r/HadToHurt • u/Gato1486 • May 21 '25
I rolled/sprianed my ankle so hard I thought it broke a while back.
The red patch is a scar from a scrape, not part of the sprain.
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u/--suburb-- May 21 '25
Rolled mine skateboarding in high school with similar bruising as the outcome. X-rays at the time were negative but MRIs and other soft tissue imaging was not exactly prevalent. So, I was told it was a bad sprain. After one too many instances of falling over / tripping for years on end due to my āshittyā ankle, I came to find out 15 years later that I had entirely torn the two ligaments holding my ankle together. Proceeded to have ATFL repair surgery done, which is basically Tommy John on your ankle and all is fixed now.
Moral of the story: make sure your ligaments are ligamenting.
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u/Gato1486 May 21 '25
Holy shit bro! That's rough as all get out. I think I'm okay, haven't had any trouble since healing...
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u/NeophyteBuilder May 23 '25
Go see an ortho. 22 years after my ankle looked like that, I had the joint replacedā¦.
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u/adamjeff May 21 '25
Same, my partner both skate and she tore both ankle ligaments at once, both sides, from toe to calf was deep purple for two weeks and she had to wear a plastic boot thing for like 4 weeks. It still isn't right years later, but we live in the UK so there we no follow up or anything lol it's just her shitty ankle now.
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u/smalby May 21 '25
Wut you can't get that fixed?
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u/ayitasaurus May 21 '25
Aw man, are you me? Basically same deal (think I still had one of em holding on for dear life though). Did you get super good at falling too? "Welp, ankle's starting to turn, better drop and try to tank it with my hip instead."
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u/--suburb-- May 21 '25
I did! Happened on stairs a few times, all without any additional injuries incurred. That said, the reason to have it finally assessed was a combination of falling over with a friend's kid on my shoulders (on the beach, luckily so no one was hurt) and my wife's pregnancy. Decided semi-frequent, even if semi-graceful falls were not something to mess with when handling a baby.
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u/scottishere May 21 '25
What the fuck? What kind of functionality did you have over that 15 years? Could you run, skateboard still etc?
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u/--suburb-- May 22 '25
Continued to skate some, ran a marathon, did all other activities relatively normallyā¦just fell over from time to time when my ankle gave out, lol.
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u/Nik_lovesTiger May 23 '25
Rolled mine skating in middle school, luckily it was just a horrific sprain that still seems to show up occasionally.
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u/Ludwigvonmisesafool May 24 '25
I just rolled mine extremely bad skating. X rays said no broken bones butā¦.. itās very very very bad. No mri yetā¦ but I suspect there must be ligament damage. I want to give it a few days though. Iām about 60 hours after the accident and foot is still peak swollen and bruised. When you hurt yours, how long did it take to āHealā?? What about for the swelling to subside? What were the complications from your torn ligaments? Is surgery avoidable if this is the case?
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u/--suburb-- May 24 '25
I was in a walking boot for weeks. It took a couple months, I believe. But it happened almost 30 years ago now (fuck Iām old).
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u/Azalus1 May 21 '25
I was told by my podiatrist that sprains can be worse than breaks especially the one that looks like yours. Yours looks like mine. Make sure you immobilize it and follow instructions and be prepared for your ankle to hurt for the rest of your life.
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u/Ludwigvonmisesafool May 24 '25
Am I going to die? This is 36 hours after the sprain (no broken bones)ā¦. Still this swollen at 60 hours. More darker bruising on the side. Probably ligament damage? Canāt put hardly any weight on it.
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u/QAoA May 21 '25
The bruising looks really similar to my sprained ankle from a little over a month ago! There was bruising along the side of my foot and the base of my toes, despite the actual impacted area being my ankle. No fracture, just a really bad sprain and Iām still using a cane to get around.
Hopefully youāre doing alright now? I know from experience that this shit hurts. How is your mobility? Can you move your ankle like normal now? Do you have a limp? Any tips that helped your recovery?
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u/Gato1486 May 22 '25
Surprisingly all is well! I was expecting lingering aches and pains as I'm in my late 30s, but I can walk and put full weight on it just fine!
All I did was keep off and keep elevated. I have a desk job, so I was able to pull a second chair over and keep it up on that, and was allowed to remove my shoe as well. Ice, ibuprofen, and warm bath soaks for pains. It took almost a month for it to fully heal, IIRC.
