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 thought your child was going to be primary age! Is your adult DC vulnerable in some way? If not, then go and get it dealt with tonight. The waiting times are likely to be significantly less than in the UK and, more importantly, you will stop yourself doing more potential damage. Plus, once you have a diagnosis, you will be able to speak to your insurers and explain what has happened and what options are available.
If your adult DC is vulnerable then I appreciate that that does impact on what options are available to you. Might the hotel staff be able to find someone who speaks English and is able to "babysit" them, either in the hotel or accompany you to hospital and sit with them there?

I'd be careful a relative fell over on Holiday and hurt their ankle went to Hospital and was told it was just a sprain. This is over a decade ago and when he saw a UK doctor they were surprised he was allowed to fly and got bad lymphodeama because of it

I fell over couple years ago in Greece and damaged my knee. I was flying home 2 days later and I refused to go to hospital and limped around. I couldn't go in the pool, sea, stairs etc. I couldn't wear trainers home nor my jeans. The flight made my leg black and I went to A & E few hours after landing. I was treated for blood clots, had broke knee and torn ligament. I am still in pain now. I understand totally why you don't want to go to foreign hospital but please be careful and watch out for blood clot symptoms on flight

I can’t see the point of spending £300 to fly home a few hours earlier. See how you feel in the morning, dose yourself up with painkillers, and do the open top bus tour. When you get to the airport ask for assistance, they should be able to provide a wheelchair or crutches. How long is your flight home?

There is no point in paying to get a flight a few hrs earlier - you might as well spend the time/money making sure you don't do yourself more damage by travelling on a broken foot.

I spoke to insurance company helpline, they said they would send me an email of a list of hospitals. They still haven’t sent it, the line was awful, she couldn’t find my policy etc. so I still don’t have the list or any forms and don’t know where to go.

I am having trouble working out what kind of hospital is what via google as their websites are confusing, some are open, some aren’t A&E, I don’t know what’s public or private.

I will have to do that GHIC option tomorrow and go to a public hospital and pay it all out of my pocket then claim it back.

DD is ND and is not happy about me saying no to the flights. She just wants to go home. I don’t even know if they would let me on the flight without a doctor note then £300 down the drain I can’t claim back. She is very snotty with a cold and this has ruined her trip, and yes she is vulnerable so I am not leaving her alone but she is also not always very helpful in terms of assistance as she tried to get me to spend £300 on a flight I would have to get up at 6am tomorrow to catch. Obviously the concept of having to stay here with me is not very appealing. I’m so tired. I did not go to A&E within a few hours of twisting my ankle as I thought it was sensible to see how things went and assess it from there, is it common for people to immediately go to A&E if you slipped over? Obviously now it’s worse but I just usually try self care first I thought this was normal?

So I fell down a small hole 3 weeks ago, twisted my ankle and also heard a pop. The pain was unreal. The arguments over whether it was broken or not after the xray resulted in me being told it was broken. I got a boot (not a cast) and crutches. Mine did not swell like yours or bruise so I really think you need to get it checked because no one cal tell unless it is xrayed. I couldn’t walk on it for the. First day at all but could weight bear abit on day 2

Mine was actually ligament damage (and longer healing time than a break) but three weeks on I am out of the boot, driving and walking in my trainers. It is uncomfortable and I have a constant dull ache which worsens after walking.

get it checked out because you don’t want to cause more damage. Also if you can’t walk on it how are you going to get through the terminal (although you can seek special assistance airside before departure)

take it easy because break or not it really hurts

Call your flight company and arrange for assistance. you will get a wheelchair and early entry on the plane.

Although you should go to a&e and get it checked - especially with the pain being like a bad around your ankle

I don't fly so the clotting risks hadn't occurred to me but clearly are very valid. If / when you do fly home, I'd take some aspirin pre-flight and carry it with you in hand luggage.

