Booking a private scan for my ankle after a sprain - is it extravagant?

[itwasnevermine]

I fell on Monday and sprained my ankle.

It was immediately painful and started to swell, and has done nothing but swell since. 4 days on it's still incredibly painful, swollen and bruised.

I just don't feel reassured by the care I received at the hospital.

I was seen in triage, described what happened and was sent for an xray.

Xray done and waited for 4 hours to be seen by the 'advanced healthcare practitioner'.

I saw her and she spent most of the 5 minutes I was in there discussing another medication I'm on because she's not had a patient on that. Then we discussed my job.

She didn't look at or examine my ankle. She got the xray up, said it looked fine and gave me crutches. She told me to be on them for two weeks as it was "a bad sprain" based on how swollen it was and that was that.

There was no examination of my foot done at any time, or even a proper look taken at it.

I've had issues with this ankle in the past and based on how painful it is and how swollen it is (still!) I'm just concerned something worse has happened and there's no way of finding out without paying to go private. I don’t know if this type of thing even exists

I sprained my ankle 8 weeks ago (and I did hear it pop). The nurse told me it was a minor sprain and led me to believe I’d be up and about pretty quickly, so I thought I was being a complete wuss. I could t bear any weight at all for the first week. After 6 weeks I went for (private) physio and he assured me it was a bad sprain. I don’t think the treatment would have been any different though - ice and elevate, rest as much as possible, etc. basically it just takes time.
which is a long way of saying that I don’t know if a private scan would so much for you, but if I did it again I’d go for physio much quicker, so maybe that is where you should spend your money

Sprains are torn ankle ligaments though, so I'm not sure what you mean here? If you're concerned it's a bad tear why don't you just treat it accordingly and go by how you feel? Spending money on a private scan won't make much difference to the treatment. I had a bad sprain during COVID so was never seen for it, but I iced and rested it and bought an ankle brace off Amazon and wore that for months and I was fully recovered after a year.

The x-way will be reviewed by a radiologist if that’s any reassurance.
I agree with other posters that you are better seeing a physio.

This is indeed the most pertinent point
if you can afford a private X-ray then you can book and pay without a GP referral, that's no problem.

you don't want a physio working on it with the wrong information. It's a complex network of bones and sometimes things get missed.

interesting they asked about noise. I didn't hear a crack but felt a curious jarring sensation and knew it was broken from that. Even if I hadn't felt that, I knew it was broken. Pain was pretty bad a few days in but I was in shock the first few days.

I too would be concerned about misdiagnosis.

In terms of pain, the soft tissue damage was painful long after the break healed, I'm afraid.

I went to a private physio when I went over my ankle because my gp didn't want to know. For weeks.

So I waited weeks per the GP for it to heal before going to a physio in desperation

The physio said I should have had some kind of radio waves or something initially as it needs to be done right away to be if benefit. But of course my gp didn't do that.

I'd phone a physio before they shut now and tell him your story and see what he advises.

I can't remember what therapy he suggested. But yours will know.

Thanks everyone

Just feeling pissed off. Four days and I'm still on crutches, still in a lot of pain and feel like things are getting worse - it's swelling more and more. I can't take time off work as it's unpaid and I can't afford it, so I'm stuck going into work and just want someone to wave a magic wand and make it better

@EmeraldRoulette I think she was basically saying that as id not heard anything nothing had torn, but I tried to tell her I couldn't hear it!

If it is not broken .....and is sprained, the only thing you can really do is wait until these spirally molecules tie themselves back properly ( collagen )

My daughter has just recovered from a sprained ankle. It took 12 weeks to get back to sport. I would go and see a private physio who specialises in feet and ankles and they should be able to give you a good indication of where exactly you've injured. We self referred to NHS physio/ podiatry while we were seeing the private one in case she needed a scan.

Our private physio advised us a scan wouldn't help and it did heal in the end. We got ultrasound and laser therapy.

Nursing AP or Reporting Radiographer?

DD fell off a kerb and “sprained” her ankle. She went to X-ray and the Nursing AP also diagnosed a sprain and rest. Only, DD is a AP radiographer and thought the X-ray was poor and didn’t like the look of it so screenshotted it and showed it a reporting radiographer colleague (different trust) who confirmed a likely fracture and sent her off to
Minor injuries for a repeat Xray.

Six weeks in a boot followed.

Nursing practitioner - it's a "nurse led unit", I don't think they actually have doctors there? I don't think it's been reviewed yet

Utter waste of money. All you need is time (which is free), and it will heal itself.

I would go to a private physio for proper medical advice. A good one will refer you on/advise you on further steps that might help if rest/physio is not enough.

i agree completely that the advice/care you’ve given recieved so far is substandard.

If I'd been examined I'd be at peace with it but I can't move my ankle!! It's so annoying, I feel sick from the pain and I don’t know what to do

Totally rational response, go and see a professional for peace of mind at least.

If it's no better by Monday I'll be going for a second opinion because that means two days of it being up and iced, it's just creeping me out because there's so many like dead straight likes of really dark bruising

What have you actually been doing over the last 4 days to help it heal?

Rest? Elevation? Icing?

and on the elevation front, if your toes aren’t higher than your heart it doesn’t really count.

Icing but I can't exactly stay off work can I? I can't sit and put my foot on the desk while I'm working on the floor, again I wasn't told at the hospital that it has to be above my heart

Is this to gather evidence for when you sue the council OP? How many threads for one ankle…

Sorry am I not allowed to ask for advice? I can't exactly put them both into one thread!

4 threads OP. One ankle.

You'd be better off spending the money on private physiotherapy than a scan.

I scan at 6 weeks in sports enthusiasts if they're failing to improve with physio as it means I can make a definitive management decision at 3 months after an appropriate course of rehabilitation.

Elite athletes may get a scan immediately, but they probably also get an operation early because a week or two off the recovery can be worth tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In amateur athletes 90+ % recover sufficiently with a proper rehab regime even with high grade tears, to not go on to require surgery.

So don't interact? I'll just stop posting if you're that offended but I've not got anywhere else I can turn to for advice.

Mmm I fell down a staircase six weeks before my wedding. The hospital x-rayed no breaks but torn ligaments. They gave me crutches.

I elevated and used the crutches. I suggest that you do the same. I know that the pain is awful.

If by next week when your foot has turned amazing colours the pain hasn't eased. Go back to the GP.

I’m not saying that hospitals never make mistakes with x-rays (as evidenced by PPs) but is there anything to suggest it’s actually fractured? A sprain can be incredibly painful and swelling is normal. If you haven’t been able to elevate it, that may explain why it’s still so swollen. Can you weight bear at all? If you have had a previous ankle sprain and it wasn’t rehabbed properly, you are more likely to sprain it again. Private physio would be a better use of money than a scan. But also self refer for NHS physio because the rehab can be quite a long process to ensure you don’t suffer unnecessarily from future sprains.