A month ago, I had an accident (fell off a stationary train, dont ask!!) and managed to go over on my ankle. At the time I wasnt initially too concerned as Ive gone over on my ankle plenty of times and thought it wouldnt be anything than a slight pain walking for half an hour or so. I then found however that I couldnt actually get up and stand on it. My dad took me to a&e where after a four hour wait and an ankle xray they said nothing broken, just very badly torn ligaments. The doc was very dismissive and barely looked at me or the xray.
I was told to go home and just start walking on it as normal despite fact couldnt walk on it at all and my foot and ankle were huge! I was told it would get worse before it got better, so basically dont come back. Over the next week and a half, I tried to walk as normal but could only manage a kind of limp not bending foot or ankle as this was impossible due to swelling and there was so much pain. My ankle and foot swelled severly and came out all colours. I got nagged so much by everyone that this didnt look normal, so two weeks after the accident I went back to a&e. I was seen by a doc who listened to my long explanation of what was wrong and then went and got a senior doc (the initial doc was very young, poss a junior doc). The senior doc never even came over to me and just kept repeating, your ankle sprained, it hurt, it swell, try harder walk normally (he was speaking in broken english this is not my typing)
I then got very upset as I didnt see how the level of pain and swelling and not being able to walk at all warrented no treatment and not even an examination. I asked about crutches/bandages etc, but they said no. After about 10mins of me repeating I didnt think it was normal and wanted something doing, he asked me in plain terms would a foot xray shut me up. I hadnt realised my foot hadnt been xrayed previously, so I said yes. The radiologist ticked no injury on my xrays, and the doc just looked at the piece of paper and said, 'see its just a sprain', he didnt even bother looking at the xrays himself at all!! He said it was probs me making the injury worse not walking properly on it!
I left and went back to work, and tried as much as poss to just get on with it and to walk, but a week later the pain was so bad, that at night I couldnt even stand bedsheets touching my ankle/foot. I then made a GP appointment and she was her usual dismissive self and I got nowhere. It was the day after this that I received a letter from a&e asking me to attend the orthopaedic clinic as they said a review of my case had lead them to conclude they may have missed fractures in my foot/ankle!!
Horrified I got an appointment at the orthopaedic clinic at the hospital teh next day. Once there, two hour past my appointment time, a nurse listened to me relate the whole story looked at my xrays, disappeared and came back with a moon boot. I told her this couldnt be for me as I hadnt seen the lower limb consultant I was supposed to see yet, but she told me she had told him what I had said and from this he thought the boot would be fine and offered no other info as to what they thought I had done to my ankle/foot. At this point I was at my wits end with being dismissed and started to cry, she then ran out and returned with the consultant in about 5 secs, who prodded my foot and ankle alot and concluded I had fractured two bones in my foot (3rd and 5th metatarsels), chipped my ankle and badly torn ligaments in my foot and ankle. I got told to wear a black moon boot and walk on crutches now for two weeks, and then weight bear with crutch support in the boot for another two weeks.
Its a nightmare as Im rubbish on crutches, so the hospital signed me off work for a month! im off at the moment but working from home as have a very stressful job, but have to return soon ankle better or not.
Two weeks into wearing the moon boot (just over 4 weeks since my accident) and using cructches the swelling has dramatically reduced to my foot, and the pain in my foot is reduced. However the ankle is still majorly swollen and I cannot bend it forwards or to the side. The hospital only seemed bothered by my foot when I was very clear the pain, swelling and inabiliy to move is concentrated to my ankle. Although my foot swelled and was painful, I could move my foot after about a week.
Really panicing now that almost 4 and a half weeks after my injury, that I cannot move my ankle at all, if all I have done is chip a bone and pull ligaments (apparently its only my foot I have actually fractured). Has anyone else not been able to move their ankle a month after spraining it/pulling ligaments?? Im attempting to get a GP appointment to get a fit note to go back to work on crutches and am hoping maybe she will shed some light on whether my healing should be any better, but am doubtful given how dismissive she is in general... I have to go back to the hospital to have it reviewed in early sept, and am terrified they wont be bothered by my lack of ankle movement, as they havent been up to now.
Really scared I wont get proper movement back :-( Think Im looking for reassurance that my sprain does just sound like a sprain, and Im confused what to do from here, do I just believe they now have it right after my fourth visit? My experiences with the rubbish NHS treatment I have received have done nothing to reduce my health anxiety and increase my confidance in docs at all! It seems the NHS is just focused on getting you out of a&e as quickly as poss to meet targets and doing as little as poss so it doesnt cost anything. Cant believe I walked on it for 2 and a half weeks, only to be told I should never have been walking on it.
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