Date: 2006-11-04 12:13:00
sprained ankle

Yesterday at lunch, I wandered across the street at work to a small park that has a duck pond. I was going to go sit by the pond for a few minutes and watch the ducks, which is nice and restful. There is a creek between the road and the pond, which I just normally hop over instead of walking down to the vehicle bridge and back. Yesterday though, there was a new fence that made the narrowest part of the creek inaccessable. So I jumped over at a wider part of the creek. As I landed on the other side, I heard a crunch as my left foot twisted sideways. That sort of hurt. So I hobbled over to the pond and sat down.

By that time (just a minute later), my ankle had swollen up to the size of a hacky sack. I figured I had best get some ice on it, so I limped back to the office (the long way around over the vehicle bridge), and found some "instant ice" in the first aid kit. (The instant ice contained a liquid plus solid beads, that when mixed together caused an endothermic chemical reaction and got cold. I'd never had to use that before.) I iced my ankle and kept it elevated for the rest of the day.

Today I went to the doctor. Here in New Zealand, all kinds of accidental injuries are covered by Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which makes medical treatment for accidents essentially free (they're paid for through taxes). The doctor said that it was probably a minor sprain, and gave me a referral to see a physiotherapist (which also will be free). It's good to be able to get patched up under proper medical care without having to worry about whether you can afford it.

Anyway, my ankle still hurts a bit to walk on so I've been doing a lot of hopping. It turns out that I can hop on one foot faster than normal walking speed! I can stand on it right now but it doesn't like to bend certain ways, but I should be able to at least walk on it again reasonably soon. This weekend, however, I'm planted on the futon with my foot up on a pillow.

I'm kind of bummed out because I can no longer do any of the following until my ankle heals:

That pretty much encompasses all of my non-work non-computer related activities these days. Hopefully I will be able to resume some of these as my ankle gets better. We're well into spring here in NZ and the weather is great. I don't really want to be stuck inside too much.

[info]eliset
2006-11-04T00:25:18Z
I feel your pain. It iced over last December, and I was walking out of a Taco night when I slipped on some icey stairs - same cruch. At first I didn't think anything of it, until I woke up in the middle of the night because the sheet on my foot was too painful. Of course, I couldn't move enough to get ice, so essentially it was 4 hours or so of wondering if I should wake up Moonie.

Yeah, I totally feel your pain. Hope you feel better. :(
[info]ghewgill
2006-11-04T00:30:40Z
It looks like I did the right thing by getting ice on it right away. The doctor said there was almost no bruising where she would have expected some. I put the ice on the outside of my ankle, the side that had swollen up the most. On the inside, which didn't get ice, I'm a bit blue.

Thanks for the wishes. :)
[info]eliset
2006-11-04T03:46:36Z
Ha. Next time I hit the deck in the ice, I'll shove my foot in a snowdrift. Awesome. :P
[info]leroy_brown242
2006-11-04T01:26:47Z
When I'm unable to be active (sick, injured, drunk) I often take on projects I'd normally not have time for, or had no made time for. A bit of a pinched nerve resulted in the current design of http://alderflats.com.

So, are there any projects you've been putting off that you can do from a laptop and/or couch? :)
[info]amyrtw
2006-11-05T01:29:22Z
Are you JOKING? he's got tons of them! The only problem is that now I have to do all of the cleaning & washing up instead of having my helper. He's getting pampered and loving it. This gives him time to work on our business stuff that we've both been putting off. i.e. the website.
Greg Hewgill <greg@hewgill.com>