Hello.
I’ve been spraining my ankle frequently since about February, and I ended up getting an MRI.
I have sprained my ankles countless times. Despite having what I’ve considered as 3 serious sprains I’ve been able to avoid medical intervention. One of the worst ankle sprains was as a 14 year old gymnast. I was doing a handstand onto the high bar, from the low bar ( on the uneven parallel bars) and when dismounting I turned my ankle. It’s impossible to say what grade that injury would have been. Competition height for uneven bars are 8 feet 2 inches. I am sure we were not training at competition height but the dismount distance with your feet over our head is substantial.
I was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago that I had grade 2 ankle sprain; nearly all of my anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and calceneofibular ligament (CFL) were torn, although not entirely, and they say my Achilles and posterior talofibular ligament and deltoid ligament are fine, so it’s not quiet grade 3.
Medical diagnostics are pieces of information. You get to decide who interprets the diagnostics and what you will do about it. The most effective therapy is the application of certain tools given routinely in just the right amounts at the right time. Therefor one of the best ways to benefit from therapy is to self-administer and actively pursue all variables that can heal you. It’s possible medical surgery is needed but I wonder how much you success you can have before trying something that can not be reversed?
If there’s anyone here with expertise or such history, please give me some advice. I am not sure if I should get surgery or go with conservative treatment. I want to be able to one day finish rehab fully and regain my athletic function fully, at least in the linear movements, if I can’t do so on lateral movement as well. I want to be able to train hard and well again, get great results, not let the injury or possible surgery hold me back. I want to be able to train my sprints, jumps, plyometrics, and weightlifting, and not let the injury be any problem. I think could just take it easy on lateral movements like soccer.
One of the questions I would ask myself might be = Why do you think you have been spraining your ankles so much since February? Has something changed? Are you more tired for some reason? Are you under more stress than normal? Has something been bothering you? Is there something underlying that is creating an imbalance in your overall health? ( you don’t need to explain I am just suggesting these are some questions you need to ask yourself. )
One of the next worst sprains I have ever had happened one year ago in January of last year. I had the flu for one entire week and resumed training the following week discounting the need for modifying volume and or intensity. ( I like to pretend I am invincible… it doesn’t work short or long term ) So in other words I was pretending that just because I could train everything would be business as usual. I was doing Running A’s : an exercise I have done since I was 12 or 13 years old. I have no idea what grade this injury was but it was probably the worse ankle injury I’ve had to date.
I really don’t want to strength, flexibility, quickness, and elasticity. I don’t want the surgery to tighten up my ligaments so hard, that it will just make my ankles too stiff to do athletic movements well, if I get a surgery.
I think what you are saying here is you do NOT want to lose strength, flexibility, quickness or elasticity. In my experience people are training focused but not recovery focused. Are you rolling out their muscles before, during and after training? Have you tried contrast baths or tried using cold as a systemic anti-inflammatory tool? You could also be treating individual body parts. (pales of ice water works very well in place of or in contrast with icing for ankles, sore Achilles etc and hands. Large Rubbermade garbage bins can be used to treat yourself with ice water for entire lower body cold treatments. How is the quality of your sleep? Have you ever tried a Cal/Mag + Vit D3 liquid at night? ( cyto-matrix is the brand I like).
Will it be possible for me to fully recover at least in the linear movements?
It’s impossible for me to know this. Focus on making yourself as healthy as possible. Try and trouble shoot some of the areas I’ve touched on above. My guess is if you are not doing some or most of the things I have mentioned to actively recover there are huge gains to be made. That is what I would focus on first before any decisions about surgery are made.
[b]
Please give me advice, or if not, please tell me someone that I could ask about such advice.
Thank you.[/b]