I got injured last night while officiating a high school ice hockey game. The athletic trainer who was covering the game came into the officials’ locker room during the intermission between the second and third period, evaluated me, and said that I may have a high ankle sprain, which is a syndesmotic ligament injury. This is not your garden-variety ankle sprain. If I have this injury, it may take me a while to recover from it.
I injured my left leg, so I was able to drive myself home from the rink. That’s good because I was 65 miles from home and Kathleen was working last night. I rested and iced my leg last night and slept pretty well.
Now that I’m up this morning, I find that my leg is rather stiff. It’s not impossible for me to move around, but I’m limping at least as badly as I was last night.
Kathleen is a pediatrician. She read her orthopedics books and some on-line resources last night and concluded that I should probably get an x-ray and an evaluation by an othopedist or a sports-medicine doctor. I’m calling my doctor’s office when it opens to ask whether they think I should go to the Emergency Room or if they will give me a referral to see an orthopedist at this point.
I’ll provide an update on my condition after someone who deals with injuries like this takes a look at me.
Update: After 10 hours of trips between my regular doctor, a radiologist, and an orthopedist, Kathleen and I are back and I have a walking cast on my left leg. I broke the left fibula between my knee and ankle.
The orthopedist says that I can be out of this cast in four weeks. After that, I will do some physical therapy to get back some of the strength and flexibility that I will lose over the next month. I hope that I can go back to my normal activities in about six weeks.