Can't be broken bone.............can it?

[minxthemanx]

Rushing around yesterday I went over heavily on one ankle. It sort of doubled underneath me, and I felt something 'go', an odd sensation. It was incredibly painful, I felt sick, dizzy and dropped the laptop bag I was holding. Leant against a fence for a little while till I felt able to hobble to car. (Had both the DS with me.)

Now, I assumed it was just a sprained tendon or something, as could weight bear and managed to carry on as normal for rest of day. Every so often I'd take a step and get a shooting pain, but generally could walk ok, so didn't go to A & E. It's still swollen today (elevated and put ice on yesterday), and some nice bruising .........I'm 99% sure it;s just sprained . Can rotate ankle ok tho painful in one direction (but can move it.) A nagging part of me is saying get it x rayed this morning, the other part is saying it's just sprained and bruised, I wouldn't be able to weight bear if bone cracked. The thought of A & E with the DC is not attractive. Any thoughts?

It's difficult to say, but getting an x ray wouldn't take long if it's NOT broken, as they'll let you go after - and probably necessary if it IS...you shouldn't leave it imo.

The only way to be sure is to get it x rayed ( I am a first aider, so I am not saying that). The symptoms of a sprain /strain and break can be the same.

Hmmm. I'm convinced it's bruised and mildly sprained rather than anything worse but guess I ought to be safe, there's a bit of odd clicking going on in there too. Oh the thought of half term, A & E, with 2 very lively boys... can I hope that 9am is a fairly quiet time to go............

Yes I hope it is. From my experience there's not many people queueing at this time of day.

Let us know how you get on x

Thanks.

I sprained mine badly and couldn't bear weight on it, if its painful to move I would get it checked.

Hi. I did the same a year ago. Was very bad and couldn't weight bear. My ankle bone was chipped and I had to wear one of those very attractive boot things.

A colleague of mine did a similar thing and could weight bear. Left it for a week and then went to get it checked out. Turns out that he had broken his ankle in 3 places. Very nasty injury that took months to heal.

So yes, get it checked. Hopefully will just be a bad sprain.

Get it xrayed.

'Just a sprain' can actually be worse (sorry!) than a clean break as ligaments and tendons can take longer to 'knit'. Even with a sprain you could well end up in plaster to allow healing to take place, and the good thing is someone who knows what they're talking about will be treating you. Good luck!

Well in and out of A&E in just over an hour, record. No break, but sprained and the 'give' that I felt was prob a ligament tearing a bit. No strapping or anything, just told not to run or cycle for a bit (I'll try [hwink]).

Have been shopping and doing usual bits - ankle now feels like a football, very puffy and stiff. Guess I need to keep it up for a while.

Yes, elevate it when you can. Glad they don't think it'll be a long term thing but I absolutely think you did the right thing by going. Lots of people misuse A&E but to me, this is the very sort of thing you should go for, on the basis your GP would have sent you for an xray anyway!