As mentioned previously, I sprained my ankle last Thursday. Just to be safe, I went to the doctor on Friday, to make sure it wasn’t anything worse. He poked it a little, sent me to get an x-ray, and gave me a prescription for crutches. The x-ray took a while, and the crutch prescription could apparently only be filled at a surgical supply store half an hour away, so I didn’t bother. Saturday, it felt dramatically better, and Sunday it felt better by enough that I was able to take SteelyKid food shopping as usual, after strapping on one of the ankle braces I use playing basketball (having sprained both ankles at various points in the past).
Yesterday, while I was in the shower, my doctor called and left a message on the machine asking me to call back. By the time I did, he had left for the day. Since whatever he was calling about wasn’t urgent enough to call over the weekend, I figured it was no big deal, and went about my day. When I swung through my office a while later, there was a message from one of the nurses asking me to call right away. Which I did, and spent ten minutes on hold to find out she was busy. So I gave them my cell number (which I’m pretty sure I’ve done before, but whatever), and went about my day.
A little while later, she called back, and said that the x-ray which had been taken on Friday showed a fracture, and I was being referred to an orthopedist. This was a little surprising, as my ankle felt worlds better, but who am I to argue with medical professionals. I was then handed off to one of the secretaries to make an appointment, who called a few minutes later saying that the local orthopedic practice could see me right away, but I had to go get the x-rays from the imaging center, which involved another ten minutes of sitting in a waiting room. Then I headed down to the orthopedist, with some trepidation, expecting to be put in a cast, and chewed out for not bothering with the crutches over the weekend.
Instead, the PA came in, poked at my ankle a bit, and said, “Yeah, it’s sprained. Have you sprained it before? Then you already know what you need to do. I’ll look at the x-ray, though.” The orthopedist who came in a few minutes later said exactly the same thing. “It’s much more a sprain than a fracture– there’s just a tiny chip on the end of the fibula.” (The lateral malleolus, if you like Latin).
The treatment? Ice, elevation, and strapping it up in an ankle brace more or less like the one I already had. In other words, I should do what I had already been doing. They didn’t even set up a follow-up appointment, just said “If it’s still bugging you in 2-3 weeks, call us, and we’ll look at it again.” The PA recommended a different style of ankle brace for when I start playing hoops again,and they gave me an air cast for it, but it actually provided less support than the $20 lace-up brace I got at Sports Authority a few years back.
The ironic thing about all this was that the whole business probably caused me to spend more time on my feet yesterday afternoon than I was going to before they called to tell me the x-ray results. I had been planning to go to Barnes and Noble and work on the NSF grant proposal reviews that were due yesterday (whoops), but instead spent a couple hours running around from one medical office to another.
I guess I can claim some tough guy points on a technicality, since I was, strictly speaking, walking around on a broken ankle for several days, but, really, it was more an annoyance than anything else. And I really would’ve preferred to know this on Friday, rather than Monday…
Congrats! A broken ankle is much better than a sprained ankle. It heals stronger and also tends to hurt less and have less swelling (after the first couple of days). I battled the sprained/broken ankles constantly during grad school from basketball/soccer injuries and the broken ankles were always better experiences.
A suggestion for basketball: get a real high-top shoe. Ever since I starting using a high-top shoe I’ve never had another serious basketball ankle problem. This was a suggestion from my adviser whom I played basketball with and felt bad always seeing me hurt since he was guarding me (or maybe he wanted to keep healthy and in the lab more). He also had ankle problems until high-top shoes.
Most modern basketball shoes are low- or medium-top shoes that provide significantly less support and, unless you’re highly competitive, the gain in mobility from these shoes is negligible. The only problem is I don’t know where you get high-tops now. I bought my last ones from New Balance about five years ago, but NB doesn’t even seem to make basketball shoes anymore.
If you can bear weight without too much pain or making the swelling worse, you’re probably better off without crutches anyway. Keeps those muscles working.
The only thing I’d worry about in going to stiff high tops that eliminate ankle problems is whether or not it’s increasing the risk of knee problems. A sprained ankle is a whole lot easier to recover from than a torn ACL.
Sounds like my broken foot story. Although, I got bullied into going to the ER by a doctor friend who thought the swelling was wrong and it hurt too much in a very localized area for a sprain. Left to my own devices I would have iced it, stayed of it a bit and follow-up later if didn’t get better. Which is exactly what the orthopedist said too.
Get a cane. Helps take just a bit of weight off the area and increases stability. Maintain three days worth of stubble. Work on your sarcasm and insults. The House look would work for you.