Sprained/twisted ankle

[abbi_1990]

I sprained or twisted my ankle on tuesday whilst doing a forward drag.

Has anyone else had a similar injury? how long did it take to get better? Could you still skate?

[Morgail]

Ouch! Well, what I did is probably more serious than your injury (mine was a high ankle sprain that needed surgery). But with a regular ankle sprain, you'll probably still be off the ice for at least a few days. How long depends on how serious it was. Just rest it, ice it, wrap it in an Ace bandage, and keep it elevated. You'll just have to wait for the pain to go away and the swelling to subside. If it doesn't start to get better after a few days, you might go to a doctor just to make sure it isn't anything more serious.
Hope it feels better soon! :)

[abbi_1990]

Thankyou!

I went to the hospital this afternoon because i couldnt go to college today because it was hurting too much and my mum was a bit concerned about it. They x-rayed it and said that it wasnt broken but they didnt give me any guidelines on what i should/shouldnt do.

It isnt swollen or bruised, just really painful!

Im supposed to have a skating lesson tomorrow, but dont have my coaches phone number so cant cancel it :S but its looking like i wont be able to skate tomorrow.

I have ice skating tests on saturday so am really hoping it will be okay by then.

(p.s. how did you hurt you ankle? is it better now?)

[montanarose]

I don't mean to give you a horror story but, having said that, I'll proceed to do so (in the interest of giving you full disclosure and probably more information than you want or, hopefully, need).

I twisted my ankle last year -- not even skating, mind you! -- and assumed it was a "simple" ankle sprain. I did the RICE thing (rest, ice, compression, elevation) but overnight my ankle -- in particular, the outside of my foot -- remained excruciatingly painful, including painful to the touch. Just to be on the safe side, I went to the local sports medicine clinic the next day to make sure I hadn't broken a bone.

The X-rays came back; the sports doc looked at them and he said he didn't see any breaks. I thought I'd dodged a major bullet, but then he palpated my ankle and foot more thoroughly. Based on where the pain was localized, he said I might have a Jones fracture, which is a fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone (and frequently referred to in the literature as "the dreaded Jones fracture"; see link below). He sent me back for another series of X-rays -- this time requiring a totally different positioning of my foot -- and, sure enough, with the new films he was able to diagnose the Jones fracture which he had suspected.

As I learned, such a fracture is quite frequently undiagnosed subsequent to an ankle sprain: http://www.theacc.com/genrel/092005aaf.html. The problem is that if it goes undiagnosed, it is very difficult to heal and frequently ends up requiring surgery -- including screw placement -- to restore ankle function.

In my case, thanks to my doc's excellent clinical instincts, mine was caught early on and I ended up on crutches for a week, a cast for just under a month, and about ten sessions of PT. The fracture totally healed and I regained full mobility of my ankle joint.

If you have any persistent foot pain (you can do a Google search to find out more specifics), you might want to have your doc look at this possibility ASAP.


Ellen

[abbi_1990]

Ouch! that sounds really painfull.

I have just got up and am not not very happy, just before i got out of bed i could move my ankle with much less pain than yesterday and tuesday so was thinking i could go ice skating today but after walking (limping?? lol) to the bathroom and stuff its now hurting more than it did yesterday evening :(

Thanks for sharing you experience, Ill keep what you said in mind, if its not better by Saturday ill go back to the hospital or something.

[Rusty Blades]

In August 2006, doing back change of edges, something popped in my right ankle - I both heard it and felt it! My ankle started to swell up and I had to get my boot off right away. I took a week off skating, until I could get my boot back on but the pain didn't go away so I saw a physiotherapist in November (06) and she said it was a "Class 2 sprain". She wanted me to take 6 weeks off skating and said if I kept skating, it would not heal. Since I was working toward my first Nationals, I kept skating and did physio three days a week!

After Nationals in late March I switched to Jackson ProFlex boots, which give my ankle more protection, and by June the pain was gone and the ankle was almost back to normal. If I do too much footwork at one time, I can still start to feel minor discomfort in that ankle.

Then, this fall, I damaged 3 other ligaments in my right foot doing a stupid Waltz jump! 8O I am wearing an ankle brace daily now until after the competition in 10 days - maybe then I will "take it easy" LOL!

