Ankle Injuries - a personal experience
As a podiatrist, the most ironic injury to occur is one involving your foot or ankle. It is, however, a great learning experience when this happens.
For a long time I have been a competitive field hockey player. It was about 5 years ago that I rolled (sprained) my ankle for the first time. Due to my stubborn and competitive nature, I went back to playing too soon, and the injury occurred over and over again. It took some time, but I eventually realised the importance of what to do in the initial/acute stages of injury, but also how to best prepare yourself to avoid this type of injury occurring again.
I “retired” from hockey about 3 years ago… the continual pain and re-injury was affecting me both on and off the field and I wanted to focus my time on other ways to maintain my fitness. Cycling was the answer for me, and I very quickly became obsessed with riding, both on the road and in the bush.
For various reasons, at the beginning of this year I decided that I would dust off the stick and shin pads and prepare myself for another crack at hockey. As a pre-season activity I took up squash to try and build up some ankle strength and fitness.
After weeks of playing, I went over on my “good” ankle… this time much worse than I had ever done. This time I was more careful. I applied ice and compression straight away, and was vigilant with this for the first week (luckily, through work I have access to the Pro Ice machine which compresses and ices at the same time). Once some swelling and bruising had reduced I went for an MRI (a type of scan to look at both soft and hard tissue). The scan confirmed that I had significant ligamentous disruption to a few ligaments in my ankle, a complete ruptured of one particular ligament, and a break to a small bone.
After consulting with my colleagues, I put myself into a CAM walker (or moon boot) to immobilise my foot and ankle. I have been in the boot for 6 weeks now, and will continue so for a little while yet. Once able to, I will begin the rehabilitation process and will keep you all posted with how things go...
