Long story short, I rolled my ankle last week and saw a doc. He couldn’t tell the severity because of the swelling. Anyways, saw him this week and he said that I have a high ankle sprain and that I blew out my ligament. The doc said that there isn’t much that he can do for the ligament, but that if I keep rolling it he can go in an fix it surgically. He noted, though, that the surgery is elective. Opinions?? I’m also not sure of the name of the ligament. But if it helps, its the one under the outside of my ankle. HAHA. Thanks guys!!
I had the same thing last summer, class 3 sprain with all my lateral ligaments torn (majorly swollen & purple, etc). It hurt like heck & I was on crutches for three weeks, and in physical therapy for two months. After that it healed perfectly and I’ve never had problems with it since.
As far as I know, unlike tendons, surgery is usually never needed for torn ligaments, they heal themselves. It just takes a while. Good luck!
If he meant that you tore your syndesmosis, that usually requires a screw or wire fixation to keep the tibia and fibula together. Otherwise the ankle is never stable. If you tore the talofibular ligament, usually a boot for a while, and later an aircast stirrup and rehab will suffice. Sometimes that requires surgery, too, as I understand it.
Thank you both for your replys. I wish I knew what the heck was wrong. I was in boot for a week, I’m in an aircast for the next two. But I can swim and bike and lift. No running yet. Im hecka bummed though, I don’t trust my ankle at all. But he said my ligaments are regularly loose, but all I can do for my hurt ankle is strengthen my muscles around it in hopes that if I start to roll it again, the muscles will contract and pull it back, since the ligament is gone. Sounds like, while surgery is not necessary, its the best thing to do???
Did the same thing, though not quite as bad. Be thankful its the offseason. Rest it and then build back slowly. Triathlon isnt a contact sport, so the odds of reinjuring it are limited. It will heal and in time you’ll completely forget you ever hurt it.
I takes 3-6 months for the ligaments to fully heal and they are never as good as a virgin ligament. The proprioceptive nerve endings get injured, also. These tell your brain where your ankle is and how everything is positioned. They prtect you from injury. They allow you to make the little unconscious movements that lessen twists, etc. These need to be rehabilitated as well.
A good PT can show you a number of these. Two good ones to start with are: Stork stands and writing the alphabet.
Stand on the injured foot while holding onto the countertop. Release your grip and stand. This brings all of the little stabilizing muscles and such into play. Stand as long as you can. Grab and stabilize yourself when you start to lose it. Don’t injure yourself.
Sit in a chair and draw the alphabet on the floor )or the air) with your big toe. Repeat.
Those balance discs with the little half-sphere on the bottom can be very helpful when you are stronger. I’m having a ‘senior moment’ and can’t recall what they’re called.
Aquajog. (I hate that word.) Aquarun with intervals.
If the ligament is completely torn you probably need surgery. If it is the syndesmosis, you need something. If the ligament is mostly torn, you probably need surgery.
Those balance discs with the little half-sphere on the bottom can be very helpful when you are stronger. I’m having a ‘senior moment’ and can’t recall what they’re called.
Wobble board.
Emphasis on the “when you’re stronger” part. There are well-described levels of rehab activities for ankle injuries. Take them on incrementally and with due caution. Sports medicine bible is a good resource, but a google search on ankle rehab will bring up most of them. Docfuel is tellin’ you all the right stuff.
If you have the typical ankle ligament injury, it would be major overkill to have surgery on it for a single severe sprain. Surgery would not make it better than non operative treatment. This is true unless this really was a high grade “high ankle sprain”, but that’s not what you described in the location mentioned above, and then the surgery is often not elective. Rehab the heck out of your ankle. It takes ages for it to feel right again, and to regain your proprioception.
