Twisted/Sprained? my ankle- HELP!!

[summer123]

I went over on my ankle- sideways. Was in a set of stairs and couldn't have imagined the pain I felt when doing this- proper crying stuff! (I was in a pair of flat sandles so am a bit taken a back at the degree of pain it caused as I have done the same in a pair of 3" platforms and been fine.).

Its now swollen. As in the ankle joint is easily twice the size. The inside of my ankle looks fine and its not red or bruised (as yet).

I know the drill: R.I.C.E.R, but I was in the middle of a very busy day and on a train or standing on a bus and having to walk alot of it so was unable to get a compression sock for several hours,(3hours) and I couldn't get hold of any ice until I was home and had found a FREEZE spray which doesn't seem to feel cold anyway. I have kept the compression sock on but its not make any different to the swelling but does help when I need to walk on it.

AAAAGGGGHHHHH!


It hurts to walk on, it throbs when I stop walking on it and I am so scared it will take a long time to heal as I need to be at the gym, I am scared I will gain so much weight if I don't go and running, cycling, the stepper....anything I do uses my ankle and requires I out pressure on my ankle. This is on top of the fact I live several floors up and do not own a car, cannot afford taxis.

Does anyone have any sort of game plan? has this happened to anyone? (it must have, according to Wiki it affects 15% of the population at any one point) how did you get over this? how long did it take and most importantly, did you have to stop the gym totally while you had to wait for it to heal? were there any other ways you were able to keep the cardio side up or calorie burn?

Nutrition wise is there anything I need to rethink? aside from cutting out a large bulk of my 1900kcals diet as I go to the gym 8-10 hours a week, most of that being cardio and spend a further 2 hours a week stretching.

Please, if you can help at all I'd be really grateful as I am really panicking about this, I have not had more then two rest days a week for the past 5 days, I don't think I can manage it mentally!

 

[g8r80]

Could be broken. Could be sprained. Could be just bruised. Only your orthopedist can tell for sure. An ankle that is swollen to twice its size would concern me.

 

[summer123]

But what do I do for exercise now- (silent scream) called a medic this morning and they had me run a few tests, I can feel the floor through my leg, can wiggle my toes and there is no colour change so they have decided its not broken. I have now had the immediate pain die down somewhat- can actually curl by leg now which I wasn't able to do yesterday (it hurt my ankle too much) but the swelling is still there. I even slept with my leg raised above my chest!

Having rethought my exercise stratagy I am thinking cut back to between 1000 and 1300kcals? (had been 1900kcals) and instead of the 2hrs of daily exercise doing cardio, I am hoping I will be able to do things like swimming, rowing, the arm rower and upper body resistance work- none of which I have done for several years....(I'm a treadmill/epilator/bike kinda girl)

 

[g8r80]

Obviously, biking and elliptical are out. Rowing may be an option, but you'll have to push with your good foot and not with your bad one. Swimming may be a good option, especially if you use a pull buoy to minimize kicking. Also, you might want to consider weight training.

 

[summer123]

Well, went to the gym today, fared somewhat better then I thought!

Spent 20 mins walking on the steepest incline on the treadmill, felt very slow but worked- got my heart rate sort of up (140-150bpm) am aware when I get pain my desire to get where or what I want can override the pain (as when I had tendonitis in my calf) so did go easy.

Then did 25 mins on the rower, made sure I never bent my legs to the full extend where my ankle was included, my arms and quads took all the strain. Seemed to work, not as high a cardio but better then nothing!

Then 25 mins on the arm cycle. This did irritate my leg as I like to plough my entire body into each push and sort of do a little dance along with it (lol), had to keep reeling myself in and making myself stand still!

Spent the next half an hour on upper body work with weights without the HRM, did a few abs using the machines (cannot bend legs properly to do on the floor abs).

Next spent about half an hour in the gyms jacuzzi which I've never actually done, tried a few physio type exercises as thought the water would help, things like making a figure of eight with my toe, starting bigger spirals and winding down to be smaller.

The pain has reduced- I was woken up by it screaming at me at 6am yesterday (turns out sleeping with deep freeeze spray, gel and a tubigrip bandage is not a good idea: I burnt my skin) the swelling has yet to subside but you know what- I can walk on it now- all be it slowly! When supported its fine to walk on, without a support it feels painful so some way to go I think but defo a grade 1 sprain I think. Its been 1.5 days and apparently in a grade 1 sprain the swelling goes down within 48 hours so fingers crossed I don't have a cankle tomorrow afternoon!

I read about exercise with a sprain, conflicting advice (as always) one report said mild exercise is vital as with any torn ligament the body heals it with a scar tissue which becomes hardened and brittle. It also pulls on the other muscles around it and can cause pain and other muscle problems with flexibility. Keeping it moving also helps the blood flow which is vital to the mending of the torn ligament. There are very narrow veins in the ankle and the swelling does not help with this, keeping the circulation up is vital for recovery. Added to this I don't think my stress levels increasing (which would happen with a massive decrease in exercise) would have done my ankle an favors either! Glad I feel things have improved!

Thanks for your help!