Ankle problems continuing

Hello all,

Background to this injury and myself: 16, 140lbs, competitive runner for my high school with GST in the offseason. I injured my ankle while running about 3 weeks ago, pushed through it, took 10 days off, then began easy running, and then it seemed to flare up again...

The doctor has put me in a boot. I do not agree with this as I believe it limits the healthy mobility of the ankle joint (where my injury has occurred, I believe it is only large weight bearing, such as running and jumping that triggers it). Is this the right thing to do? I don't want to come back and re-injure it yet another time, however I do not want to not move. I am a big believer in Ido Portal's philosophy of moving, and cannot think of a thing that makes me more unhappy than this. Take away the internet, my friends, etc, I would generally rather be able to move as I want a develop new skills and strength sets.

I prehabbED everyday, but don't want to go against the doctor's orders and waste my parent's money for an extremely unimportant high school track season.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

I am almost in tears over this whole ordeal, it frustrates me that much. Anything helps, and I appreciate what any of you suggest more than the world. Thank you so much, yet again.

I look forward to your replies and will respond to each and every one of them.

Did the doctor say exactly what the problem is? Or does he just want to immobilize your foot and wait for the problem to go away on it's own?

Bad luck Awarenesss, I hope your foot gets better soon. I would read up on the anatomy of the foot and then ask your doctor what exactly the diagnosis was.

I dislocates my Ankle and my doctor told me to try to walk on it every now and then to see how it feels for the next 2 weeks. Worst advice ever.... Anyway it sounded so stupid to me I decided to get a second opinion and went to see a physio as well. Moral of the story is just because a doctor says something it doesn't mean he knows what he is talking about I'd find out what's wrong wi it and if you aren't satisfied get another opinion. Don't think you know better though and start doing anything crazy.

I could be wrong, but those kinds of injuries seem to be ones that don't go away on their own and need to be rehabbed and strengthened to prevent re-injury.

Awarenesss said:

The doctor has put me in a boot. I do not agree with this as I believe it limits the healthy mobility of the ankle joint.

Well yeah, if you had healthy mobility of the ankle joint.  But you're currently injured.  You already pushed through it once, I think he's worried you'll do the same thing again.

Quick annecdote:  Once, trying to run away from someone, I jumped down a flight of stairs and twisted my ankle.  And then ran on it.

This ankle still bothers me from time to time.  It doesn't hurt, but it's less flexible, less stable, not as strong as my other ankle.  It's had a carryover effect that's weakened that entire leg.

This might happen to you.  You're only 16, so for the moment you're capable of a better class of healing than an adult.  But you really don't want to mess this one up.

The boot is temporary.  It will come off one day, and then with intelligent preparation you will be able to build your ankle back up to (and even exceed) it's former strength.  Sure, it might temporarily set you back in mobility and stability.  But do you really want to gamble a minor loss in athleticism with a chronic injury?

@thecolin, he did not. He could not replicate the pain via isometrics (me pushing down/up on his hand) or prodding with his thumb. He just wanted to immobilize it and wait to see what happens, like you said.

@Desi, I think that's what I'm going to do. It bothers me that he didn't say exactly what it was/could have been, so I could research more on my own time.

@ausswe, completely agree. Sometimes I worry if doctors are just giving us the diagnosis to make money... I sure hope not.

@Cody, I prehabbed religiously during the injury and my 10 days off, so I think I may begin that again.

Some doctors are good, some are bad.  You need to give more details about the injury... like was it acute or gradually progressive... mechanism of action... location... associated symptoms... but without knowing more history... an acute injury would most likely be an ankle sprain in which case essentially let pain be your guide for activity level.  A gradually progressive injury in a competitive runner would require ruling out a stress fracture with an MRI.  If that's the case, yes, you should be off your foot depending on location of the stress fracture. 

Overuse/chronic injuries are due to improper load/response.  The load can be straight up too much volume, but you also need to focus on technique, form, training regimen, footware, biomechanics... any factors would 'artificially' increase load that in that you could modify them without decreasing volume.  The improper response includes your overall health status, nutrition, associated medical conditions, energy imbalance, etc that would not result in a robust response to a proper amount of physiologic stress.

