had the follow-up appointment with my orthopaedist this morning, and he recommended that I have an MRI to definitively see what is going on with my femur. Though he acknowledged that this could be a full-blown stress fracture that doesn’t show up on x-ray, his opinion is that the pain I’m experiencing right now is “Phantom Pain” or “Healing Pain” from the previous stress reaction.
He explained that this type of pain is real, but is not caused by a recurrence of the injury. It is instead caused by how the healed injury site interacts with the connected nerves. He said this often feels very similar to the beginning stages of a stress injury.
Whatever the case, I’m just glad we’re going forward with the MRI so I can at least have peace-of-mind regarding the path ahead.