Partly due to a blog discussion with my fellow strap-support wearer Osyth, who confirms my belief that a second opinion is advisable, I have braved the Accident and Emergency Department of a well known West Midlands UK hospital.
OK. This is a contentious current news item. Why am I here when I could go see my GP? Because I can’t get an appointment for five weeks, and he would refer me to Xray department here anyway.
No, we don’t have private insurance.
I thought it was just a sprain, but the melon shaped swelling is not reducing after weeks and weeks of just putting up with it. OK, today it’s a small cantaloupe rather than the giant water melon it is on some evenings.
I have just been advised that “non-urgent” cases, and I fully accept that I fall into that category, will have an eight hour wait. In a few hours I will no doubt be joined by accident prone drunks and more sad souls from local nursing homes ( those stats always go up on Friday night)
I’m not normally given to social commentary but as I’m stuck here…
The NHS is indeed on it’s knees. Wish me and my cankle luck.
Blog-sur-Aude 
Your’e a braver gal than I Gunga Din! Braving the NHS wait times but I am SO glad to read that you did …. I’m bluddy sure it’s broken and if I’m wrong I owe you a ruddy good rosé when we meet!
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Can’t you go in France? I know the joys of socialized medicine are pretty well the same everywhere but if you are suffering they will not turn you away – and the wait may be shorter!
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Knitting is good. It works out some of the nervous energy and you don’t have to maintain much of a train of thought. Bon courage.
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My sympathies. In the past I seem to have had a knack for doing in one ankle or another. Semi-sprains from wearing 3″ spike heels (I was young), then a fall and a hair fracture of the ankle bone
and various twists and turns. Within January I slipped while stepping inside my front door (my right foot and leg were up, my left foot on a mat which decided to move (rain). Fell on the shin below the knee. Fortunately (very!) only a very bad bone bruise (could still walk on it) but swelling-oh my! And
then bruising which continued to surface for a week plus.
I know with a blow like that the area will swell with fluid so once it’s ok to touch, I started massaging it to get the fluid moving; otherwise it will just stay there. A friend advised using one of the adhesive hot patches (I know the more common brand Salonpas but many available) so I started using that—one at night when my leg was horizontal.
I must have managed to sprain the ankle a bit because it was painful (but I could walk on it) so
that was part of the plan…elevate when possible, walk when possible and continue to be thankful for not having broken the bone. And for no damage to the knee.
I trust you’re elevating it as much as possible…while the position does need assistance to accomplish, lying on my back with my feet up against a wall (slight angle-30 degrees) and while doing that, flex the leg muscles. The fluid won’t move without some discipline. The swelling keeps the blood flow to the foot reduced which isn’t good either so even if you’re just sitting, move the foot around.
B complex is good for circulation (I’d always take extra for my 11 hour plane rides) and extra amounts of vitamin C act as a diuretic as well. I only take aspirin for pain (anything else makes me loopy or break out) so I use calcium and magnesium which doesn’t just help with any pain but it also helps with healing the bruises and bone damage. Helps relax the muscles, etc as well. When I was married and we did a lot of outdoor physical work, dolomite (calcium & magnesium) before bed meant we could actually move the next morning and not just think about it and moan (the first time getting firewood after a winter of sloth).
If there is one particular place that is sore and the A+E visit doesn’t show a fracture consider a foot massage (if there’s someone in your area who offers that and doesn’t charge a lot). Something you can do for yourself is to get a tennis ball (or one that size, but slightly yielding) and a golf ball.
Rolling the tennis ball around under your foot will help passively exercise the foot (and stimulate the blood flow and hopefully relax the tense muscles, tendons and ligaments). If there is a sore spot then do the area around it. If there’s no specific pain, after you’ve gotten benefit from the tennis ball, try the golf ball. It will let you explore your foot in more detail and if an area is slightly
sore you can focus on the area around it also.
I studied massage and specialized in the foot (but decided handling strangers feet was not a proper job for me) but I do know what manual therapy can do.
I follow some UK papers so I know about all the NHS problems. Of course the US medical system is going to be much worse.
IF…the xrays don’t show anything and IF the pain is on the outside of the foot just slightly forward of the ankle the it could be that one of the metatarsals…more specifically the 5th metatarsal which connects to the cuboid. If you look at a diagram of the foot you’ll see that it has sort of a tail that sticks out from the cuboid.,,.that can fracture and it can also be slightly out of place…so it just hurts, with nothing to show what wrong. When all my swelling has gone down and I can manipulate my foot I will twist the foot in so the pressure that is keeping the bone in the wrong place will be relieved and hopefully there will be a little ‘pop’ and my foot (and I) will be happy again. The pain relief will be immediate. It’s a nagging pain, not a toothache pain, but still.
I was unaware of the problem; I can’t link to your site from twitter, somehow wordpress tells me it can’t give me access (not just your site). I’ve missed keeping up with you so I went to the main portal and had immediate access.
I do hope the foot problems are quickly resolved and I especially hope soon so you can get started on the move. Congratulations on making the first step, even if it was sort of forced on you.
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Thanks for those tips, I will certainly be trying the massage route to get the swelling down. Just about to post an update
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I think they should let us go to a veterinarian when the case seems simple enough!
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I would probably have been seen sooner…
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Good idea
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Good luck!!! If it hasn’t gone away after weeks of waiting, then I guess 8 hours of more waiting beats five weeks of more waiting.
What is the NHS’s problem? Lack of doctors? Too many people clogging the system with minor complaints (which is not the same as non-urgent medical problems–a swollen ankle won’t kill you in the next hour, so it isn’t urgent, but it’s a real thing, not in the sore-back-give-me-a-note-so-I-can-skip-work-for-a-week). You’ll be happy to know that the Carcassonne hospital is more efficient.
However it takes a good six months to get into the eye doctor. A friend who IS an eye doctor says it’s because plenty of patients come in once a year to have their perfect vision verified. They take up slots and cause backlog. She tells them not to come back unless they notice a change, in any case, every two years is plenty.
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Part of the issue is that in certain areas of the country, folk have to wait weeks for an appointment with their own doctor, so , if it hurts and they can’t wait, they go along to their local hospital and clog up A&E
Ms May has decided that GP’s must put in longer hours at their surgeries to cut appointment waiting lists, it remains to be seen if we have actually gone past the stage where we can fix this without radical change
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In Australia it was getting so bad in A & E departments that they set up after hours GP clinics at the hospitals for people who really needed to see a doctor but weren’t sick enough for A & E. Still quite a long wait but it felt good not taking up space where acutely ill people needed the emergency doctors 🙂 Doctors take turns in running the clinics and a triage nurse puts people in order the same as A & E.
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Bon courage!
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Gosh, that is indeed sad that you can’t get a doctor’s apt for a month!!! I know what an awful place Emergency can be and will be thinking of you during your long wait, and hoping they can figure out what is wrong xx
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Thanks Bev x
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Ouch! Hope you’ve got a good book
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Sadly not…I may have to order Trev to bring some supplies
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