Last month I started a recreational basketball comeback. It's been going okay but the 30 extra pounds I put on in five years of inactivity is "a lot" to handle. Monday, my ankle was bothering me more than usual. In almost 35 years of playing basketball, this is the only ankle I've ever sprained and I must have done so a dozen times to varying degrees of severity. So I make a Tuesday appointment to have my ankle X-rayed and evaluated. To my utter surprise, X-rays indicate that one of those ankle sprains was in fact a fracture (1986 I think) and there is significant secondary arthritis. Doc is recommending anti-inflammatory medications. Has anybody any experience with said meds. I hardly ever take meds, so I am leery of doing so. Thanks in advance.
Giddy, I hate prescription medication. I had back surgery about 8 years ago and I took Aleive instead of the meds the Dr. gave me. To this day, when my back is acting up, I take Alieve and it usually does the trick.
I didn't think arthritis could be detected with x-rays... What kind of anti-inflammatory? With my arthritic knees I was told to take Aleve (since I am young doctors don't really care about me...took them 8 years to even give me an MRI). I try not to (because I don't think it is healthy to constantly pop pills) but sometimes the pain is so bad that I have to do it. Of course, I am never supposed to play basketball again and I still do every now and then. I know there are some newer pills (is celebrex one of them?) that are not supposed to have the same stomach problems as older ones...don't really know much about them, though. All I can say is welcome to the club...it sucks. Just be glad that it is only one limb and not both.
My mother-in-law who is a retired nurse suggested Aleve as well. I may go that route. The doc just pointed to some fuzzy areas and said it was arthritis. I can't remember if he qualified it with a "probably" or not. As much I think it was a logical extension from an untreated fracture of the ankle. When he put the X-rays up his eyes got real big and he re-itereated, "You've never had this X-rayed or treated?" Apparently it was a pretty bad fracture. I had to lay out of hoops for about 10 months. The initial med prescribed was "Daypro."
I can empathize with your plight. I rolled my ankle in March and I haven't been able to run or even think about stepping on a basketball court. I would definitely recommend Aleve. My question is, how did you walk around on a such a severe fracture for so long? Did you have that kind of feeling in your ankle where it felt very inflexible even when doing simple things like just walking?
I thought it was just a bad ankle sprain. I used crutches for a few weeks and then just started walking on it. My Running Doctor neightbor told me that the newest thinking on sprains was just to walk through it to keep flexibility. So I did. I didn't play basketball for about 10 months. I have sprained this ankle so many times (mostly in my youth) that it has never felt normal. It rolls over very easily-- like just walking through the yard sometimes I can step on a pine cone or a stick and it was give out. There's a lump on the ankle that doesn't belong there. Over the last 10 years I've evolved into a perimeter player. It's safer.
Vioxx is the bomb-diggety yo! Used by every major college athletics program, it is both an anti-inflammatory and a pain killer. It takes a couple of days to kick in but it does work pretty well. If you have colitis or any other digestive tract condition, stay away from it. Also try not to mix it with Zanaflex, the combo gave me psychotic nightmares...
Well, I don't really have that option. When you're 6-4 and a half....people get mad when you play on the perimeter. My ankle's the same way too. The worst time I screwed it up was when my foot went into a hole in my front yard while I was mowing.....Ouch!!!!!! I was on crutches for a month.
bama, Get some epsom salts for your ankle. I sprained mine really bad around Christmas and was still able to play by the second week of January. It really does WORK!
About three months ago near the end of the tennis season(actually my last scheduled challenge match) I landed on my ankle extremely akwardly. I finished my match and continued to walk around on it for about a week until I noticed it had become purple and the size of a pro football. After X-rays, my doctor said I had torn tendons in my foot and fractured the bone on the opposite side when I rolled on it. All I have to say is, IT SUCKS. Had to do a week of crutches, two weeks of heavy boot, and ever since then I have supposed to be wearing a soft brace. It so depressing when I want to play basketball, rugby, tennis, volleyball or any kind of sport and I have to either take it so slow its not fun or I cant play at all. I suggest counseling above all else.
Pretty sure I broke an ankle a few years ago. Stopped playing that day, but was back at it the next. Looked real bad, but didn't bother me too much playing on it. Now, I can crack it (like knuckles) just by flexing it. Probably not a good sign. About the meds, if you don't feel you absolutely have to take them then don't take them. Do some extra stretching, massaging, soaking, etc. And lose some weight fatty That will probably cure everything.
Broke my ankle a year ago. Never had surgery, but had to stay off of it for 6+ weeks and still hobble a bit to this day. Doesn't keep me from running or hooping it up anymore, though I'm tentative on it still (and prob. always will be).
I had always "sprained" my back when playing basketball as a kid. I'm sure it didn't help my back that I flew off the hood of a car at about 20-30 mph once. That and sprained ankles that were about to snap if I sprained them any more caused me to give up basketball. Then about a month ago, I got hit by a kidney stone attack - the accompanying vomiting apparently helped me herniate a disc in my back. It's hard to sleep at night or walk more than 20 seconds without severe pain. The doctor gave me some Vioxx, but to be honest, I don't feel much better. I also have some Vicodin, but I only take that when the pain is unbearable at night and never during the day. I'm just an anti-pills person from having worked in a pharmacy for years. I especially try to stay away from the narcotic drugs. Anyway, I have this goop from inside my spinal column leaking out of a rupture in a disc, and it's bumping up against a nerve that's causing all this pain. It goes from my thigh/butt all the way down to my feet. It's like somebody set my whole left leg on fire and then proceeded to beat the crap out of it at the same time. It's kinda ruined the last half of my 2 week vacation. I'll probably be going in for surgery in about 2 or 3 weeks. It'll be the first time I've ever had surgery. The doctor said he doesn't know how the hell I'm walking around on this because they classify what I have as a "severe case", but that if my left leg starts atrophying or getting weaker, we'd need the surgery. I'm starting to feel the weakness, so I'm just gonna get the surgery done. Thanks to Behad for telling me to make them give me an MRI instead of guessing what the problem may be. With the MRI, they immediately knew the problem.
One thing to note is that I talked to a pharmacist who told me to try not taking multiple anti-inflammatory meds such as Advil and Vioxx. Said it could lead to ulcers... lovely.
Celebrex is good, but can still cause some stomach problems, most anti-inflammatory med do. Use them, but don't use them for too long.
Isn't that the truth. I was taking 3 aleve like 3 times a day and after a week of doing that, I got one of the worst stomach aches I have ever gotten. This was like about a year ago, and after that happened, I said no more to that. If I was in pain, I would just have to skip a week on lifting instead of trying to lift through it. Maybe I am a p***y, but it was hard to justify that type of pain just to not miss a workout.
Son of a w****.......I bet that hurt!!!!! Geezus, you poor b*stard. You want me to add you to my prayer list? You might need the Big Fella (and I don't Hakeem) in your corner. By the way, I haven't told you yet, but I really get a kick out of your summer league posts. You're doing a bang-up job keeping us informed and making it damned funny and informative at the same time. Hope everything works out with the surgery.
