Spraining a foot versus an ankle

[Partial]

Have any of you ever sprained a foot? My girlfriend slipped yesterday and sprained her foot very badly. Went to the University health service this morning, and one out of the three doctors she saw thought it was broke, but the other two did not.

She seems to be in a tremendous amount of pain. I've severely sprained my ankle once a few years back, and if I remember correctly it was several weeks before I was able to walk on it, but it didn't hurt when I was just "resting", meaning like sitting around.

Hers is throbbing like crazy I guess, and she is pretty tough so I don't believe she is full of it.

Any of you have any experience with this? Hopefully, she gets over it in a week or two, because the madison campus is certainly not very friendly to walking around in crutches.

[red]

i rolled my ankle so bad about two years ago that it hurt for about 3 months. i couldn't run or play b-ball again for almost half a year

it was probably broke

that little knob on the side of your ankle swelled up to the size of a baseball, literally

i went up to block a shot playing ball and lander in the guys foot, rolling my ankile.

the little knob was the first thing that hit the hard wood. i crawled out of the gym and almost passed out the pain was so bad

[retailguy]

i rolled my ankle so bad about two years ago that it hurt for about 3 months. i couldn't run or play b-ball again for almost half a year

it was probably broke

that little knob on the side of your ankle swelled up to the size of a baseball, literally

i went up to block a shot playing ball and lander in the guys foot, rolling my ankile.

the little knob was the first thing that hit the hard wood. i crawled out of the gym and almost passed out the pain was so bad

I just knew you were a wimp... :P

Truthfully, ankle injuries really hurt. My right one has never been the same after a really bad sprain years ago. It's now a good weather predictor.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Unfortunately, I was born with weak ankles. I bet I've severely sprained both of them at least 8-10 times. I used to play sports all the time, and mostly sports (basketball, tennis) that put a lot of stress on my ankles. Most of the time, I'd ice it and play through the pain within a day or two. There were some that I had to wait a week or two to play though. A few of them caused me major pain even when sitting around, so it's not a guarantee that it's broke. But I'd guess it's a decent possibility that there is a broken bone in there somewhere.

[red]

i rolled my ankle so bad about two years ago that it hurt for about 3 months. i couldn't run or play b-ball again for almost half a year

it was probably broke

that little knob on the side of your ankle swelled up to the size of a baseball, literally

i went up to block a shot playing ball and lander in the guys foot, rolling my ankile.

the little knob was the first thing that hit the hard wood. i crawled out of the gym and almost passed out the pain was so bad

I just knew you were a wimp... :P

Truthfully, ankle injuries really hurt. My right one has never been the same after a really bad sprain years ago. It's now a good weather predictor.

well i never go to dr.'s for my injuries. so that makes me a manly man

i don't have any lasting effects from it right now, but who knows if it'll act up when i get old like you

[retailguy]

well i never go to dr.'s for my injuries. so that makes me a manly man

i don't have any lasting effects from it right now, but who knows if it'll act up when i get old like you

You'll be lucky to walk. :twisted:

[GoPackGo]

I spained my foot crashing a wakeboard 2 years ago. At first I thought I sprained my ankle. I bought an ACE bandage and wrapped the ankle to no avail. All I can say is she should stay off of it for 2-3 days and the swelling and soreness will go down.

[Partial]

I fractured a small bone in my heel/ankle and had a severe sprain my freshman year in high school. I was playing volleyball in gym class and I jumped up to block a spike, and landed on the other guys foot. It hurt so fucking bad, I could not walk at all without holding onto something.

My gym teacher/tennis coach made me "walk it off and hit the showers". Needless to say, showering was a truly embarrassing and awful experience that day. Anyway, after I got dressed and went into his office, my ankle collasped on me when I went into his office. I then had to go to a wheel chair for the day and then to the ER when my mom got home from work.

Took a few weeks to heel completely.

My best friend broke his ankle and I believe the tibia (whatever the shin/calf bone is) while jumping on a diving board in gym. It was the most disgusting and horifying thing I have ever seen. It had an audible snap followed by a horrifying scream and a frantic struggle to get the kid out of the pool.

He was in a cast for about a year.

In 2004 when I was a senior in high school, my high school made the division one state baskertball tournament. In the sectional game against a rival, we were up by like 6 points and coasting to victory in the final minute when one of our star players went up to dunk. Well, the other team did not take well to this so one of their players tackled him in a blatant cheap shot that should have landed him in prison.

The kid tore his ACL, MCL, PCL, broke several bones, and still isn't the same. He has had several surgeries now, and was in a caste/wheel chair for a very long time.

[Partial]

Girlfriend is very, very sore. She seems very miserable and like she is having one heck of a time. I feel very bad for her, and hope that she gets better soon. From the sound of it and reading up on webmd, it seems like she has a pretty severe sprain and that it will take quite a bit longer to heel than a sprained ankle.

[Zool]

A sprained foot is said to hurt more than a break. Stretching out the tendons between the bones isn't fun.

There's also the plantar fascia layer on the bottom of the foot that can tear or become irritated.

I've been blessed with flexible ankles. 75% of the time I play baskeball, i touch an ankle bone down to the ground on a cut. Never had it hurt more than a day. Knock on wood.

