Last night I fell down a flight of stairs and rolled my ankle bad. It’s black and blue and swollen but my s/o has no sympathy for me already. In context I only ask her to help me to the bathroom. Besides crawling, which I do now, should I duke it out more? I just don’t understand, I can’t physically put weight on it(without involuntarily screaming).
it should be elevated and iced continuously. if it doesn’t improve somewhat in 24hrs, go to urgent care/ED because it may be broken.
it should also be wrapped and braced.
DO NOT walk on it or put any weight on it.
Edit: even if you didn’t break it, you have severely sprained it, and very likely tore some ligaments. You will need crutches for at least two weeks. Put as a little weight on it as possible during recovery or it will take longer to recover. Ibuprofen for the swelling, keep it wrapped and braced, and ice it when you’re not on it while keeping it elevated.
Thank you
also, don’t take anything stronger than ibuprofen so you can gauge the pain. that’s diagnostically relevant.
If what you’re doing hurts, stop doing that.
I hate to say it this mean, but your SO is a fucking idiot.
There’s no way to know what’s wrong for sure, but the extreme bruising, degree of pain, and inability to bear weight all point to a more severe injury, be is a break, a horrible sprain, or even some kind of outright tear to ligaments or tendons.
At the very minimum, you need to RICE that shit, get some crutches, and add some NSAIDs for both the pain and the inflammation/swelling.
Seriously, your partner is out of their fucking mind if they can’t tell a bad injury needs to be taken care of.
Expect at least a week of recovery, that’s about as fast as sprain is going to improve enough to walk unaided by something. You can maybe make do with a cane until you can get xrays done. And you should. A bad enough break can literally cripple you long term. If it heals bad, you could end up needing surgery to fix it, and even that won’t always get you back to 100%. I’m not saying that’s what it is, I’m just saying that the worst case scenario is life long pain and loss of mobility.
My wife sprained her ankle so badly that some of the ligaments tore. Her orthopedic doctor said she wasn’t allowed to walk for 2-3 weeks and even after that it was light light light exercise / PT
Black and blue and screaming when you put weight on it is NOT a good sign. Go to a doctor asap
Bruh what kind of girlfriend is not sympathetic to her boyfriend falling down the stairs and having a visibly injured ankle?
Anyways it’s either sprained or broken.
Rest. Ice. Wrap with ace bandage. Keep it elevated above your heart for >12 hrs/day.
Your s/o doesn’t sound like a fit to take care of you right now, can you stay elsewhere?
We are married and I watch our four kids half of the week when I don’t work. Can’t leave. Thank you for your response
I thought you meant you were already walking on it and I was going to be like “Not normal, but congratulations!”
But yeah, others have said it, get to a doctor. Waiting could do more damage.
Yeah, if it’s black and blue and hurts that much then you should definitely see a doctor. It may be fractured and you don’t want that healing badly.
I mildly rolled my ankle getting off the toilet Wednesday morning and I’m just now putting my full weight on it (old people problems amirite?). You sound like an immediate hospital visit bro.
Unrelated your s/o could stand to have more patience for you, unless you being a jackass resulted in your injury. Otherwise it might be time to evaluate your relationship. How someone treats you while your sick, injured or incapacitated in any other form, gives great insight into the quality of your bond.
You are right about seeing the insight, it’s happened multiple occasions when I get sick. She has a lot of diagnosed mental health issues. Sticking with it for the children.
Rough. Here’s to wishing you a speedy recovery and joy in your life.
As a child of divorced parents, don’t stick with it for the kids. You can separate and still be civil to each other and cooperatively raise children. It’s better for them, and better for you. Sure, it sucked when my parents split, they fought real bad some times, but not nearly as bad as when they were together. I got a real swell stepdad out of it, and I learned what real, loving, cooperative adults look like. I also got to see how determined and dedicated my father was.
Every situation is different though, but that is my expericence.
Yeeeeahhhh if it’s black and blue and swollen, you tore/broke something and should go get it checked out asap
I did this once, rolled over and to the side in one motion. Worst sprain of my life, including the time I took a jumper and landed my full weight on my ankle. It was the only time I had to stop whatever it was I was doing and get home asap. The drive back wasn’t bad but the next morning I got out of bed I couldn’t put pressure on my ankle at all. Swelled to the size of my calves and looked bruised and nasty. Took me out for a month and even so, I was put on crutches, but no cast. Get it looked at. Not all sprains are the same.
Did the same thing years ago. It was huge and black and blue. X-rays showed that I only strained it (no actual tears or tissue damage), but I could almost walk on it. It hurt, but I have a different tolerance for pain. I got a neoprene ankle brace with a splint in it and wore that for about 2 months afterwards. It was about 4 months before I was running again.
Now, having said all that, go see a doctor. You may have damaged it differently. There are a lot of bones and tendons in your foot and they all need to work properly for you to walk, so get it checked out. You might be out a few hundred dollars, but if you can’t walk in 40 years, you’ll probably wish you’d done it. Even if it’s bad, there’s a good chance you’ll be just wearing the same neoprene brace this summer.
I did this in November over a weekend blowing leaves and stepped off an elevated piece of my driveway (due to tree roots). Heard a snap crackle pop and couldn’t walk on it. That Monday i went to urgent care and they x-rayed me, saw a potential fracture and put me in a boot. Went to a podiatrist a few days later and said i tore some ligaments, no fracture thankfully. A month on the boot with icing, then another month using a support wrap since i just wear slip ons (unless especially wintery out) with anti-inflammatory meds and I’m now free, though still feel not exactly 100% but seems to be getting better.
Tbh breaks are usually less complicated than ligaments tearing.
Bones just need to be in place for like 7 weeks. Boom. Healed.
Ligaments are fussy. Gotta really break em back in after they heal.
Yeah certain movements feel “tight” and a bit uncomfortable to do. Figured it’d be a bit longer until i felt normal again.
I recommend hiking. Easy hiking, just woodland paths with roots and rocks and stuff.
Pavement is good at first but it won’t force you to use all the… Nooks and crannies of your ligament so to speak.
Unexpectedly uneven footing will get those back up to snuff.
Also: if it’s very swollen, that pressure stabilizes the injury and so it won’t hurt as much because things can’t move around. This is not a good sign.
I rolled the sh!t out of mine a few months back (loud popping noise when I went over the front of the foot around onto the side missing a stair) and spent a day limping around but it was pretty good after 24 hours. Still had to take it easy for a couple weeks though. But OTOH I can stand in the sides of my ankles normally so I’m flexible enough this is the first instance of damage ever because the angle was so extreme…
I agree RICE is the way and stay off it if it hurts.
