PT ADVICE--Not Very Encouraging.

I remembered that Melissa, from the IM Geek Squad, was a physical therapist so contacted her yesterday to ask her recommendation about my ankle. Here is her response:

Here's my advice/story. I sprained my ankle 2 summers ago and then did Johan's 2 weeks after I sprained my ankle. I could run on it and it felt pretty good. However, about 4 months later I started having problems with it...pain, stiffness, and the swelling never went away, etc. To make a long story short I ended up getting an MRI and was too close to ankle surgery and thought I wouldn't be able to do the Cour d'Alene Ironman. But it worked itself out (after x2 orthopedic surgeon consults) eventually. To make a long story short...let it heal...there will be other triathlons. I'd rather see you with a fully healed ankle, and be able to compete on it properly when it heals. And if it's still swollen, your just pushing your luck, weakening the ligaments even more...the ligaments are what need time to heal. The outside of the ankle by the heel are the ligaments and some tendons that you strained and tore. If you keep pushing your ankle the ligaments will tear even more and can even completely tear. Then you end up with a very unstable ankle. Johan's was always an important race for me and one of my favorites. And even though my ankle is doing well today...I still wished that I wouldn't have done the race (even if it meant "loosing" $50-$60)That's my advice. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with. I'd be happy to do so. I'm a repetitive ankle sprainer since I've been young. But as you get older, it takes a lot longer to heal. Melissa!

So for now, it looks like the best course of action will be to wait a little longer. I didn't run today because of her response, and even when I put my shoes on to just go to the gym, I could really feel the ankle then. Up until now, I've been wearing some fairly casual sandals, even to work, that put no pressure on the ankle or restrict it in any way. I really think wearing running shoes would definitely traumatize it, and at this point I would rather deal with a couple of weeks off than drag this out for years like last time.

I did do a spinning class yesterday, one full hour, since rain was threatening all day (of course it never did!). My knees REALLY hurt last night, and looking at them you can now see the bruising that was just swelling before, so I suspect that fast spinning aggravated my poor injured knees too! My legs are a mess! Bruised foot and ankle on one foot, bruised knees, big scabs on both knees, and to top it off, a big burn across my leg from dropping my curling iron onto my leg. Definitely not beauty queen legs right now! And to make matters worse? Wearing those open-toed, casual sandals set me up for someone to open a door over my other foot, tearing my big toenail nearly off, so I've had that bloody mess to deal with all day too! Right now, that's too numb to feel much pain, and I'm trying to block that out as much as possible because I'm too busy to deal with it.

And on an opportune note, the pool is finally open, so one mile swim today. I wanted to pool run (not really) but none of the equipment (belts) was put back in place and do you think you could find anyone who worked there when you need them? No, that would only be when you are in the shower and they decide to come in and collect towels or vacuum. So no pool running. I'm almost thinking my ankle might be a little too sore for that yet anyway.

I'm disappointed with not doing the race Saturday because I really wanted to do the race and because you got a jersey with it! I do have an e-mail into the race director requesting my entry be transferred to another race, so hopefully he'll do that. I know he's done it before for others.