lateral ankle sprain (CF?)

[martmason]

Rob, the description of your injury is exactly the same as my experience last night. Ankle turned over accompanied by a loud cracking noise followed by my yelping being heard across hardcastle crags and cold clamy sweats, after about 30 seconds i was walking about followed shortly be returning to normal running pace. We finished the last couple of miles with hardly any pain. Back at the car whilst doing my right quad stretch the bloody thing turned again although with no noise. The picture you took is identical to how mine looks now. The pain is not too bad was even considering a quick r**d blast tomorrow, not too sure that would be a good idea now although fortunately i am booked in my physio for an ongoing knee niggle on Saturday so think it may hijack my session.
Hows your progress now?

[Rob Furness]

Sorry to hear that MM. Mine's pretty good mate to be fair, I bought a lace up ankle brace to allow me to still run off road (at the risk of going over bigstyle if anything went wrong) and took it reasonably steady with that for a while before ditching it and resuming normal running. I still find I go over on it fairly easily compared to the other ankle but now I can catch it before it actually does any damage, just a slight twinge usually. My opinion is that the ligaments are stuffed, but the surrounding muscles and tendons are strong so are holding things together ok.

I stand on one leg whilst brushing my teeth every day now to keep my balance good and that seems to help a fair bit too. If it feels ok I would run road on it, I don't think it will do it any harm. I've found that the sooner you resume running the faster the swelling goes down provided you don't go over on it again. Good luck getting it sorted.

[martmason]

Cheers Rob, I am trying desperatley to get some reasonable fitness back and like most the thought of enforced time out is not good. I have some tubigrip that may be of some benefit even if it is just enough for quick 45min road blast tomorrow lunchtime.

[martmason]

Well unfortunately the outcome ain't good. I have apparently ruptured my ligament and will have to have at least two weeks off any running. The physio said ligament damage pain sometimes lessens with the severity, hence being able to run home. Ok to ride so the bike will be seeing some action.

[Rob Furness]

If you've ruptured it I imagine you'll need some surgery to put it right. That's what happened to me when I did the other ankle a few years back (ATFL rupture), I had a tendon graft and was in a pot/boot for 6 weeks. Took me a long time to get it fully right tbh. Fingers crossed the outlook is better for you.

On the plus side, the ankle they operated on for me is now rock solid and stable.

[martmason]

Er no mention of surgery from the physio but your the second person to say that. She did say that it could be pretty u/s now and will give me muscle strengthening exercises when rehab starts in a couple of weeks to compensate for it. She did prove the injury by showing me how my foot can flop around like a wet dead fish. Looks like Fairfield will be a non starter now. Bugger.

[Rob Furness]

Have they only diagnosed it by examination? Normally you'd have a scan to confirm. Basically, if the ligament has ruptured it most probably will not heal back together without intervention. If there's enough of the ligament left (mine was wrecked) they can reattach the damaged pieces and immobilise it to allow it to heal properly. If not then they need to do a tendon graft in place of the damaged ligament.

You can strengthen the surrounding tendons such as Peroneus Brevis/longus which should hold things fairly well, but won't stop you going over on the ankle and pulling the tendon instead or breaking your ankle. Also it leaves the possibility of problems in the future if/when you lose strength in those tendons as you age.

[martmason]

It was just my physio who has diagnosed it, she gave it a blast on the ultrasound machine to help speed the healing process apparently. Hopefully it may not be too bad and heal naturally. The more daunting thing is the thought of removing the tape she has put on today.....

[Eleanor]

Sorry to hear about all this Mart, you must be good and p*ssed off. Fingers crossed it isn't as serious as Rob's.

[Rob Furness]

It was just my physio who has diagnosed it, she gave it a blast on the ultrasound machine to help speed the healing process apparently. Hopefully it may not be too bad and heal naturally. The more daunting thing is the thought of removing the tape she has put on today.....

If she has only diagnosed it through exam then it might not be a full rupture (a bit like saying you haven't broken a bone without doing an x ray), I'd be tempted to ask for a scan to confirm because the sooner it's operated on (if it is a rupture) the easier the op is. Just a thought

Sorry to hear about all this Mart, you must be good and p*ssed off. Fingers crossed it isn't as serious as Rob's.

If it is a rupture it must be as serious, rupture means the ligament has completely severed so there's not that much of a grey area.