Injury

If you follow my page on Facebook then you know on Tuesday when I was walking after my therapy appointment and before going into work I stepped wrong off a curb and rolled/twisted my ankle.  What happened was…I was walking down this hill and not really paying attention to where I was going and the all of a sudden a curb appeared and I stepped off it only I didn’t know I was stepping off a curb.  My foot rolled in and it hurt so bad that I was afraid I broke my foot or part of my ankle.  I found a place to sit down almost immediately and started doing a range of motion and palpitation of my foot and ankle.  After a couple minutes of sitting there the pain level had gone down enough that I could walk on it, albeit slowly, but I could walk on it.  So I finished my 4 mile walk and went and sat in my car.  I actually had an ice pack in my car to keep my protein shake cold while I was at my therapy appointment and out walking around, so I put that on my ankle, but it made it hurt worse (probably because like a dummy I put it straight on my skin and didn’t put a sock on first), so I stopped.  

When I got in to work, I talked to my supervisor to make sure I wasn’t in a stand up all day position and told him what happened.  A little after our shift started I went and got an ice pack from the nurse.  She offered to wrap it for me but I said it would be okay.  However, the ice pack was one of those that only stays cold for like an hour and my ankle still hurt so I went back to the nurse and asked if she didn’t mind wrapping it for me after all.  When I stuck my ace wrapped foot/ankle in my boot, it worked like a compression splint and felt much better, but I kept having to pull my foot out because the front half of my foot felt like it was trying to go to “sleep.”

When I got home I took some tramadol that I had left over from when I strained my calf last October to help me sleep.  I got up Wednesday morning and went to one of the private ERs in my area.  Unlike a hospital ER, I was back in an exam room less than 5 minutes after walking in the front door.  The nurse walked me to my room and immediately took my stats.  While she was doing that, the charge nurse came in and got an overview of what I was there for.  A minute after that, the doctor was in there going over things with me.  Then the nurse that walked me back to my room originally walked me to the x-ray room and took 3 x-rays of my foot/ankle, then walked me back to my room.  About 10 minutes later the doctor came in and said that nothing was broken or torn, just soft tissue inflammation.  He said that translated to a grade 1 sprain, maaaaaaybe a grade 2.  He basically said that I should be okay in like 10-14 days. 

So, of course, now that I CAN’T run for like 2 weeks, all I can think of is running.  Ha!  

Anyway, the doctor gave me a prescription for more tramadol and a gel brace.  However, the gel brace does not fit in my work boot, so I’m just wrapping my foot/ankle with the ace bandage the nurse at work gave me for work and then wearing the gel brace when I’m not at work.  The doctor also gave me a list of PT exercises to do to help my ankle heal faster.  So I’ll be doing those as religiously as I can, guaranteed! 

When they were checking me out, they gave me a disc with my x-ray images on it!  YAY!
And here’s my foot in my brace.

"A sprained ankle is an injury that occurs when you roll, twist or turn your ankle in an awkward way. This can stretch or tear the tough bands of tissue (ligaments) that help hold your ankle bones together. Ligaments help stabilize joints, preventing excessive movement. A sprained ankle occurs when the ligaments are forced beyond their normal range of motion. Most sprained ankles involve injuries to the ligaments on the outer side of the ankle." (from the Mayo Clinic website)

Today I went to my doctor to follow up with him after the ER visit yesterday.  I love my doctor, I seriously do, but the wait to get in to see him is ridiculous.  My appointment was at 12:45pm and I finally got taken back to an exam room around 2pm and then he came in the room about 15 minutes later.  He looked at my ankle and said I was going to need x-rays, to which I said I already had them, but I left the disc with the images on it at home.  He told me to bring that to my next visit and just took my word for it that the ER doc said it was just soft tissue inflammation and not a tear or that anything was broken.  He asked if the ER gave me a boot and I said that they had just given me one of those gel splints.  He then said that the gel splints were ridiculous and what I actually needed was a boot.  I said I didn’t want a boot, he asked why and I said “because they’re big.”  He dropped his head and took a breath and then said, “I’m going to keep my mouth shut.”  Haha.  I told you, I love my doctor, he has a great sense of humor and he gets me and my craziness…because he’s a little crazy (ADHD) too.

He explained why I needed the boot as opposed to any other brace option and I gave in.  So, another 10-ish minute wait for the vendor to bring the boot in for me and give me my instructions for it.  I did have to make a stop at Target for a pair of socks because I hadn’t worn any socks with my flats and wasn’t expecting him to put me in a boot and I knew my toes were going to get cold.  Since this is my right foot, I figured that I could just use the gas and break with my left foot.  I’ve done it on road trips before.  Yea…the gas with my left foot is no problem.  The brake?  I think I was trying to kill myself every time I hit the brake.  So I am just taking the boot off in order to drive.
 

At first, walking was super awkward with the boot on.  After a couple hours of walking around at work (not walking for hours non-stop, just walking short bits here and there over the course of a couple hours) I think I had gotten the hang of it and was actually walking faster with the boot on than I was without it.  See, I no longer had to focus on keeping my foot still when I was walking because the boot did that for me.

One last bit of humor here.  When I was leaving the doctor’s office, I went to get on the elevator (his office is on the 2^nd floor), there was a sign that said “out of order” on it.  Seriously?  It worked when I got there, but I had to take the stairs down.  Took forever.  Haha.