I had a skating lesson that afternoon, and everything was going well. I was doing a "double double" combination jump when my toepick got stuck in a hole in the ice on the landing. All of a sudden, my right ankle bone bent in towards my other leg and I heard a pop. Pain shot up my entire leg and I was sure it was broken.
After a extremely frightening and painful ambulance ride from the ice rink, I found myself lying in a hospital bed doped up on morphine. On the bright side, the doctor said there were no fractures. Then what was the "pop" I heard? Apparently, it was my ligament tearing away from the bone.
A torn ligament. Great. Sounds painful but I didn't understand what it was and I also didn't understand how my ankle didn't break. The doctor said my ankle didn't break because it had been so supported by my skating boot. Many people don't understand what goes into the making of a skating boot, but competitive skaters like myself know it is no cheap deal. For example, my skates have extra ankle support which aids the skater and getting more lift on jumps.
I still didn't understand what tearing a ligament entailed. I did some research and found that "spraining" one's ankle can be a lot more painful than a fracture. Straining a part of your body is stretching a muscle, but spraining something means twisting the foot into a unnatural position causing twisting and tearing of ligaments around the ankle. This usually happens when stepping down one's ankle bends unnaturally to the inside (like me!). This usually injures the "anterior talofibular ligament." And apparently, the greater the pain, the more severe the injury.
So although the doctor says I should be off crutches and walking fine by the end of the week, I am doubtful. But at least my expensive skating boots were good for something!
3 comments:
Smiddles, I'm so sorry about your ankle! This post could only be better if you entailed some pictures...if you know what I mean. ;) Feel better!
Wow! That sure was a very medical weekend. I'm sorry that you had to go through all this, but I hope your feeling better now! But anyway, I its very interesting to find out how much goes into making a skate. I didn't even think about the different factors the skate engineers had to think about. It makes you wonder how long it takes to come up with a skate good enough to put out onto production. Well, I hope your doing okay!
That sounds like a lot to go through for just one day. I had a similar experience when I was 11. I went to visit my grandpa and my sister and I went skating on a homemade ice rink. I however, and definitely not as good as you. I was skating backwards, very unsuccessfully, and tripped over a block of ice. I put my arm down to stop the fall and ended up spraining it. It took me a while to understand why spraining it was so painful because it sounded so much better than breaking it. It healed quickly just like I'm sure yours will. Feel better!
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