Thanks for the replies everyone. As far as the High ankle sprain, it is a separate injury from the torn ligament. It is more up the front of my leg sorta almost to my shin. sorta speak. ha. and the ligament is at about 5 or 6 o’clock from my ankle bone. …if that helps at all
Jon,
I did the same thing in high school cross country. The ligament held for 5 more years and then 2 years ago I rolled my ankly one too many times and detached the ligament. The only option I had left was the surgery, where they screw the ligament to your bone. This is a VERY PAINFUL surgery because they have to grind the bone to get it to bleed so the tissue will heal to it…mind you, the morphine is great:) They pinned mine with 2 screws which are left in permanently. As for time out… 3 months in casts and boots another 6 (atleast for physio) and then I was allowed to run again, albeat it totally messed up my stride and left me to a year of peripheral injuries as a result of the new form and my body adapting to it (the lopsidedness was blamed for a fracture I obtained a year after the surgery) The physio was great and it definately helped, but there is always something to getting back to a sport and learning new form. The ankle sometimes ends up a lot more stable to the other one with limited flexibility even after months of physio. Mind you, I am doing fine now and the ankle has amazing stability with great flexibility after “breaking it in”
My advice to you…get an MRI to determine the extent of damage. Secondly, if it has’t completely detached I say let it heal!!! No pushing it…as hard as it may sound, the better it heals now, the less chance of reinjury. Definately use a brace for the first few months back to running and get a good PT…they are life savers. Good luck and if you want any more info on the surgery, details, etc… feel free to email me.
Yeah i’ve rolled my ankles too many times, and I guess this was the straw that broke the camels back. Good idea on the MRI. But that idea of the surgery sounds more and less appealing as you described it! Thanks again, I’ll have to get a 2nd opinion on my ankle, MRI and see what a PT says. Appreciate it!
Sounds too familiar to me:) Let the swelling go down and on top of the MRI, your PT should be able to tell you how much “hold” your ankle still has. Mine had none!! you could roll it right under with no pain…she took me straight to the doctor and ordered him to do an MRI and stress x-rays, the rest was history and I was scheduled for surgery 2 weeks later. Good luck with it!! I hope everything heals up ok.
Last Nov. I rolled my ankle so severely (bet. Grade 2-3) that I partially tore two sets of ligaments and pretty much blew out one set…prescription was PT - both for strength-building and flexibility, then after about 3 weeks I was allowed to do some “mobility” exercises which included riding the bike on a trainer (with the specially fitted lace up ankle brace). After that it was whatever I could do (with the brace on) that would not cause “pain”…the minute I felt “pain” I was done! I did a bunch of walking during this time period to maintain the flexibility. It wasn’t until March 1 that I actually could “run” again and that was starting at .25 mi and building up slowly from there.
Here it is almost a year later and I can still have runs where the ankle is bothersome afterwards but not dreadfully so. I would stress to you that **patience **is the key to a smooth rehab and return! If you rush this in any way, you WILL pay for it in how long it will take to return to “normal”.
Please treat surgery as a last resort or at least get a few opinions! The only other sugggestion I would have is to find a “sports specific” Dr. and use their expertise…they’ve seen these before and have a game plan not just to “fix it up” but to get you active while the ankle heals…I’ve heard that if you “just rest it (the ankle)” you might build up more scar tissue while it heals whereas with controlled exercise through rehab you may prevent some of that from happening!
Best of Luck…I can honestly say, been there and survived to race again (if what I do could be called “racing”!
Again, more great information. I really appreciate it, all of you, especially coming from fellow triathletes!Normal people don’t know how much these injuries affect us athletes! I’ll be sure to update you all when I know more. Hope to be racing all of you again!
Jon, I’ve torn the ligaments in my ankle 4 times (over 8 years) and so far held out against the surgery. Done physio, sticking to linear sports - running and cycling (surprise!)… even so my ankle is very unstable and still flares up every so often. Funnily, the pain is on the inside of the ankle where the bones jar against each other, not on the outside where the ligaments tore.
If you intend to do things which are going to cause ankle roll (basketball, soccer, etc.) in sudden expolosive ways, I would consider getting the surgery. Otherwise might want to give physio and time a shot. You can always do the surgery later.
I’ve done the same on both ankles and elected not to have surgery. I’ve gone through PT and to this day have “unusual range of motion” in my ankles which means I have nothing supporting them but muscle. docfuel had some great suggestions for strengthening the muscles around your ankle which I highly recommend.
For me, I can still run pretty well but have to pay special attention when running on rough terrain like a trail or gravel crossing. Otherwise I’m good. The bad news is that I’ll never be able to plant and cut like I once did playing football but then again, all the sports I do involve straight ahead running. Basketball is another one I have to be careful of but I suck anyway so it’s a great excuse to sit outside the arc and bomb 3s.
Good luck with whichever option you choose. Just remember, surgery isn’t a requirement and you should base your decision on what you plan on doing afterwards.
