On Saturday, I tried to climb a slippery tree, while at Virginia Water lake. I slipped and fell. The left foot landed partly on an exposed root, twisted, and went under me. I heard a crack, and feared the worst.
It wasn’t the worst1. I was able to manage, in severe pain, to hobble another 2+ miles around the lake, back to the car. The ankle was badly swollen, and the whole area was a mix of blue, black and red by the next morning. Still, I did all the right things – RICE – and it started to recover.
I saw the GP today morning, and he confirmed that it looked like a bad ankle sprain, and not a fracture of any sort. Still, he ruled out running for at least a month. He did allow swimming, as long as I don’t kick much.
Later in the evening, I was playing with the boys in the backyard. It rather, a boy was playing. Duds was enjoying chewing on the antler while lying on the grass. I was standing at one end, chucking the ball, while Chewie was enjoying catching and fetching it.
Once, the ball landed close to Duds, and he grabbed it before Chewie. He then placed it between his elbows, and went back to chewing on the antler. Chewie, the wuss, refused to get the ball back from him, so I had to go get it myself.
I was lazy. I didn’t want to walk a few extra steps to get on to the grass softly, so I went in where the drop from patio to the grass is 3 feet. The left foot was injured, so I went in with the right foot.
The drop was higher than I’d expected. My left foot was less stable than I’d hoped for. The ground under the grass was less even than I’d planned for. My right foot twisted, the ankle gave way, and I was down on my bum, about to roll down another 3 foot drop on my back. The rose bushes stopped my rolling, and saved me.
They couldn’t save my right foot.
I now have two hurting ankles. One swollen, but recovering. The other paining more, but not yet swollen.
Spent the evening cursing myself. Over and over and over. It wasn’t enough!
I’d planned to do a short walk tonight. Then to short walks tomorrow, a longer walk on Friday, and a swim on Saturday.
And here I am now – crepe bandage on one ankle, and an ice pack on the other 🙁
Idiot, idiot me! 😡
- The doctor said it’s definitely not a fracture, but couldn’t rule out a hairline fracture. I’ve to wait for the foot to heal, and after that if there’s still a remnant pain, then we might do an x-ray to check for a hairline fracture. ↩