Do I have to use crutches for a fibula stress fracture?

One of the questions I get most often from runners with stress fractures is... "How can I get it to heal better? How do I get back to running faster?"   The best way is to remove the stress so that the stress fracture can actually heal as fast as possible. That sounds obvious, but most runners aren't doing that.    I talked to a runner just a couple of days ago who was not running on it, but she was walking on it...a lot.  She told me, “Well, I have a fracture walking boot, but I'm walking in it and my foot hurts."   My first response was, “Why aren't you using crutches to take the stress off of it? If walking is making it hurt, you're not going to get better quickly. It'll get better eventually, probably, but certainly not as fast as possible.”   Do I have to use crutches if I have a fibula stress fracture?    Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.