How to heal a sprained ankle

Edit: April 23, 2012. My ankle still hurts and I cannot bend my leg forward when my foot is planted on the ground. I quit going to physical therapy because I could do all the balance/strengthening exercises on my own. I am able to walk around without a brace now. I have not ran yet or tried any of the activities I love, but soon enough. I am going on a backpacking trip in May.

Last Tuesday, or actually the one before this last one (Feb 12, 2013), I sprained my ankle playing intramural basketball with the pharmacy team. I am pretty sure it is the worst sprain I have ever had, and I am no stranger to sprained ankles. The doc told me it was a level three sprain with an upper ankle sprain also.

I am sure you all have heard of R.I.C.E. Well I had forgot about it. I did keep my shoe on until I was able to get home. Makayla and Dylan came and picked me up and brought me home, I could not put any weight on it for the next two days. I went and saw the doctor the next morning and she gave me this heavy duty boot/splint which gave me the ability to walk without crutches. I love you big black boot (maybe not so much when I get the bill.)

How to heal sprained ankles:
DO NOT PLAY BASKETBALL (better to prevent them then to deal with them - but since we all love basketball lets chat about RICE)
RICE is an acronym (why is the US notorious for acronyms?) for Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate. The first 72 hours you are supposed ice your foot for 15 minutes out of the hour for at least 4 hours out of the day, the more the better. I have been taking 800 mg of ibuprofen each day also.

Edit: I learned you should take ibuprofen 800 mg three times a day for pain and an anti inflammatory response and it usually takes 3 days for it to be an effective anti inflammatory. I totally did that wrong. Also don't take longer then two weeks it will then slow healing if you keep it up.

When I raise my leg or keep it horizontal it feels wonderful, but when I bring it back to the ground it takes awhile for the pain to go away, it seems to make the pain more intense. While you have it elevated or horizontal with your heart you do not need to compress it. The better you are at following RICE in the first 72 hours, the quicker the recovery (or so they say.)  Let us hope all the rest and ice I gave myself will reward me in the following weeks.

Edit: It has almost been 3 weeks and I am still lacking quite a bit of range of motion. Not to mention I am it is still ginger and hard to get around without my black boot. The doctor gave me a referral to start physical therapy which will be Monday. And also said I could ditch the boot and gave me a ankle splint/brace. Respect your body and give it time to heal.

This was the night of. Yes I was playing basketball. No I did not shower. Yes I was sweaty and stinky. Yes the doctor had to smell my nastiness when she checked me out the next day.

Day1: These next three photos are the next night. Most the bruising was around the injured area. I was told all my lateral ligaments were sprained and one on the inside.

 I had to add this photo because my sweet baby girl snuck in on the side.

Inside of my ankle.

Day 2: The next two photos are day two, still couldn't walk.

Day 3: I could put weight on it and hobble around. This is weird, but the bruising slowly traveled down my foot (and up my leg due to the compression boot) and into my toes. It made them more sensitive even though I am pretty sure they were not injured. The swelling is hard to see in the pictures but it is a fat puffy (hard) nugget all around my ankle along with edema midway up my leg and throughout my foot.

  Day 4: The bruising has gone down, but not the swelling nor the tenderness. I have moments when I can get around fine and other moments when it burns like a beggar. The morning is the worse, putting the foot on the floor makes super painful for 15 to 30 minutes.

When I look at these pictures, I think my foot was ran over by a truck. It is crazy how all the inflammatory soup moves around in there (unfortunately hyper-sensitizing areas that do not need it.)

Hwy 89 collapse 25 miles South of Page

So I am sitting in class today and my wife sends me a text telling me about the road collapsing. I showed a class mate the picture and he thought it was photo shopped. This is the route we always take when we head to Arizona - guess we won't be able to go for awhile, or better yet, we will have to go through VEGAS!!!

Looks like the road dropped about 4 feet, though it is hard to really tell by some of these photos. Arizona Geological Survey says that about 150 foot section of the road collapsed around 5 am today. It is part of a larger slump probably comprising the Petrified Forest Member of the Triassic Chinle Formation.

(note: this is the tentative position on Google earth - its near mile marker 526)

One of my favorite past times, especially since I sprained my foot, is to look up areas where we could potentially live after I graduate. Page has crossed my mind and there are many things I like about that area. I am also craving doing some hiking/backpacking, really ready for this semester to be over and give me a break. I want to hike the hill and take the kids and wife up as often as possible. It will be awesome to explore now so when they get older we will know places to take them.

