WHEE! Sprained ankles are so much fun...

Last weekend was pretty fun - I went on a hike to Horsetooth Rock west of Fort Collins, climbed the rock, and even saw a black bear on the trail.

Pretty good hike, except for the fact that during the hiking, and especially while I was scrambling on the rock itself, I rolled my ankle about twenty times.

Technically this is more of a series of repeated aggravations of an existing sprain that didn't really heal right than a fresh sprain. At least my foot didn't swell all that much, but I heard a couple pops, and after it was over, I had some black and blue marks on my ankle, and it was really sore. Gotta love having bad feet (residual club feet to be exact - they've seen more knives than a Benihana.)

I went to the doctor last Thursday, he looked at it, manipulated it a bit, and yep, it was sprained alright, and the ligaments are getting all stretched out, leaving a lot of play in the joints. Got a referral to a podiatrist, who I'll be seeing a week from Tuesday, and an aircast to limp around in and keep me from rolling my ankle yet again. I'll bet that the podiatrist will want to do yet more surgery when he gets a good look at my feet...

Just a barrel of laughs, I'll tell you that.

I have torn ligaments on both ankles but both are OK now.

No surgery, just time to heal.

After a few days of going easy on the ankle, wearing the aircast, and being damned sure to not roll it, it is feeling better. It doesn't hurt on every step like it used to, but it does feel pretty wobbly. I'm afraid it is a stretched out or even completely torn ligament - there's a lot of slop in the joint. Without support, it really wants to roll over, and the muscles and such that normally kick in when I walk to prevent that from happening are barely doing anything.

On top of that, this is a residual club foot, and the muscles are inbalanced in a way that makes my foot shaped really funny, makes the toes claw up a bit, gives me a ridiculously high arch, and gives even more of a tendency to turn inwards.

Freaks me out. At least it isn't causing huge amounts of pain at the moment, though I'm afraid that I will be going under the knife sooner or later.

... I wouldn't limp on the Aircast, but try to use crutches, at least one.

I can speak from my own personal experience that yes, ankles do heal faster if you don't put weight on them.

(I tore two ligaments in my left ankle in college falling down the stairs, and retore them stepping out of bed a few years later. Yes, stepping out of bed. I was being tough and eating my painkillers and walking on it the first week of the retear, and my doctor yelled at me really loudly when I came back in for a recheck. I had a reason for at least some of the walking -- had a job interview and I really didn't want to show up on crutches. But it did heal much better once I gave in and actually used the crutches.)

Yes, it bites to not be able to carry anything, and to get bruises on your palms/underarms, and to have to struggle to open doors.... but it does help.

Guess what. I have a job interview on Tuesday. And yep, I don't really want to show up for a job interview on crutches. Granted, it's a software engineering job, so I don't anticipate having to do heavy lifting and such, but I don't want their HR department to think their health insurance bills might get jacked up and find some excuse to not hire me.

:(

What sucks even more is that I just invested in a suit and tie for job interviews, along with a new pair of shoes. With my bad feet and new shoes that haven't been broken in yet, that's guaranteed to be an ordeal of pain...

And I also hope your doctor gave you some decent painkillers. That is what got me through the interview. I know most wouldn't advise eating painkillers before a job interview either, but when you're in that much pain, you don't get loopy from the pain medicine.

That's exactly why I didn't want to use the crutches at the job interview either. It was a technical support job, but I didn't want them to think I was a sickly/clumsy person (even though I am!) I once had a job interview and I had just caught a really, really bad cold. I had almost completely lost my voice. I went to it anyway, but I didn't get the job.

One of the interviewers was pretty tough, but for the most part, I did pretty well.

I haven't been taking much in the way in painkillers, but on the bright side, the ankle doesn't really hurt at this point (or I have a very high pain threshold) unless I twist or aggravate it.

I did it Memorial Day and I have a metal plate and 10 screws in it. I'm still now weight bearing and wear a big black boot and use an ankle. My job is ending in October and I'm hoping I can interview without a walker soon.

Hope that heals up for you.

I just came back from the podiatrist's office sporting a black cast boot and a pair of crutches.

It turns out that it wasn't just the usual stretched ankle ligaments, but I also damaged my peroneal tendon on that foot. Orthotic insoles weren't doing anything for the pain, and the doctor suggested the boot and said it would get better if I rested it. So, boot and crutches for 3-6 weeks, and an upcoming series of appointments with the physical the-rapist...

This is gonna be a long summer, isn't it?

I sprained my left ankle twice and right ankle once when i played a lot of b-ball. Those things HOIT! Only one of them was bad enough to have be immobilized, but not for as long as you.

Hang in there.
The Professor

Gotta love it when people say "At least it's just a soft tissue injury."

I've heard that as well. But, i had green twig breaks in my hand and they didn't hurt anywhere NEAR as much as sprains. Go figure.
The Professor

I feel your pain. The peroneal tendon is a BITCH - it JUST WON'T HEAL. I tore mine, along with the talofibular ligaments. They heal a lot faster though.

At least in my case, it looks like the ligaments aren't torn - I can still walk on my foot if I didn't mind pain with every step and continuing to put stress on that peroneal tendon. I'm not sure if the tendon's torn or not - the podiatrist's going conservative for now - I expect that if it doesn't heal in six weeks, that means it's got tears, or all the strong collagen's been frayed and replaced with glops of scar - surgery time. I hope that's not the case.

Did the doc recommend the usual RICE (rest, ice, compress, elevate)? It really does help.
I recently strained my wrist (not as serious as what happened to you). RICE helped. Also, I get regular acupuncture for migraines. When I went in, I asked for help with the strained wrist; they added a couple of needles and that helped get rid of the residual problems.
Good luck to you.

That's pretty much what I'm doing today.

He also suggested NSAIDs - a decent amount of ibuprofen, in other words.

A couple summers ago, I punctured the bottom of my foot on an ac/dc plug and ended up in a cast for 7 weeks. foot/ankle injuries are truly the worst.

signed,

a total klutz and often ankle roller...


and...


Feel better soon. :hug:

That's the thing about tendon injuries - the pain's damned persistant. Mine hurts every time I take a step and put weight on that foot. It's time for me to make that pain go away.

Cannot ice skate anymore. But that is about the whole of it. Oh and my ankles looked abnormally large.

I may have to resort to lugging around a backpack since I have my hands full with the crutches.