This has to be one of the strangest and most shocking health experience for me.
My right foot bares many battle scars over the decades including a recent broken bone. It suffered bone fracture in two motorcycle accidents in my daredevil invincible days.
It was the last of the week-long unseasonably mild and dry days here in Portland, Oregon yesterday. I put on my running shoes and ready to go for a long walk before the rain sets in the following day. As I was leaving the the house I felt discomfort on my right food around the ankle joint. Strange! I didn't do anything vigorous recently. I like barefoot at home (as a lot of Asians) and I like walking on flip flops because I know wearing minimal footwear make your feet healthy - as opposed to supportive and confined shoes.
Stepping out of the house, I immediately realized that going for the walk is not possible. I was already struggling hobbling a bit. A fear begun to set in. What can this be? In no time walking around the house proved to be difficult. Just standing to prepare a simple bite to eat became very uncomfortable fast. I found that I can ease the pain by avoiding the effect of gravity. I spent the rest of the day leveling my legs watching TV or browsing the web and paused to wonder what could be the cause of the sudden onset of pain at my right ankle. There was no obvious swelling, just pain and stiffness. My biggest fear is something caused by virus attacking the joint. Fearing around and massage the ankle I could vaguely tell that the discomfort appears to come from muscle or ligaments surrounding the ankle. Also I found that the pain and discomfort increased when I tried to walk on it and that the pain sharpens the more I try to ease putting weight on it.
the right ankle looks to be a bit swollen but I could not tell if that is just from the previous two bone fracture injuries - it always pays to know your own body
I went to bed early because of the discomfort. It took a long time to fall asleep due to the discomfort. By this morning the discomfort substantially subsided, I went online and did some research. One have to be very wary doing health related research online as there are more useless information than useful ones. I search for "sudden onset of ankle pain", and the search engine returns the usual scary scenarios, like gout and many other more serious ailments. I kept calm and proceed to read the more benign causes based on the symptoms. I only read the credible sites like the Mayo Clinic.
Just resting overnight I can tell the pain has substantially subsided. It must be a odd even of a case of strained ankle just from the act of putting on the running shoes. I read the Sprains and Strains article and the lateral ligament sprain and the symptoms seems to match the best.
As the day progresses the ankle has not gotten worst so I am keeping my fingers crossed. There is a marked improvement already in a mere 24 hours. In retrospect I realize now that much of the increased pain was due to the other groups of muscle groups also strained from trying to help protect the strained lateral ligament.
Experiences like this always manages to remind me the fragility of life and our health. For wild animals a minor injury often means the death as they live at such thin margins of survival.
Update:
It has been 48 hours now, and the pain has all but completely subsided. I still walking with a bit of a limp as the right ankle is a bit stiff. What shocked me was how sudden the onset without any warning. I have rolled my ankles a lot in my younger years and never suffer from any pain. This time I didn't do anything. I guess it is a bit like one pulling a back muscle. It can happen when the muscles are commanded to act out of unison.
At about 72 hours I felt really good so I went and ran some errant and did a bit of grocery shopping. I also walked a bit too much in my neighborhood. It turned out to be a bad idea. By late afternoon, the pain return. Worst is my weekly German night class. I ended up taking a pair of crutches with me since there are often long walks from the parking to the building. That night I slept poorly because of the discomfort. This experience made me more appreciate the Moto GP riders often get back onto the bike to race after suffering bad injuries. Valentino Rossi is my hero with balls of steel.
For the next two days I decided to take it easy, and 5 days later things are nearly back to normal. Can't do back flip yet...
6 days later. All healed. It was the strangest sudden onset of pain and injury for me. In retrospect much of the pain and swelling was caused by groups of muscle trying to protect the sprained ligament. Our bodies are really amazing things which we can take for granted all too easily.
after photo (6 days later) - the right ankle (the injured one) is slightly larger than the left because of past bone fractures; i know! those are skinny chicken feet, LOL, because I am not obese and I walked without shoes a lot
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