You need an x-ray. Imagine if you've fractured it then decided to walk around an EU city on it thus making it worse. You fly home (after walking what seems to be a hundred miles in an airport to get to the gate) then turn up to A&E get an X-ray to find you've totally mangled it and now need surgery which will be a far bigger ball ache than sorting it now

For those saying sprained ankles do not bruise, I’ll see your injury and raise you mine…. Tripped off the bottom stair last week. Pic immediately after, days later and a week later.

My son did this recently. Minor injuries confirmed bad sprain. He was given a crutch, painkillers, told to elevate whenever he could.

You're being a bit silly Billy.

If you tell us which city I'm sure someone could help

Your DC is an adult?! Then why would you have to drag them to a hospital? Why can’t you go and leave your DC to do their own thing for a few hours?

Are you able to say what country you are in? Unfortunately over the last few holidays we've had the misfortune to need hospital treatment in Europe several times. Without exception, it has been so much quicker and thorough than the Uk.

Can your dh scan a copy of the GHIC card and send it to you? It's the easiest way to get emergency treatment. Your insurance should cover any public 'Urgencies' department so you can at least get a scan. You might need to stay a few days longer - get a scan, diagnosis, treatment and fit to fly letter then book new flights.

Just be warned that our insurers only covered costs for the injured person, not everyone else whose travel was curtailed also ie: rest of the family.

Of course your DD should go with you as you might need some help.
You need to have it checked at least to have a proof the you are fit to fly in case if your airline will question it.

On a point of information: you can't fly with a cast. They open it so there is a line and it's a partial cast and it gets redone after the flight.

Realistically if you've fractured something then they'll give you a boot. If it's a bad break you might need a cast but that would cause more problems.

Ankle sprains can be pretty painful and lead to a lot of swelling and pain.

Buy painkillers for the flight because the pressure on the plane will cause the swelling to increase (that's why you can't fly with a cast) and it'll hurt.

You can request assistance at the airport, they'll be arsey about not pre-booking but if you explain they'll put you in a wheelchair and push you and your daughter through security and onto the plane.

@Ankleidiot you will have an excess to pay on your insurance anyway almost certainly. Don’t get scammed by fake GHIC providers - genuine site is free

I am in Madrid.

No DP can’t get to the GHIC card. I don’t live with him and he doesn’t have a key (long story)

DP can speak Spanish I asked him for advice about where to go and he says go to a primary care doctor first

Still no email from insurance company.

My hotel is very noisy I had virtually no sleep, what with every movement and touch painful for my ankle.

my toes are all swollen now but I assume that’s also the compression as I wore it all night. The bruising and swelling is all over the bottom of my foot now as well

This is the only photo I can take as it’s hard to twist it.

4 pages OP. 4 pages in, just go to hospital. You should have gone last night. Taken your DD with you if you had to. Get up and go now and make sure you are fit to fly home. Yes it’s a pain but you need to know what you are dealing with. Madrid has good medical care, Spain usually does. You will just be asked for your insurance details.

I’ve been on MN for ages and generally just shrug at the MN special level of virtue signalling snark (extra points for managing to include ‘Educate yourself’) but I’ve got absolutely no idea what the OP said to warrant this 😂

This is exactly how mine looked after about a week when the bruising came up. The same pooling of blood at base of toes 2&3 and wrapped over foot to underside of outer ankle bone. I did go for an xray as couldn't walk at first. Peroneal tendon tear. They couldn't give any treatment and advised better to keep moving but avoid uneven surfaces. It's never been quite the same since.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross something about her DD not being blind - she could see she was injured.

Stop ok. I’m not in a ‘medical emergency’ that needs middle of the night A&E and it’s actually quite complicated - I went to the place DP and the hotel sent me to, no one spoke English but we managed to communicate they don’t treat tourists. I have been out to try to seek help. I am going to now go to another place further away

Oh OP, there must be a bit more to this than meets the eye, the inability to leave DD, and what seems to be an out of proportion desire not to inconvenience/upset her, and all this talk of ‘ruining’ things.
I hope that you can get sorted quickly this morning and that you are both ok, please do keep us posted.