Head, Shoulders, Knees, (Ankles), and Toes

It's been a while since I mentioned anything about the progress of my ankle.  You might remember my previous posts about how I sprained my ankle this last February.  You can see the initial pictures of the sprain HERE and then progress pictures HERE.  Since it's been close to 4 months after the tumble, I thought I would give you all a little update.

About 2 months after the sprain I was still having pretty good pain in my left foot.  The ankle is/was very tender and my foot still looked swollen.  In general, my ankle just feels unstable and untrustworthy.  At this point, I'd been walking on it and bearing weight without pain but any stairs, inclines, or uneven surfaces were a big challenge.  In April, my doctor did an exam and determined that the ankle had not healed as much as it should have at that point.  She prescribed an MRI on the ankle to take a better look and see what was going on in there.

I was a little nervous to have an MRI done because those machines are so big and loud (I was told).  I wasn't really sure what to expect but I'd heard some scary stories from friends with similar injuries. Despite all the "advice" people gave me, my MRI experience was quite pleasant.  They gave me headphones to block out the noise of the machine so I got to listen to some good ole' George Strait (my favorite).  With a little blanket and an uninterrupted 30 minutes, it was a pretty good experience!  Nothing to be scared of folks!

The only daunting thing was the MRI Report.  It is so full of big complicated medical words that it was no use to me.  The part that was remotely understandable was the MRI Summary.

MRI Summary: "Moderate to severe ankle sprain with tears of the anterior talofibular ligament and calcaneofibular ligaments.  The ankle mortise is slightly widened. Contusions of the talus and medial malleolus potentially are consistent with postraumatic etology most likely inversion mechanism."

Makes total sense, right?  They were kind enough to send me home with a CD of all the images and "slices" of my foot but it didn't do much good.  I have no idea what I'm looking at on an MRI.  At any rate, I've got some videos to share with you from the MRI results.

With the MRI results in hand, I visited an Orthopedic doctor.  He did some physical tests and helped me understand what was going on.  The "torn ligaments" are really the biggest problem.  He described it to me like a loose door hinge.  It works for normal functions but isn't very dependable and is a little detatched.  As far as sprains go, my doctor said it was a 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 3, 3 being the worst.  Not the best news but I have nothing to compare it to.  His diagnosis is that I need to strengthen the muscles in my foot so I can pull those ligaments together.  If they are pulled together enough to touch, they will heal back and make the ankle just as stable as my right foot.

While visiting the Orthopedic doctor, I asked him about my knees.  They've always creaked and hurt after running, but ever since the ankle injury, they've hurt a lot.  On two occasions I found that my knees buckled if I bent down too much.  It turns out that the ankle injury agitated a pre-existing situation in my knees called, Chondromalacia patella.  It's pretty "normal" for women but according to the doctor, it is surprisingly progressed for me, a woman in her twenties.  Condromalacia Patella is essentially "damage to the cartilage under the kneecap."

The next couple weeks, I will be in physical therapy.  The jury is still out on how useful physical therapy is, but at the very least, I can learn some good exercises to strengthen my lower extremities.

In the mean time, I've come to love some new additions to my wardrobe.  Its almost embarrassing to share this but I truly love my new compression sleeves!  I bought 2 Donjoy compression sleeves for my knees a few weeks ago and they are GREAT!  My knees hurt a lot whether I'm sitting or walking all day but these things make them feel better.  They keep the swelling down and they make my knees feel secure.

I also bought a compression sleeve for my ankle.  This is fairly new so I haven't used it too much but so far I like it.  The ankle compression sleeve is a little different than the knee sleeves because I wanted one that was somewhat thin.  In the unlikely event that I want to wear it with dress shoes to work, I wanted something that would fit in my shoe.   

Left: Donjoy knee compression sleeves.  I threw in a little snipet of my pretty hydrangea flower for your viewing pleasure!

Right: The ugly, yet, comfy ankle sleeve.  Is this seriously a "nude" color?  It looks more like brown to me (#palepersonproblems).

The knee sleeves fit under my dress pants for work but they also fit well under my yoga pants.  Here is a picture of how they look.  I wore these suckers for like 6 hours one Saturday and my knees felt fine!

Now you are mostly caught up with my ankle situation...get ready for the next posts friends (I've got something exciting in store for you!)

Ta-ta for now folks!