Hurt my ankle on holiday wwyd

[Ankleidiot]

I am in a very big EU city with my DC and I tripped over and have badly sprained my ankle. I am not letting my DC know quite how bad it is, but I heard a loud pop when I did it, it’s incredibly swollen and painful so I am prepared it’s a bad sprain that will take a while to heal.

I’ve been to a pharmacy and am treating it myself (RICE method) as best I can in a hotel. I don’t have long of my trip left so I can sort the longer term ankle situation out when I get home so I am trying to suck it up as unfortunate. I am insured but I do not want to ruin my DC’s trip by spending all day in a medical facility sorting out an ankle sprain, or not being able to get out and about anywhere on our last day. However I can’t walk very far. I don’t think going to get medical help will change that either, they are just going to tell me to rest it. Rock and hard place.

I have a metro card to get about. Any suggestions of how to enjoy a city break without being able to walk very much? 😞 Put it this way, until I hurt it we could easily walk more than 10 miles a day sightseeing, and we do not have the money left to get taxis everywhere. We have 8 hours between checking out of our hotel and our flight!

I hope you manage some sleep op. Tell your DC tomorrow how much you are struggling, trust them to understand. Either laugh or cry about it preferably both, let them look after you a bit while you do a boat/bus tour or whatever else you think of - it won't ruin the trip when you are heading home anyway! All the best x

If your DC are adults why can't you park your butt in a cafe and let them go amuse themselves for a few hours, come back and meet you for lunch and then move to another cafe until it's time to leave for the airport?

Whether it's broken or sprained (and it does sound like there's something more than a simple badly twisted ankle wrong) walking around on it won't help matters.

Go and get it checked. You have insurance. It could be broken, I thought ds had twisted his ankle and made him walk the school run for several days, it took me 3 days to get him checked and it was indeed broken. Mostly because he could walk, it wasnt especially red, hot or swollen and just looked like a minor sprain. He fortunately didn't need a cast but was given a walking boot which was fabulous.

So its perfectly possible to walk on a broken ankle. But you don't want the bones shifting when you hobble through tomorrow. Airports tend to have a lot of walking.

Ask at the hotel if there's a good clinic they can recommend. At the moment it probably feels like a visit to a hospital will ruin the holiday but honestly one day you'll laugh about it together.

You can still call the GHIc line and they can look up your card or get partner to read the reference to you. Weight bearing means nothing, I recently had mine xrayed despite telling the dr I was sure it was not broken(it wasn't!) and walking on it,

@FairyBatman sorry I didn’t explain correctly it’s just one child with me. It’s just us 2. They wouldn’t complain if I went to hospital about this but I am very reluctant to go, I have read that airlines do not let you fly the day you have a cast put on, so if they did that, I would be stuck here longer. My flight home is tomorrow evening. I don’t know if they would give me a boot

Ime waiting times tend to be less abroad. Ask hotel where the nearest clinic is.

I will try find a stick or a crutch. I have a compression garment on it, a proper medical one from a pharmacy.

Call your airline and book assistance at the airport, so they will wheelchair you to and from the plane.

Take ibuprofen to help with pain and inflammation.

Send dc off to explore on their own and meet in a cafe.

Spend money on taxis.

Get home and get it xrayed the next day

Could you do some kind of boat trip tomorrow? Open top bus tour.. something like that?

Yes we can do the open top bus tour we will do that

Waiting all day for medical treatment is a UK thing. I often go to A&E in the major European city where I live and am seen within 15 minutes.

Same thing happened to me (a few years ago) last couple of days of the holiday. I was on my own and up 2 stories couldn't really get out to get anything to eat either. I was worried in case there was a fire too. I had hobbled to the local Health centre and there a bit of faffing about nit helped by the language difficulty, but got sorted eventually. I had contacted my insurance company and i needed a letter to say I had broken my ankle which I got at the hospital. Didn't have my ehic, but the Spanish hospital agreed I could send it upon my return to UK. The insurance company arranged an earlier flight with taxis to and from the airports both sides. Despite the reviews for the insurance company online, they were great. Sorted my bags at the airport, a wheelchair through the airports and i had row of seats to elevate my leg on the plane.
Ring them and the might be able to do something for you.
I had to buy crutches about 25 euro I think. Also I had a removable boot given to me so I don't know if that made a difference regarding the plane.

You can’t fly with a cast due to risk of blood clots.

@Ankleidiot The popping noise and swelling up into your calf is also making me think achilles rupture. In which case you need to get this seen and immobilised in a moon boot with heel elevation for the best chance of good recovery.

I've suffered a rare partial achilles tesr and the rehab was no joke and I live in fear of suffering a full tear in future. From memory you can be at increased risk of DVT post achilles rupture. I really would prioritise your long term well being at get checked out. The are basic tests a doctor wil perform to diagnose achilles issues prior to a confirmatory xray that may be worth reading about in case this helps push you to seek treatment. https://www.healthline.com/health/achilles-tendon-rupture-test#diagnosis

I would get myself a taxi to the nearest hospital- had several foreign hospital trips due to DC injuries, always be in and out far quicker than at home. Zero waiting. Can claim money back with ghic card once home. Get medical opinion of problem then you can inform insurance company what actual issue is.

Everyone - go now and take a photo of your passport, driving license, EHIC and any other important documents and put them in a folder on your phone, if you haven't already done so! I hope your ankle improves quickly, OP

Open top bus tour, river cruise, see a show/performance

Good advice. I never think of disasters, which I really should.

OP I find A&E in forrin parts to be so much superior to our own. Get thee to a doctor woman.

Great ableist post there, OP. Educate yourself on what is acceptable these days.

I saw A&E when I hurt my ankle. They missed a small break in my foot that had occurred and I walked on it afterwards, albeit I didn't do very much because it was lockdown at the time. So even if you do get it x-rayed now there's no garauntee they may not miss something. However I'd get it checked before flying home.

You can.

This is possibly one of the MN posts I have ever seen. Well played.

OP, please go and seek medical attention. If you have broken it, you really do need to be seen.

Honestly this makes no sense at all. Get medical attention.

@MoreIcedLattePlease, really?
I have a DC who is registered blind. I'll admit I used to freely say similar phrases before I had them.
I don't think it's MN at all, just learning to use appropriate language.
Have a or two yourself. (And maybe you need to educate yourself as well.)
Have a great evening 👍🏻.

I did feel this pop noise/feeling exactly in my ankle. The swelling and bruising I assume is the ligament damage. It’s all over that outside knobbly ankle bone and it’s started moving around kind of up my ankle. Even this is/isnt broken I think my ligament has torn. All the pain and tenderness is in my ankle/foot from the left side across the top to the right in a band. It actually hurts in the sole of my foot too. It doesn’t hurt in my calf or heel

I can find my GHIC/EHIC confirmation email when I applied and a photo of my DD but not of mine. I am not going to drag DD out to a hospital now it’s late. I am keeping it moving as much as I can and elevated without weight bearing too much.