 Poster: A snowHead
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So, I'm currently in Austria and this morning headed up to Zauchansee. We ski some piste and then head to the top to drop down into a gully and ski some trees. I am with 3 boarders and, frankly, the snow conditions suit them better that they suit me even though I have my fat skis on.
At one point the tree cover is quite dense and to get through I choose to drop down a steeper section and get a little speed up. In doing so, I lose my balance and my uphill ski binding releases, leaving me on one ski. I am now on one ski and heading towards a tree so I attempt to conduct some kind of directional correction and a controlled fall. I fail. My downhill ski now releases and I somersault just to the right of the tree, thank myself for wearing a lid, look at my very bent poll and wonder why my ankle hurts.
I get my bits and pieces together and get out of the gully and back to the bottom of the lift where I take some time out (I am a little shocked) to get some sugary liquid and some chocolate inside me.
My ankle now hurts a bit but I figure it will be OK. After lunch I notice that when my injured (right) ankle is the downhill ski I'm not getting much edge so I decide that rather than injure myself, or, worse, someone else, I will head for home.
I surf through the slush to the bottom of the hill. Get a lift home with a buddy.
Now I take my boot off. This hurts a bit more (note I clearly don't get enough ankle flex going when skiing!).
I'm now typing this looking at a rather swollen ankle wrapped in ice, raised on the chair infront of me.
So, after all that, the question, is:
Should I have sustained this type of ankle sprain? If my boots were a better fit, would they have held my foot/ankle in place better? They are well-fitted boots but are now 5 yrs old so I guess the linings are now somewhat compressed.
So, opinions please .... and feel free to chuckle at my silly crash.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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zammo, Broke my ankle in a pair of very snug and well fitting race boots about 4 years back, so I would put it down to one of those things....
When I say well fitting, CEM spent several hours of fiddling with them in his Lockwoods days....
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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zammo, My newly and expertly fitted boots fit like a glove. I suffered a "ping " in the ankle a couple of weeks ago. Fell at walking paste when my 175 narrow waisted piste skis failed to float about 135kg above the 1m deep powder at 2mph. I put the sprain down to age and the inflexibility and stiffness of my ligaments and tendons. It is still sore and swollen but getting slowly better. I didnt think the ankle would be an issue in a well fitting boot but it was.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
| zammo, My newly and expertly fitted boots fit like a glove. I suffered a "ping " in the ankle a couple of weeks ago. Fell at walking paste when my 175 narrow waisted piste skis failed to float about 135kg above the 1m deep powder at 2mph. I put the sprain down to age and the inflexibility and stiffness of my ligaments and tendons. It is still sore and swollen but getting slowly better. I didnt think the ankle would be an issue in a well fitting boot but it was. |
RX8s are pants in the powder. don't like experts like sssh tell us anything different 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I've pair of - I think - correctly fitting boots, yet managed to twinge my ankle when I ran over a bump I couldn't see in the flat light. They may be stiff, but boots do flex.
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When I fell and twisted my knee this year although it was the knee that took the brunt, my ankle also hurt for some time too. The next day my instructor got me to tighten my boots up - maybe this would have prevented the ankle damage, but does a tight boot just transfer the site of the injury further up the leg? - after all if a leg is twisting its surely got to go somewhere.
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Sorry to hear about the prang zammo - I'm very glad you were able to "walk" away.
I've managed to sprain my ankle twice in well-fitted boots - once by skiing into a ditch and over-flexing forwards (I nearly ripped that foot out of the boot) and the other time by bashing the inside ankle bone into a rock.
The linings may well be compressed - but "5 years" isn't really a very good measure. How many skiing days do they have on them?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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PhillipStanton, sensible question re: skiing days. I get in on average 10 days a year, so that's 50 days, I suppose. Wouldn't imagine that I would get much compression in that, but I presume that, like plastic, foam perishes over time?
Ankle much better this morning, btw and will head to the slopes anyway, although will probably only do a gentle hour or so and spend the rest of the day with my book, soaking up some rays!
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| zammo wrote: |
| ...that's 50 days, I suppose. Wouldn't imagine that I would get much compression in that, but I presume that, like plastic, foam perishes over time? |
I'm sure someone better informed will correct me if I'm wrong, but at 50 days / 5 years you've still got plenty of life left in those boots.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thought I'd update this .... injury occurred on 5th March.
The ankle did not get better. Although I rested it and continued to apply ice, swallow tonnes of ibuprofen and keep it elevated when at home of an evening it still swelled up during the course of the day.
So, I went to the quack who said 'go to the physio'.
So I went to the physio who said 'go to the ankle specialist'
So I went to the ankle specialist and he said 'your ankle is ******. You need an MRI and an X-ray.
Diagnosis: load of fluid around my achilles. Severe damage to the ankle cartilage. A horizontal split down my flexor hallucis longus tendon (the tendon that attaches the big toe muscle to the ankle, just in front of the achilles).
Treatment: have had 7 fluid oz of gunk syringed out of my ankle and some hydrocortazone injected.
In June I will have keyhole surgery to tidy up the catilage damage and remove the debris.
The split tendon we just leave alone and hope it fixes itself - it's deep in the ankle and although repairable, the surgery would require moving a major artery and a set of nerves out of the way so best avoided.
The moral of the story? Doesn't matter how well your boots fit, if you take risks there's a chance you'll get injured, and if you do, see the Dr, don't just assume it will fix itself in time.
No exercise for me for the next couple of months, but hopefully will be skiing again come December (conditions permitting!)
Zammo
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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zammo, Thanks for the update. Hope you recover well
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zammo, yikes, grim, good luck rehabbing!
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You know it makes sense.
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zammo, sounds like its good thing you finally got it looked at - I hope you recover as soon as possible.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Another injury update as I start to see light at the end of the tunnel ..... and the approaching season!
After little or no improvement, despite a second cortazone injection, surgery went ahead 3 weeks ago. Surgeon removed all my dead cartilage and a flap of semi-attached cartilage from my ankle joint (all key-hole) and removed what he could of the inflamed tissue around my split tendon. He also created some deliberable bone damage around the damaged cartilage to stimulate bloodflow and, hopefully, some tissue creation.
Stiches out last week and started rehab straightaway. Have lost loads of flex in the bad ankle - I'd say it was operating at about 30% of my good ankle when I saw the physio - but most of the swelling has gone and I've agreed a realistic target with my physio of 3 months and 80% operation in my repaired ankle.
I've given myself an incentive of new boots (see top of this thread!) should I be fit enough to ski from 23rd December when I'm in Switzerland for 2 weeks.
On the assumption that I will now have less flex in my right ankle than my left, I look forward to a long and challenging session with one of our bootfitting community in early December!
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