Do I need to go to minor injuries?

[Doggodoggo]

I did a weights class at the gym this evening which was fairly intense but I'm used to it. No pain. Went to the supermarket afterwards and walked around for about 45 mins. No pain.

Came home, had dinner and a shower. Then lay down on the sofa to watch TV. Maybe an hour later I noticed my ankle was hurting. I touched it where it hurts (outside front of ankle) and it was excruciatingly painful. Hurt a bit to walk when I went up to bed but not to bad.

I woke up an hour ago in massive pain. My ankle hurts so bad and I cant walk on it. It really hurts to pull my toes up. Theres no swelling but touching the area is hugely painful. I cant sleep even after painkillers. Ive had a Google and think it might be ATFL strain.

What do I do? Do I need to go to minor injuries? I dont know if I should drive although its my left ankle and I have an automatic car so domt need that foot. But I can't walk without a lot of pain. Can't walk to a bus stop and a taxi is possible but would be £££. What would they even do at minor injuries? I domt need an xray, just maybe a brace and crutches.

Any advice?

Tensor bandage lightly wrapped; ice for 20 mins every 2 hrs; ibuprofen every 6 hours and acetaminophen every 4 hours. If after 48 hrs no improvement get checked. If worse and you cannot weight bear in 24h / by morning go for xray / urgent care. Could be sprain or tear.

As above... Treat it yourself and give it some time... I don't see what minor injuries can do that you cannot.

No.

Take some ibuprofen, wrap it up and ice it. There’s no injury.

Similar sounding injury here except on the side of my knee. Treated with ice and painkillers but got worse overnight and DH took me to Minor Injuries. They thought I’d sprained it but another look at my X-ray revealed an avulsion fracture. MRI revealed no other damage. It healed itself but was on crutches for a couple of weeks. It was one of the most painful things I’ve had. Get it checked out if it doesn’t start to feel better in 24-48 hours. I did mine through stretching after a dance class and then a minor innocuous stumble a couple of days after. Something that I wouldn’t have thought about normally.

RICE protocol, if it doesn't improve then get it checked out

I'd get some ice on it, regularly for the next couple of days and then consider getting help if it's not improving.

IME there's not much point in the NHS for these kinds of injuries. If it's not broken they'll refer you back to GP, who will (eventually) send you to a physio, who will give you exercises to do, which you could have Googled.

I wouldnt go to urgent care yet - I’d elevate and ice it for a day or 2.

Of course there's an injury?

No. There’s pain. That’s not an injury.

They'll x-ray it. But I'm not sure how astute the technicians are as I know someone who had multiple horrific fractures in his foot and the x-ray tech sent him away saying nothing visibly wrong. It's not manned by doctors. Only nurses. But the queue is usually a lot shorter than a&e. Mine sometimes you're the only person there.

My friend needed to go to a&e eventually and then referred to fracture clinic. But that was only because the tech couldn't see the fractures initially.

Hopefully they can help you though. You may need to accept paying for taxis as driving with it might make it worse?

Thanks all.

Just to update I didnt go to minor injuries. I found a fracture boot that DH used a while ago and have been hobbling around in that and it feels so much better as long as I can keep it at 90 degrees.

I ended up having a video consult with a physio through my health insurance which I hadnt thought about when in a lot of pain in the middle of the night! Although don't think i will take her advice as she said to put heat on it and gave me a load of exercises to do! It hurts to move it so there's no way im doing exercises, and its now swollen so not going to be putting heat on it either!

The pain was so bad in the night I was originally thinking about A&E, but as soon as I got it into the fracture boot it stopped being so awful and I could think a bit more clearly! I know its not broken so no point being seen, and I may as well not have wasted my time with the physio either!

Read your latest message OP and I’m sorry but if it is swollen and you can’t move it I still think it warrants a trip to Minor Injuries if only to have it X-rayed. As well as my earlier post about my recent knee incident DH reminded me of the time some years ago I slipped off a step and my foot swelled. I was walking (hobbling) on it for a few days until he insisted on taking me to Minor Injuries where an X-ray revealed I had a minor fracture. No treatment needed apart from strapping up but at least I knew how to treat it.

What I’m trying to say is if you have it treated properly now you might avoid problems later on.

Yep I think get am xray