You've gatta watch those simple moves - they're killers! All the skaters I know who have suffered a serious injury have done so while doing something simple and basic!

[Sessy]

I sprained or twisted my ankle on tuesday whilst doing a forward drag.

Has anyone else had a similar injury? how long did it take to get better? Could you still skate?

Last february, my landing ankle went POP after I stuck the toepicks in the ice and fell over backward. I went back to skating the same session even doing some loops, but the pain really came when I took off the boot.
So, for a long time I thought it was a sprain, and so did the doctor and his idea was to get me to move it more, skate, exercise... That made it worse, MUCH worse. Then I figured out it must've been broken after all but the doctor wasn't buying it. Until some x-rays in july, after which a cast was laid till august: it WAS broken, and the ligaments were all messed up too. Physiotherapy for a very short while (not insured for it) and slowly going back to skating followed.
I'm just now returning to wearing (small) heels and doing (small) jumps. I'm talking bunny hops and tiny waltz jumps, I'm trying to build it up. Kinda frustrating considering I was practicing the axel beforehand (not landing it, just practicing).


Piece of advise: don't go skate on it till it's better. Don't go walk on it much either. Ligaments take way longer than bones do to heal.

[Morgail]

Thankyou!
(p.s. how did you hurt you ankle? is it better now?)

I hurt mine pretty much the same way Sessy described hurting hers. I was doing a bracket, lost my balance, and stuck my toepick in the ice to keep from falling. Ended up falling backward with my pick stuck in the ice in front of me. I've been off-ice since then (that was Sept. 2). Hopefully I'll be back soon! It doesn't really hurt anymore - it's just still a little swollen and I don't have all the strength back yet.

I hope yours feels better soon (esp. since you have tests this weekend!). Definitely go back to the doctor if it doesn't seem to be improving.

[abbi_1990]

Thankyou for your advice everyone :)

I hope your ankle gets back to skating soon Morgail

RustyBlades i hope your ankle soon stops hurting, and good luck with your competition! Do you wear the ankle brace to skate? or just to walk?

I cancelled todays skating lesson but did manage to get into college (my mum gave me a lift lol)

[Rusty Blades]

Do you wear the ankle brace to skate? or just to walk?

I try to wear it constantly off ice but my ProFlex provide lost of support on-ice. It is just that too much "torquing" (like footwork) still gets to it - I don't care as long as it makes it through the 2:30 in front of the judges! :mrgreen:

[abbi_1990]

So you do wear it to ice skate?

[Sessy]

I stopped wearing mine a while ago and I didn't wear it for skating, ever. But I did get harder skates by the way.

I agree with Mrs here, the torque is the real problem, and the reason why it's kind of dangerous to skate "taking it easy" even, because when you have to make an emergency stop, you won't be taking it easy, you react instinctively, and your ankle will take the force. And that could happen just doing crossovers and getting in somebody's way - or they in yours.
I kinda burned myself on that one, for a week after my ankle hurt much worse, then recovered again to continue recovering slowly. Gave me a bit of a fright so I'm not doing a lot of speed stuff lately.

[abbi_1990]

I am waiting for my new boots to come, i have ordered the WIFA prima boots and they should arrive in about 4 weeks time. They are supposed to be better quality than the ones i currently have (Riedell red ribbons) and most importantly, they will be the right length and width - my current ones are too long and too narrow.

My ankle is feeling better today than yesterday, i can now walk on it normally with some pain. So im hopeful for tomorow - testing day.

[Morgail]

Good luck with your test! Let us know how it goes :)

[abbi_1990]

I PASSED it, YAY!

Got another one on thursday this week....

[Mrs Redboots]

I PASSED it, YAY!

Got another one on thursday this week....
Well done!

[abbi_1990]

Thankyou :)

[Sessy]

how's the ankle?

[abbi_1990]

it felt okish when i was skating yesterday, a bit clicky though.

Then in the afternoon we went into the city centre to the christmas market and into the shops. I think i over did it a bit with all the walking because its much worse today.

Iv been putting ice on it and iv wrapped it in a bandage and im trying to rest it as much as possible today since iv got college tomorrow and supposed to be skating tuesday and thursday with another test on thursday.

