R.O.L.L.E.D ankle

If we're lucky, Rob and I play Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoons at Circle Sportif. This past Sunday with rain threatening, we decided to give it a go and chance the weather. We normally split the field with a women's soccer team; however, due to a recent price increase the women play elsewhere and the entire field was ours. We divided up into teams and play began. It felt great to be running around and the rain clouds passed us by with only a few cooling drops. My throws were accurate and my teammates were a lot of fun. The afternoon wore on. We normally stop playing before dark and we all knew we were on the last few points of the game. My team was losing and I was guarding the guy with the disc.

What happened next I don't quite understand, but I heard a loud POP! and immediately fell to the ground. I immediately thought, "oh no, I've broken my ankle, I'm in Africa. I'm in Africa, I've broken my ankle" I tried to shake it off and pretend that I was fine, but my ankle couldn't support my body weight and it was doing this weird thing where I had no control over the movement of my foot between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock on the imaginary description clock. Rob carried me off the field like a hero and our friends gave us some space while I DIDN'T CRY, but dealt with the pain and we decided what to do.

Some friends came over and diagnosed my injury as a rolled ankle, gave me some advil, and told me to ice it. Rolled ankle?!?! Someting causing this much pain surely has to be called something much more sinister. It has to be some sort of acronym. Hearing them say it wasn't broken made me happy enough and Rob carried me up the 4 flights of stairs to the car. I made Rob tell me story after story to keep my mind off the pain, I wanted to hear all about his past sports injuries. He claims he had none in little league!

My ankle began to swell and bruise. I was definitely going to be off my feet for awhile. Rob heated up some left overs and we decided a HOUSE marathon would be in order. I made it through the night and next day okay. The swelling stayed the same and the bruising became worse.

Tuesday I continued to experience the most awful feeling when I walked. It felt like the tendons around my ankle were moving and each time they did...pain! I remembered the POP! I heard when I first injured it and worried that I had snapped the tendons. I decided it would be good idea to look it up on the internet. Bad idea. I scared myself so! I read about how if you hear a POP you probably have broken/torn something, and that you can still walk on a broken ankle, but if you do you can cause irreversible damage or require surgery.

I cried, apologized for not being a strong sporty girl and asked rob to take me to the doctor. Rob said, crying over a sports injury was not a deal breaker and carried me to the truck. We went to Dr. Waswa who decided I probably needed an x-ray, went and got an x-ray besides Executive Car Wash (awesome, but oh so sketchy food), and then took the x-ray to the Belgian doctor in town to read it. After examining the x-ray, he determined there was no fractures and after all kinds of poking and proding of my sore ankle, he said in a heavy french accent, "the tendons they are not so good, but they are not too bad. It is a bad sprain."

He sent me home with instructions to try as best I can to walk normally, wear good shoes, and apply an ointment for the swelling. I left feeling much relieved that it will heal on its own and it was not broken. I have to have patience with how slowly I move now, I guess everybody takes for granted bounding up steps, carrying things while they walk, and just standing up for long periods of time.

3 weeks I can start being more active and 6 weeks for a full recovery. Although, I think I've lost the nerve to play Ultimate anytime soon.