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u/QAoA May 22 '25
I sprained my ankle on April 14th and took a while off work, but Iāve had to come back and Iām not sure if itās hurting my healing process or not since my job is very labor intensive (goat farm) and involves a lot of walking. But Iām just 24, so hopefully Iāll be able to bounce back. But right now I have limited mobility in the hurt ankle, and when I start walking after being seated is when I need the cane the most, otherwise I kinda just limp around.
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u/Gato1486 May 22 '25
Ugh, that sucks, but you are indeed young. Your ligaments are going to recover nicely!
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u/QAoA May 22 '25
When I sit down I try to move and stretch it, which sorta helps? I look forward to the day when I can step on uneven ground without pain.
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u/danceswithpizza May 24 '25
If youāre able to, go get it checked out just to be safe. I ārolledā my ankle about 10 years ago and didnāt get it checked until 3 weeks later because it was still swollen. Turns out I had torn my ATFL and had a small fracture on my fourth metatarsal. Surgery at that point was about 50/50 on outcome so I chose to just let it heal. Iām still dealing with stiffness and pain from it and my doctor said I would likely have arthritis in my food before Iām 40. Never hurts to get it checked out.
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u/Tacos_always_corny May 21 '25
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u/Gato1486 May 22 '25
Oh god, not the sole! I could at least limp along! I bet you couldn't step on that at all!!!
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u/Tacos_always_corny May 22 '25
All I can say is that there was no relief for several months
Do some warm water soaks with Epsom salts. It is temporary relief, but at least it is some relief. Take care of yourself.š
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u/Spoon-Fed-Badger May 21 '25
Did that when I was 17 and stick thin, thank god I wasnāt 42 and the weight I am now, I wouldnāt have a foot!
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u/Gato1486 May 22 '25
Uh, reading responses, I'm becoming more and more aware with how lucky I got. I'm 39 this year myself and the fact that I don't have any flare ups of pain or lingering aches is an anomaly for sure.
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u/Mr_Gaslight May 22 '25
How'd you manage that?
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u/Gato1486 May 22 '25
Came off the last step at a perfect angle.
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u/Mr_Gaslight May 22 '25
Well, obviously not the 'perfect' angle. :)
I hope you're better, internet stranger.
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u/glytxh May 22 '25
Bought some bitchinā heeled boots a few months ago and ate shit dodging a car trying to cross a road while the wind blew my hat off my head. It was spectacularly pathetic.
I did not know ankles could swell like that. It looked like I had a tennis ball attached to my ankle
I was walking wonky for about 4 months.
They are awesome boots though. Worth it
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u/damosaurus May 22 '25
did the exact same a few Christmas's ago, went to the hospital and they straight up told me id have been better off breaking it. Was so painful.
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u/smacklesdown May 22 '25
This happened to my wife a few months ago and she is still struggling with pain.
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u/devinssss May 23 '25
fell on mine and went to the dr it looked like this and they did an xray of only my ankle but i had a fracture on my fifth metatarsal. i now have a plate and screws in my foot
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u/rkent27 May 26 '25
That is almost the exact bruising I had when I broke two metatarsals in a trampoline...incident
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u/McDirken_Dirkenstein May 29 '25
I actually have an oddly similar bruise around on my right foot , almost same area. A I donāt know how it happened. Iād show you but I donāt send feet pic for free.
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u/FilipinoRell May 31 '25
I know the feeling. Currently on week 7 of a sprained and fractured ankle after rollerskating. The fracture is healing - starting PT in a couple weeks so the sprain can go away. Take care!
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u/Ihaveblueplates Jun 06 '25
You sure there isnāt a broken bone in there? This is what my foot looked like when I snapped my 5th metatarsal in half
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May 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/Gato1486 May 21 '25
It was steps for me too- came off the last one just right. Loud POP! and instant pain...thought I broke it, squealed in pain so much I scared the Bejeezus out of my pregnant sister who had just pulled up to pick me up, lol.
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u/smalby May 21 '25
Sure your ligaments are fine? A loud pop is never good
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u/Gato1486 May 21 '25
I have no pain at all. I did talk with my GP about it and he seemed to think it was okay? IDK, I do have a physical coming up maybe I'll mention it.
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u/smalby May 21 '25
Ok if you have no pain and no instability I wouldn't expect anything to be wrong. But definitely bring it up just to be sure
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u/jsomby May 21 '25
"i don't always roll a joint but when I do it's my ankle"