[Partial]

I am pretty jealous of that Zool. I always seem to roll an ankle playing sports now-a-days. I think it might stem from my "overpronation" problem.

[Zool]

I just call it fat. Wait till you're about 10 years older.

[MadtownPacker]

Maybe she hurt it dancing with some dude?

[Merlin]

Girlfriend is very, very sore. She seems very miserable and like she is having one heck of a time. I feel very bad for her, and hope that she gets better soon. From the sound of it and reading up on webmd, it seems like she has a pretty severe sprain and that it will take quite a bit longer to heel than a sprained ankle.

Did they X-Ray it? My daughter is a pretty tough kid, she has broken her finger and tore her MCL playing basketball and both times she never flinched and kept playing. She got her leg stepped on mid shin while someone else was stepping on her foot pushing her over in basketball and she cried for 5 hours straight. I took her to "Urgent Care" which sounds like the same thing as "University Health". Basically they are Doctors but they are interns with usually a resident looking over their shoulder. The best bet os to take her to a specialist, I took my daughter to a podiatric surgeon and he explained everything in gory detail and fixed her right up. Basically whenever the ankle or foot is involved, there are a shitload of tendons in there and when you stretch, tear or break any one of them, it's going to hurt like hell. My daughter also complained about throbbing and at first I thought she broke it to.

[Freak Out]

Three MDs argued about whether it was broken? WTF?
Elevate and Ibuprofen. Keeping off of it and keeping it elevated is key.
Kiss it a bunch as well.

[Partial]

Three MDs argued about whether it was broken? WTF?
Elevate and Ibuprofen. Keeping off of it and keeping it elevated is key.
Kiss it a bunch as well.

One saw something "suspicious". The other two didn't see any signs of a break.

This made me do a bunch of lisfranc research right away because I know those injuries are extremely hard to detect from xray.

[Freak Out]

Three MDs argued about whether it was broken? WTF?
Elevate and Ibuprofen. Keeping off of it and keeping it elevated is key.
Kiss it a bunch as well.

One saw something "suspicious". The other two didn't see any signs of a break.

This made me do a bunch of lisfranc research right away because I know those injuries are extremely hard to detect from xray.

Ankles are a bitch when they get tweaked. I had what looked like a fracture and it was "only" a bad sprain. Took months before it was close to normal again.
Be her slave and keep her off her feet for a few days. :wink:

[red]

doesn't the swelling have to go down from them to get a good look

if theres any swelling

i'd take her back in a few days, if its still sore, and the swellings gone down

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Girlfriend is very, very sore. She seems very miserable and like she is having one heck of a time. I feel very bad for her, and hope that she gets better soon. From the sound of it and reading up on webmd, it seems like she has a pretty severe sprain and that it will take quite a bit longer to heel than a sprained ankle.

Did they X-Ray it? My daughter is a pretty tough kid, she has broken her finger and tore her MCL playing basketball and both times she never flinched and kept playing. She got her leg stepped on mid shin while someone else was stepping on her foot pushing her over in basketball and she cried for 5 hours straight. I took her to "Urgent Care" which sounds like the same thing as "University Health". Basically they are Doctors but they are interns with usually a resident looking over their shoulder. The best bet os to take her to a specialist, I took my daughter to a podiatric surgeon and he explained everything in gory detail and fixed her right up. Basically whenever the ankle or foot is involved, there are a shitload of tendons in there and when you stretch, tear or break any one of them, it's going to hurt like hell. My daughter also complained about throbbing and at first I thought she broke it to.

Let's be clear. A specialist is usually reserved for a specialty involving a M.D. A podiatric surgeon is not an M.D. Podiatrists are D.P.M.

Podiatrists upon graduating do a residency in either Podiatric Med or Surgery..so there really isn't a specialty.

M.D.'s go to a residency in their field, but if they want to become specialists, like neuro radiology go thru a fellowship.

As for "university health"..i have never heard this term. Please elaborate. I have heard of universal healthcare and certainly urgent care. the only time I have heard university health would be in relation to a university's student health organization.

[oregonpackfan]

My oldest daughter had a severe ankle sprain playing soccer in the summer before her junior year in high school. At the time of the injury, her soccer coach called it "The worst sprain I have ever seen in my life!"

Despite being X-rayed and entering a physical therapy program, she was not healed and missed the entire soccer season. It all likelihood she would have been the starting midfielder on a team that was ranked in the top 5 in the state and played in the state championship game.

She decided to skip basketball season to be ready for the spring season of softball all while continuing her physical therapy. In softball, she found she still had difficulty moving laterally and had difficulty rounding the bases. This is a girl who, as a sophomore, led the team in stolen bases.

We went to 2 more orthopedic surgeons. They all said that they could do surgery but the chances of restoring the athletic use of her ankle was "50-50 at best." She also tried a physical therapy sports specialist program with no success.

She did not play sports her senior year as she still had difficulty with lateral movement.

Now 19, she can jog about 3 X a week. Once in awhile, she tries playing a pickup game of basketball but is in severe pain the next day.

All this was from a "sprained ankle" at age 16. The adage of "A sprain is often worse that a break" was certainly true for my daughter.