My ankle has been injured for four days now. The swelling has gone down a bit and the redness is gone, but I still feel pain when I try to walk normally. I’ve twisted my ankle before but I’m usually up and about by day two. So I felt a strong desire to do something crazy: I felt the urge to educate myself via the Internet! I Googled “how long does it take for a sprained ankle to heal?” Of course I found a lot of information. Various sites claim an injured ankle would need at least six weeks to heal. And several others strongly urged people to have a doctor look at it right away. I began to freak out.
What the heck? I can’t put my training on hold for six weeks! I need to continue building a base so I can officially start training for Hawaii 70.3 in January. I must work out now! This is not good at all!
I called my orthopedic specialist to make an appointment. His next available slot is January 10th. I figured I shouldn’t schedule anything for that day. I don’t know what that day will be like. All I know is it’s the first anniversary of Noah’s death. I made an appointment for the 11th; that may be pushing it.
The anxiety continued to build though.
Can I, should I wait that long before I have it checked out? It’s very important my ankle heals correctly. I don’t want to prolong the recovery time.
I discovered the Minute Clinic will look at sprained ankles. Yay! I hobbled over to the closest CVS. Two people were ahead of me. The first guy took a really long time. The nurse actually came out and informed us that she’ll need to spend more time with him. I felt sorry for the gentlemen. She ended up sending him to a doctor. When she called me in she apologized again for the wait. I was fine waiting; I just hoped the gentleman who took a long time is ok. After examining my ankle she wasn’t sure if my bone was damaged or not. She recommended I visit a nearby urgent care clinic for an X-ray. As I began hobbling back home I quickly grew upset.
My injury could be truly serious. How would this impact my training? I need to workout. I must continue training. I’ll be so disappointed if I can’t race. I can’t lose this outlet. What about Noah? How will I continue to heal and take care of myself?
After a few minutes of these thoughts racing through my head, I somehow made a point of shifting gears to calm myself down.
The situation could be much worse. If I don’t recover in time for Hawaii, so be it.
I proceeded to remind myself of a painfully difficult lesson MLH and I learned with Noah: none of us are in complete control of our lives.
I should wait and see what the X-ray looks like and talk to the doctor to figure out what I need to do to recover properly.
MLH drove me to the urgent care clinic. The X-ray showed no bone damage. According to the doctor my ligaments are probably stretched, and I’ll be able to resume training in a week. For the time being I should stay off my foot. I can swim though.
I’ll keep the appointment with my orthopedic specialist just in case I experience any issues. If I’m feeling a lot better late next week I’ll cancel it.
On our way home, I mentioned to MLH that I’m trying maintain the right perspective with this injury. I should be grateful it’s just a sprained ankle. What about that gentleman who spent a long time with the nurse at the Minute Clinic?
I Tri 4 You 