Any tips for a badly damaged calf?

[Louis Ho]

Pete Daly, thanks for your concern. So, here is the situation. The ankle damage apperars to be on the lateral/exterior side of the ankle. The mobility is actually not too bad. The pain in the ankle only occurs if I flex (ballerina style) my foot until the injured ligaments begin to stretch. I can flex my ankle both ways, but it does hurt my calf when I flex.

The calf hurts a lot more than the ankle. The swelling and pain is more on the medial/inner side. I went to an atheltic therapist last week and it seems that i did have some okay strength amd mobility in both my ankle and calf. So, probably no major tearing of the muscle. The thing that worried the athletic therapist was that the calf and ankle were still very swollen and felt very cold to the touch (poor circulation) a good 1.5 weeks after the injury. What bugs me is the pain in the calf. Very very tender. The therapist told me to stretch it, but I'm not sure if I should stretch it so soon.

[Cor]

Something simmilar happened to me when I didn't tap for a calf crunch cause I thought its not that sore, untill my knee popped... but hey so we learn. Just after that I got sick and so now I've been out for about 3 weeks. The rest annoyed me to no end but at least it forced me to let my calf heal. I only took some anti inflamitory stuff and its o.k now, I recently started training again and everything is fine, just very tender to any form of calf crunch but I'm sure that will pass.
Good luck

[Pete Daly]

Pete Daly, thanks for your concern. So, here is the situation. The ankle damage apperars to be on the lateral/exterior side of the ankle. The mobility is actually not too bad. The pain in the ankle only occurs if I flex (ballerina style) my foot until the injured ligaments begin to stretch. I can flex my ankle both ways, but it does hurt my calf when I flex.

The calf hurts a lot more than the ankle. The swelling and pain is more on the medial/inner side. I went to an atheltic therapist last week and it seems that i did have some okay strength amd mobility in both my ankle and calf. So, probably no major tearing of the muscle. The thing that worried the athletic therapist was that the calf and ankle were still very swollen and felt very cold to the touch (poor circulation) a good 1.5 weeks after the injury. What bugs me is the pain in the calf. Very very tender. The therapist told me to stretch it, but I'm not sure if I should stretch it so soon.

Nerve damage to the calf and probably ligament damage to the ankle. There's nothing you can do about the ligament damage, because, if it doesn't hurt all that bad, then it's probably not a tear, but a sprain. Treat it with ice and elevation. As for the calf, it too will heal with time, but it's going to feel funny when you stretch it, kind of like it's asleep. You also may feel some burning pain, which is normal if you have any tissue damage added to the nerve damage. Nevertheless, stretching it is the best way to increase circulation to that area, because you shouldn't put weight on that leg if you don't have to. If you have a treadmill, get familiar with it.

So it's ice/elevation very very often (keep the leg above the heart and play some call of duty while you're at it, what the hell right?), keep off it as much as possible, stretch often, and use a treadmill. You can take ibuprofen to help with the swelling and pain, up to 8 a day (more can cause intestinal damage if overused); two every four hours. Whenever the pain significantly subsides, go for like a mile JOG (not run) and see how you feel after a few hours. If you start to get sore, that's normal and you can go back to rolling etc. but if you start to swell up, then go back to treatment. Good luck on a speedy recovery.

[Pete Daly]

Oh by treadmill I meant exorcise bike, i'm an idiot. NO TREADMILLS lol.

[Louis Ho]

Thanks Pete. This helps for sure. Btw, are you a doc, therapist? Thanks again.

[Louis Ho]

Thanks Ryan.

[Pete Daly]

Thanks Pete. This helps for sure. Btw, are you a doc, therapist? Thanks again.

I'm a registered nurse at the Mayo Clinic emergency room (yes I know it has clinic in the name, but we do have an exceptional emergency room).

[Pete Daly]

Thanks Pete. This helps for sure. Btw, are you a doc, therapist? Thanks again.

I work here http://www.mayoclinic.org/saintmaryshospital/

[Louis Ho]

Cool, Pete. Thanks again.