Login required to started new threads

Login required to post replies

Sprained ankle or something worse?
Quote | Reply
Hi everyone,

I twisted my ankle on a run stepping on a rock 5 days ago. I felt a pop and some pain but was able to limp home. My ankle swelled right away and over the past few days I've had mild bruising and moderate swelling spread over about half of my foot.

I can walk and even run on it, although it hurts , especially in plantarflexion. Most of my pain is directly below as well as posterior to the lateral malleolus. I have also tenderness on the directly on the malleolus.

I was wondering if there's any reason I should go see a doctor? I'm worried about having a possible avulsion fracture after reading a few stories about that on here and also a peroneal tendon tear given the location of my pain but given that I can still walk on it, I don't know if it's that serious.

Any advice would be much appreciated!
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Get to a physio.

Sorry, but the week after I tore my ATFL then whilst swollen and sore I was walking 20km a day (was over in Singapore on holiday), and then after tearing the peroneal ligament was also walking fairly normally - in both cases I ended up with surgery to correct. Rolled ankle week before my first marathon, was really sore. X-ray and nothing 'wrong'. Few years later re-xray and showed the healed crack in it... So my first and PB marathon was run on a broken ankle..

Equally, some of the worst pain I had was simply a strained achilles tendon insertion point with no actual damage.
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
cantri333 wrote:
Hi everyone,

I twisted my ankle on a run stepping on a rock 5 days ago. I felt a pop and some pain but was able to limp home. My ankle swelled right away and over the past few days I've had mild bruising and moderate swelling spread over about half of my foot.

I can walk and even run on it, although it hurts , especially in plantarflexion. Most of my pain is directly below as well as posterior to the lateral malleolus. I have also tenderness on the directly on the malleolus.

I was wondering if there's any reason I should go see a doctor? I'm worried about having a possible avulsion fracture after reading a few stories about that on here and also a peroneal tendon tear given the location of my pain but given that I can still walk on it, I don't know if it's that serious.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I’d go see a sports med doc first (MD/DO/DPM). Your pain description is EXACTLY like mine, and I have a longitudinal (split) tear of a peroneal tendon. My lateral malleolus is tender and swells. My ankle inversion injury was nowhere near as bad as yours (based on your description here). You need to be checked to determine exactly what is injured, as well as the stability (or instability) of your foot/ankle
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Go see a doctor and get an x-ray/MRI asap.

I fell on a trail run in early Feb and waited until last week to get an MRI because I just thought it was a particularly bad ankle sprain. Turns out I have a Lateral malleolus fracture. If I would have gone to the doctor right when it happened, I would have most likely been told to completely immobilize it immediately, which could have saved me weeks of recovery time. Still have weeks ahead of me until I can start ramping back up.

Don't make the same mistake as me! FWIW, my symptoms were also almost identical to yours.
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Ooof... I feel for ya! Did it happen to look anything like this:
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7431590#p7431590

You can read a little about my experience there, although I hadn't updated it yet. The update isn't great, however: I've only just doing anything on it here in March, short 3-3.5 mile runs and a few rides. Did one of each back in February and it was awful, so waited a little longer. Basically 11 weeks off of it, and it is definitely still not right. Can't do much about it right now, though, unfortunately.

So I get it that you might not wanna go to the doc, and I certainly understand if you don't have the time to get there. Just know that you're in for a long recovery if you don't.

TL;DR: Don't be me, go to a doc!!

Good luck - hope you recover quick!
- Jeff
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
You are the best judge of what should happen. Go with what your instinct says. What’s your history with things like this and what are the results. I’m not asking you to tell us but historically how you’ve managed other things like this should help guide you.

A number of years ago we took a family vacation in Hawaii. The first morning I got up and decided to go for a run (I usually don’t run on vacation). It was a beautiful morning the road was empty and the sun was just coming up. I was flowing right along and then bam I was on the ground. I had stepped on one of these rock hard seeds and rolled my right foot. I knew right then this was different. I run trails most of the time and have often hit a rock, root or a hole and rolled my foot. Usually a simple shake off and then continue on. This one however wasn’t going to shake off. I did the same as you, walked/jogged back to our condo. By the time I was there my foot was a balloon. At the time I was simply not going to ruin vacation. I put ice on it, put on a pair of Teva sandals and winced through day 1. During the week we hiked a couple days, we went stand up paddling down a river, played daily on the beach and in the water. Your basic Hawaii vacation. By the end of seven days the swelling was almost gone the bruising was still there but the pain had decreased dramatically. We got home and two days after arriving back home I was running pain free.

So, historically I roll my feet and continue on. My gut told me this was just a really bad case of this. Historically I’ve never broken a bone in my life. That’s not for lack of trying. Mountain bike crashes, road bike crashes, getting hit by a base ball bat in full swing, I simply don’t break.

Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Rest for a while buddy and see if the pain go away. If not, make sure to get it checked asap. Hoping for your fast recovery!
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [cantri333] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
cantri333 wrote:
I was wondering if there's any reason I should go see a doctor? I'm worried about having a possible avulsion fracture after reading a few stories about that on here and also a peroneal tendon tear given the location of my pain but given that I can still walk on it, I don't know if it's that serious.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

So...even if there is no fracture or tear, you want to be careful here. Any time you do something like this, you almost certainly do some damage to the ligaments. That damage will almost certainly make your ankle less stable. And chronic ankle instability can result in injuries appearing all over the place.

(last summer I had recurrent left hamstring and butt pain, complete with muscle spasms, that we thought was due to an issue in my back. Nope - it was a compensation issue resulting from instability in my right ankle.)

I would check your balance on your two sides - if it's notably worse on the side of the injured ankle, then a few sessions of PT and some wobble board work now might save you years of injury down the road.
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [jkstevens] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
jkstevens wrote:
Ooof... I feel for ya! Did it happen to look anything like this:
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7431590#p7431590


- Jeff

I'll see your post and raise you a My Left Foot | Flickr ;-)
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [Duncan74] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Duncan74 wrote:
jkstevens wrote:
Ooof... I feel for ya! Did it happen to look anything like this:
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7431590#p7431590


- Jeff


I'll see your post and raise you a My Left Foot | Flickr ;-)

You win! (Thankfully! That's a loss I'm grateful to take!)

How long ago was that? Hopefully you're better now!
Last edited by: jkstevens: Mar 28, 21 17:06
Quote Reply
Re: Sprained ankle or something worse? [jkstevens] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
That one was 2008. (left ankle). Did exactly same injury to right ankle in 2015. And then a year after surgery tore the peroneal ligament on right side just as I finished rehab (literally met coach to put plan together for 'full' return to training Thursday, and tore on Monday. So that was another 2 years of surgery and rehab.

Did ironman again 2019 & 2020 and better / faster than ever before. But it's hard work, mentally more than physically.
Quote Reply