UKC

While climbing yesterday i heard "popping" sound from my left ankle.
I was guite ok, i rested and raised my foot for a while. I was even able to belay for a while. Of course when i came back home the ankle was very swollen and painful. I rested and raised my foot putting ice around it.
Today i went to emergency ward to do a x-ray. Apparently is sprained, but when i asked the doctor if it's not a tendon he seems not to know what i was talking about. Could be my pronouncation (I'm Polish, he was Indian).
Anyway can ordinary x-ray show any problems with tendon? Please help i would like my leg to heal as quickly as possible.

In reply to cece:


Not reliably although it will show any gross deformity of the bones which could be caused by a (very) severe sprain. It's easy to get confused between sprains and strains. A sprain is due to a ligament being over stretched whilst a strain is caused by a tendon being over stretched. Sprain is a bit of a layman's term but is often used to describe a "soft tissue injury" as it can be quite hard to distinguish between sprains and strains and often there will be a mix of both. The important thing is that the management is the same, rest and ibuprofen!

Iain

In reply to cece: Go and see a physio, it'll cost but what price can you put in your mobility. Take the Xray, good to know its not broken, but don't leave ankle injuries. Too many people develop chronic ankle injuries all because they are too tight to get the thing sorted properly. Its your ankle, hugely important. For soft tissue injuries doctors do little. Get to the physio, get it assessed and get a programme of recovery. Rest may be the answer, but not for long, often re-mobilisation is the key to over-coming and restrengthening the ankle. Don't just rest and take pain killers until the pain goes away, then spend the next 4 year chirping on about sore ankles.