I'm pretty sure it's just a tearing of the tendon. Sometimes partial, sometimes complete.. Unless you have some serious issues with your lower leg muscles and even trying to control your feet (due to inability, not just pain)...it's probably an ankle thing and not achilles.
I tore some ligaments in my ankle in Venezuela, the silly doctors just put a cast on it (U.S $500), when i went back to Canada the doctor's there told me I should have had surgery to repair it....now I'm screwed, I can't leave it in one position for too long, get's stiff....
I had this happen to me in March 2006. I tried to walk it off the first couple weeks. The pain was excrutiating, and my foot was twice its normal size and was black and blue from my toes to my upper shin. I finally went to the doctor two weeks later and found out I had a broken fibula. I had a cast on for two months. It honestly took over a year for it to feel normal, although I'm still not sure it's 100%. Go get it x-rayed.
amen to that. It's been a year since my knee injury and I still can't run or jump. And it starts to hurt like hell if I walk too much. Although in a twisted way I avoided the need for microfracture surgery since I also fractured my knee along with tearing off a ton of cartilage
These pictures are from when I messed up my ankle a couple of years ago. I was playing basketball with some guys at the park and came down on someone's foot after a jumpshot (at least it went in). I heard a snap and fell to the ground, clutching my ankle. I got up pretty quickly and actually tried to finish the game, but quickly realized that I couldn't/shouldn't. I noticed that my ankle had already swollen to about the size of an orange and was "spilling" out the top of my shoe. Did I got to the emergency room? A doctor? No, because I had tickets to see Doug Stanhope 2 hours later and I wasn't going to miss it for anything. Turned out to be well worth it, but that's beside the point. I could barely put any pressure on it at all that night, and the next day was far worse. I ended up not being able to walk on it at all for the first week, and not being able to walk on it without noticeably limping for 2 weeks. Jogging came at 1 month, and playing basketball again was at about 2 months. Couldn't go full speed for 6 months. Never did go to the doctor, but I know I probably should have. Oh well. Here are the pictures, which were actually taken at the 1 week mark, so the swelling was way down (believe it or not). Note that the black/purple spots are not shadows
3rd year med student here, so i at least have street cred. I would get it checked out right away. sounds to me like it could be an achilles injury (strain, partial or full tear), if you fell forward while your foot was in cleets. first things first, ice is definitely good, but also take your choice of either aspirin, ibuprofen (advil) or naproxen (aleve) not only to relieve the pain but to reduce the swelling, inflammation, and whatnot. There are some maneuvers you can try, to see if you actually tore your achilles tendon, but they can be painful. The doc in the ER will do it anyway, and they'll do it right, so might as well save yourself some pain and have a professional opinion on it. It's your ankle, and you seem active. Don't take any chances, and update us on how you're doing! Feel better soon.
You probably did what I did to myself a few months back and badly sprained your ankle. I was playing basketball, jumped up and landed on somebody else's foot -- basically the most common basketball injury there is. It was my left ankle and it badly twisted toward the left. Honestly, I felt like I got shot. It was so painful and immediately my ankle swelled up to about twice the size it normally is. I couldn't walk for a few days. After about a week I was walking normally but the swelling and discoloration in your ankle could last for a couple weeks.
Okay, all the chiropractor-haters can now disregard the rest of this post unless you want to get angry at me. I opted not to go to the ER last night cause my ER co-payment is pretty high, and I felt like I could give it the night. I got an appointment to see the family doctor this afternoon, and in the meantime I went to see a guy I know who does some chiropractic/applied kinesiology stuff. He checked it out and said that it wasn't broken, but that my talus was severely impacted (along with a few other things) and that I basically had a bad sprain. Anyway, I let him work on it and after he was done I was able to put weight on it. I went ahead and got x-rays done anyway and they came back clean. The doctor said that my bone spacing or whatever looked good, so she just advised me to take it easy and gave me an air brace. Anyway, since this morning, the swelling has gone down considerably. I'm taking some things my friend gave me to help reduce the swelling, so it looks like I'll be okay. Thanks for the help everyone!
That is what happened to my ankle, except my dislocation was an inversion (i.e. the foot was rolled inwards). This is actually my ankle.
