Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Ligaments, tendons & muscles, OH MY!

I went in to see my regular MD this morning about my ankle. Someone I actually trust. My pain level is still very high and I can't put any weight on my foot. I continue to have twitching and spasms in my ankle but they're not waking me up in the middle of the night like they were. My skin is starting to feel strange from the stretching caused by swelling. He looked at my X-rays and confirmed I don't have a fracture (which is still hard for me to fathom). We then discussed exactly what a sprain is.


He described it as a tearing, ripping of the ligaments, tendons and muscles around the bone. This sprain has also gone up to the ligaments between my tibia and fibula bones in my lower leg. Yup, I did it up pretty darn good. I asked him how these ligaments, tendons and muscles heal. He said by scar tissue. The reason this one is so bad is because there wasn't enough scar tissue yet, from my sprain in May. So when I rolled it this time, everything basically "blew up." Nice! I did hear a couple "pops" when it happened.


What now? It's going to be a loooong, slooooow recovery.

I won't be able to put weight on it for at least a couple more weeks. I need to elevate it when I can. He referred me to an orthopedist that specializes in ankles. I see him on Monday.


Tomorrow will be a week since the injury and here's the foot:


I am putting these pictures of my foot here so I can look back on them when I want to see my progress.


Right now, the thought of running down a trail scares the crap out of me. The initial pain I felt when it happened is still so fresh in my mind. I can't even imagine doing it again. I know this feeling will go away. However, I'm seriously considering a triathlon now, kind of mix things up for a while. Swimming and biking are beginning to interest me a little bit more.

My employer (REI) has been so great to me. The schedule comes out two weeks ahead of time and most employees are trained to work in certain departments only. Some (me included) are trained to work in more than one area. My main department is clothing/footwear. I'm also trained to work customer service/cashier. When I work in clothing/footwear, I am constantly walking around on a cement floor and making a monkey out of myself in the shoe warehouse, climbing shelves to retrieve shoes for customers. Since I'm limited to what I can do for the next two weeks, my supervisor (along with some extremely generous co-workers) has been able to arrange it so I will be working customer service, even though the schedule has me working clothing shifts the next two weeks. I was very touched that they would get together and make that happen for me. Have I told you how lucky I feel to work there?

HSE Lori picked up Boomer last night and took him to the creek trail for a run. That was so nice of her. Evidently Boomer thanked Lori by finding every goldfish cracker her children had dropped under or behind the seats in her car and "took care of them" for her. ;)

Until later.............

17 comments:

Iris said...

Ooooh...your story is so familiar to me. I had gone to urgent care who said I had a mild sprain. As a runner, I knew it was worse. I too found an orthopedic doc who didn't want to work with a "stubborn runner." I followed his instructions explicitly for the next three months though and they worked. My only aftermath is some achilles tendon pain from the brace pinching it for so long. The better you rest, the faster you'll get to start moving again. It's hard not to get discouraged and down, but you will get better!

Unknown said...

I'm kind of enjoying the foot pics even though I know this isn't fun for you. It it interesting watching the changes over time. I'm intrigued with my finger as well. But your foot is more interesting. I'm weird that way.

I hope you find something, be it trails or road or triathlon that keeps your interest and doesn't scare you. Heal up first though. :-)

Boris T said...

Ouch, I've torn some ligaments in my foot in the past. The load pop you heard would definitely do it. It does take a while for it heal, hopefully without any nasty repercussions.

Good luck in your recovery.

Mel-2nd Chances said...

OMG, i'm so sorry you're going through all this, and that it'll take some time. Hopefully the specialist appt will confirm what the doc said. Wonderful that you have such a supportive crew around you at work, that's great! Take care... sending you speedy healing vibes :)

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry to hear this. I think doing a Tri might be a good idea in your case, at least you can still train.

Get well soon!

RunningLaur said...

You should rent out Boomer as a vacuum service!
I've always heard amazing things about REI, and everything you've said has only backed them up. I need to try to make myself sounds more hardcore so I can get a job there!

Dave - Atlanta Trails said...

your foot looks like mine did a couple of years ago. Back then I heard three "pops", one for each tendon I tore (there are four total).

While it did take a while to recover, it is much harder for me to sprain my ankle these days. That's definitely a positive to take away down the road.

Here is my first blog post from immediately after the injury: http://atlantatrails.blogspot.com/2007/10/end-of-run.html

There are a couple more after that.

Irene said...

I hope it stops hurting soon. It will be interesting to look back at your foot progress! What color will it be next?

Seriously, I hope the healing process goes smoothly.

Aka Alice said...

Yep...that is one colorful foot (and I'm not just talkin' about the tat)...

See ya tomorrow!!!! (yay!)

Stuart said...

wowsa you pulled a real doozy! Oh well it'll all heal up and you be ready steady go in the fall!

Southbaygirl said...

Oh it's becoming such an awesome color! Now I do believe it's beginning to match your tattoo!!

You know you'll be back to running trails-it will just take a bit to get the scary memory out of your head!! But you will-it's in your blood.

As for a tri.....Yes, it's kinda a bug I have too. And since Stacey threw the Barb's Race bone for Aug 2010....I'm seriously thinking of doing it! Why not-we have a year to train!!

It really sucks that your foot is so bad! I know that means you probably wont be able to walk SF...I do hope you come up so we can have dinner!!!

REI and your co-workers ROCK!

Drs. Cynthia and David said...

I think tri's are a great idea! Diversify! Just like with investing! Seriously, that sounds like fun. My swimming skills are nonexistent, but I used to really enjoy biking to the coast, at least until I crashed from pure carelessness. So if you start biking, be careful with that too, ok?

If your sprain is so severe, why don't they put you in a walking cast for a few weeks- at least you'd be able to walk with complete support? I've sprained my ankle many times, but I thankfully never heard any "pop". But it has been loose most of my life- once it flopped over while walking on a sidewalk, and when I looked to see what caused it, there was nothing there! It seems to be stronger now than ever (knock on wood) but that may just be wishful thinking. I completely understand the fear though- I was scared of running trails after I dislocated my elbow last year, as if rocks were going to leap up and trip me! Just take it slow and you'll get your confidence back! And protect that ankle! (not that you need my urging!)

Hope the orthopedist has something constructive to say...

Cynthia

sneakersister said...

Ouch! That's a bad one for sure!! I'm sorry for all the pain and for how bad your sprain is. Rest well and heal up so that you can get out there soon. I was out for 3 months last Fall with an injury, right in the prime of my racing season. It sucks big time! But, you make it through and it goes quick enough. Keep your spirits up.

Missy said...

You know the part that I'm going to latch onto here...a tri, really!?! YES! If you ever want to talk about it more, just hollah but (of course) I think you should go for it. Some pool time will be good. After my sprain, I would only push of the wall with the one good leg, though. I also improved upper body by just pulling - no kicking and put a pull buoy b/t my legs.

It totally blows, no two ways about it. Your reaction was like mine. I thought it had to be worse and if it was 'just a sprain' that I'd be running in a week. Right! I know I cried in pain too.

Lauren said...

Oh no! You have such a good attitude about this, though. I hope your ankle recovers as quickly as possible, and that you'll be able to fathom running downhill again without pain. ;) You're smart to take care of it now and really allow it to heal. I'll be happy to take Boomer out with me sometime if he needs some trail exercise!

montisse98 said...

Oh my, that does look very painful. I hope it feels better soon.

René said...

I'm sending the healing vibes for your foot to recover soon!