[SJacklène]

it felt okish when i was skating yesterday, a bit clicky though.

Then in the afternoon we went into the city centre to the christmas market and into the shops. I think i over did it a bit with all the walking because its much worse today.

Iv been putting ice on it and iv wrapped it in a bandage and im trying to rest it as much as possible today since iv got college tomorrow and supposed to be skating tuesday and thursday with another test on thursday.

Aww. That sucks. I hope your ankle starts to heal.

I have really bad problems with my ankles, mostly do to ballet and cheerleading. When I was little, spraining and rolling on my ankles was really no big deal for me. I would just shake it off and the pain would go away after 5 minutes. That all changed when I was a sophomore(high school).

I was walking down my friend's steps. they were cement and so was the walk way after it. The walk way had a hole in it at the bottom of the last step. Well, I didn't see it and I stepped on the edge of it and rolled my ankle. We were going to play basketball and I just shrugged it off as it stopped hurting after a while. The next morning it was really swollen and I couldn't even walk on it. So we went to the doctor and got x-rays. It wasn't broken, just a really bad sprain.

Then in my junior year, I was trying out for the cheerleading team at my school. There were so many people there we could have had a junior varsity. Anyway, we started stretching and then we started doing roundoffs. It wasn't even 5 minutes into clinicals when I got hurt. I was rebounding from a roundoff when I landed wrong. I rolled on my ankle and heard this horrible snapping noise and I fell to the ground helplessly. I tried to get up but I fell back down. I had torn some tendon on my left leg. We thought it was broken so the coaches called my mom and she took me to the hospital for x-rays. I didn't cry while I was sitting in the floor in the gym, but as soon as I got into the car I started crying. Not because it hurt, but because I wouldn't get to try out.

That is one reason I am scared to try to ice skate. I am afraid my ankles are too weak for it.

I hope everything goes well at your appointment!!

[Sessy]

Abbi, please, I know it's very hard to believe an ankle sprain is serious, but please, give it a few weeks of maximum rest, do nothing but the life important stuff! Otherwise you'll end up with an injury that could take a half a year to heal, you really don't wanna go down that road. It's just a few weeks! If you take rest now, you can be back doing everything you want with no consequences by mid december :)

[abbi_1990]

Its hard to believe, but i can see what your saying :frus:

Im glad i dont have ballet this week because my teacher is in a show so thats one less thing to do.

Skating doesnt seem to make it hurt as much as walking - the movement that hurts most is going up onto the ball of my foot.

If it still hurts to walk on tuesday i will skip practice.

Thanks for your advice and honesty :)

[Sessy]

*hugs*
I know it's hard and frustrating, but, well that's injuries for ya... Wish there was some magical pill to take that'd make everybody better overnight, but there isn't.

Good luck with it! :)
(crash on the couch and have everybody bring you hot chocolate ;) cuz you're so miserable about not being able to skate and do ballet!)

[abbi_1990]

lol i wish there was a magic pill!

its just started snowing were i live :D

[Derek]

I can only reiterate what Sessy has already said about giving an injury time to recover. I have knocked myself about quite a lot over the two years I have skated, and the injuries have taken far longer to heal than I expected, probably because I was so pig headed as to want to continue skating.

Oh, and welcome to Skatingforums by the way ! :)

ps: its snowing here too !

[Muskoka Skater]

I PASSED it, YAY!

Got another one on thursday this week....

Congradulations, hope you do as well on your tests on Thursday!!:bow:!!

[abbi_1990]

Hi Derek :)


Thankyou Muskoka Skater :)

[Morgail]

I PASSED it, YAY!

Got another one on thursday this week....


yay! congrats:D

[abbi_1990]

Thankyou :)

Ankle is feeling a bit better today, probably because iv been stuck in bed all day with some kind of stomach bug.

Thank goodness for laptops!

[Sessy]

That's the universe's way of telling you to take it easy. See it tried the first time with the ankle, but you wouldn't listen. Now it gave you a stomach bug. Better listen to the universe, lady! :twisted:

[abbi_1990]

Lol, i think i had better listen! No skating for me for a little while.....