This is the same global understanding needed for any overuse/chronic injury.  Stress fractures are an example.  So are many of the -opathies frequently discussed on this board.  A good sports doctor brings this understanding to the table.  He/she also triages whether this could be the sign of an underlying more serious process, then discusses and directs you to an appropriate treatment plan, whether that means further testing, PT referral with directed plan for therapy, etc.  The entire chain needs to be correct.  You need to find a good doctor, need to go a good PT, need to be a good patient.  At best, sports doctors are only as good as their physical therapists and their patients.  Everyone blames the doctor, perhaps justifiably because they're supposed to know the most, but they're the only person accountable in this chain of returning a patient to their desired health.

I understand frustration with doctors.  However, there are an awful lot of stories here that start with something along the lines of "I went to 5 different doctors who all told me the same thing... I didn't listen to them... I tried this non-evidenced based therapy, I didn't get better".

p.s I'm not Desi in case that's what you were thinking :-)

Awarenesss said:

@thecolin, he did not. He could not replicate the pain via isometrics (me pushing down/up on his hand) or prodding with his thumb. He just wanted to immobilize it and wait to see what happens, like you said.

 

It sounds like he had a pretty generic 'family doctor' kind of response. I bet you that even if he had replicated the pain, his advice would be identical, immobilize and wait.

I don't think you should do anything hasty. Go and see a specialist that actually deals with these problems on a regular basis.

If I am correct (I'll ask my mom when she gets home), he is a sports-medicine specialist, specializing in the foot and ankle.

@LateStarter@46, damn... sorry about that! Who is Desi then?

Awarenesss said:

@Cody, I prehabbed religiously during the injury and my 10 days off, so I think I may begin that again.

Whoa whoa whoa.  Are you crazy!?

Prehab is supposed to be done while healthy, to avoid injury.  What you need is rehab, and probably a good deal of rest before that.

Excessive prehab will lead to injury, and that's in an otherwise healthy individual.  Prehabbing when you're already injured is just stupid.

It was not the joint I was exercising in itself, rather the shin muscles surrounding it.

Religiously in that, 2x a day, so not too much volume.

Here's Desi: https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/10540-from-gymnast-to-dentist-and-back-again/?hl=desi

The main point here is: Neither you, nor your doctor nor anyone that answered knows exactly what your problem is. And there's a reason: A MRI  is very expensive.

After my ankle injury -having  finally found a good doctor- I was still  happy that  my insurance payed these few thousand euro. The MRI showed that quite a few ligaments had been extremely stretched, but no one had broken. So I was very confident but took extreme care of my ankle. After more than a year it was as before.

But you have to know what happened!

Before I've had a plaster cast  (is this what you call a boot?), heparin injections, crutches... cheap but complete nonsense.

Agreed completely on the MRI. I don't see a huge need in wasting my parent's money for a high school track career.

If you google "medical boot", that is what I was prescribed.

Would athletic tape heavily wrapped around said ankle in question replicate the medical boot to the same degree?

The body, given the right conditions, has a remarkable ability to heal it self. You cannot for the body to heal. It will in its own time. Rest your ankle until its healed or you risk developing a chronic issue. That's just my 2 cents.

Bumping this one last time.

Would swimming be fine to do, to keep my fitness up? I feel like it would be sufficient because it's not weight bearing on the ankle joint (or any joint in question). If not, I could just tape my ankle up and swim with lack of mobility in that one?

Swimming felt really good when I Injured my ankle, just be gentle and keep the kicking to a minimum.

Thanks to everyone for their help! I appreciate it more than I think you guys know.

be careful about flutter kick (what you use in front-crawl/back-crawl)

if you know how to do whipkick properly, but gently, it is easier on the ankle  (what you use in breast stroke)

you can stick something that floats between your legs and do 100% arms

Don't use flippers!

I think I am going to tape it up (athletic tape + wrap) and go from there.