Clay Shovelers Fracture

[Kyrunner]

Just a quick background, 38/M. Ran the Chicago Marathon in 2006. Had a pacemaker implanted this past April because of 3rd degree Heartblock, heart stopped for 83 seconds. I have gone to a chiropractor for pain in my shoulders the past 2-3 years. Pain got so bad this past weekend that I went to the ER. Xray showed a clay shovelers fracture @T1, doc said it was not recent injury. How could this have happened? I have read what was on the net and about it and nothing sounds like a description of how it could have happened. At my work I operate an overhead crane for a majority of my 12 hour shift, could it be a repetitive motion injury?

[Kyrunner]

Yes I ran the full 26.2 miles. The pain started in late 2005 or early 2006 before I started training for the marathon. I ran half marathons in 2001 and 2004 but hadn't noticed any pain like that during those training periods.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hi.

As the name suggests, you might have injured yourself while doing some action which needs bending forwards. It could also have happened while you were training for the marathon.

And did you run the full marathon? Did you have any pain during or around the time of the marathon?

Regards