Page, fix your road so we can come to Arizona and now have to drive an extra 2 hours. 

Valentine Poop

I thought I should blog about my day. Just so I can look back and remember these good times, and maybe in the FAR future I will look back and laugh about it.
So greg works IV shifts this weekend, so he is gone from 5:30 am to 2:30 pm. Usually these are the days my kids decide to be psycho banshee's. I woke up smiling, and ready to start a great day. I heard the kids get up and play. They sounded happy, so I decided to feed Brynn before making them breakfast. I walked into there room to find V making special Valentine's Day art for me, with her poop. That's right...her poop. Not to mention her carpet is the same color of her poop so I really had to dig around to clean it up. I stood for a second and looked at the mess, while trying to decide what to do. Mattix still sleeps in his crib, so thankfully he wasn't able to get out and help V with her masterpiece. I cleaned Vella up the best I could without bathing her, and went to town in her room. Meanwhile, Brynn and Mattix were crying. blah. I got V and M settled down and held Brynn while I made eggs, the request this morning. I fed the kids, and was planning on bathing them after Brynn went to sleep. Which took for freaking ever! Someone called me about Vella's preschool next year, so I talked to her while trying to calm Brynn. My mother in law called on the other line, but I didn't answer it because I was on the phone with someone from the school. A few minutes later someone knocked at my door.i thought it was my mother in law, since she had just called, so I hurried and opened it. It was the Jehovah's Witness's. you know how usually there are just a couple people who come? Well this time there were like four or five. A lady looked shocked when she saw me and had a hard time finding her words for a minute or two. I didn't realize why until I looked down and saw I was in my underwear. Oh sheesh! I hurried and hid behind the door and said not interested, and finished talking on the phone. Brynn had settled down, finally. I took my older kids to the tub and started a bath. We keep big cups in there to rinse their hair. I put Mattix in the tub and he proceeded to dump the huge cup of water full all over me and the floor. I grabbed the cup from him and he got mad and threw another thing full of water all over me and the floor. Right at this moment Brynn started crying. I hurried and bathed Mattix, unplugged the water and put him in his crib for a nap. I gave Brynn her binki and went back to bathe V as quickly and as thoroughly as I could clean that poopy girl. Brynn stopped crying by the time I was done, so I did Vella's hair and got dressed, finally. Brynn started crying again, so I picked her up out of her swing, and realized she had a blowout. Poop everywhere. What's the deal with poop today!!?? I cleaned her up and fed her. The whole morning I was trippin about having the house clean so Greg could get around easily. He is gimpy for those of you who don't know. He sprained his ankle really badly. He is in a big fat boot for two more weeks. Sucker!! Okay, maybe I'm the sucker because he has to use my car because he cannot drive a stick shift anymore. I hate driving Greg's car and all of my kids don't fit in it. Anyways, the rest of my day has been similar to this morning. Once I had a moment to sit, I felt like finding those Jehovah's Witness's and apologizing. Then I decided no way!! Maybe they won't ever come back to the crazy naked lady's house with rabid kids anymore.
Good day.

Daddy Pooped!

Vella thinks toots are poops, haha. She is checking dad for a poopy bum and is bombed by the smell bahahaha

Naked 18 Month Old and More, Oh My!

I dislike blogging. I'd rather be doing other things! I know my family appreciates it, so i do it anyways. They live a few states away and we only see them a few times a year. Greg asks me to blog rather often and I want him to be happy, too. I don't know why I dislike blogging so much. Probably because I feel like not many people look at it, and it's takes a lot of time. I sometimes think ill do a quick blog, and then i get sucked into talking about our awesome family, haha. Is that depressing, lol. Sometimes I don't mind as much, but I don't want to right now, but I want to post these funny pictures of Mattix, so I'm going to anyway!!
So Matti boy doesn't like to wear clothes. At all. There is one single shirt he is not able to take off, all the others he takes off the minute they go on! Even onesies. He either pulls at them so hard they come undone, or he takes his arms out of them and slips it off. He is crazy! He can even wiggle his way out of jackets. He is a funny boy, that loves to be naked. Anyways, the other day he was napping and when I went into his room to find him he was butt naked wearing my red sunglasses (that the kids have claimed). He must have reached through the bars on his crib into the toy box, and grabbed them out. I'm so glad he didn't pee everywhere!!! It was so funny, and the best part was he was ecstatic!
Vella has been potty training. She is amazing!!!! I haven't pushed her at all. The first day I asked her if she wanted to go every half an hour and helped her. I kept her in undies that day and she peed in all of them so the next day I put her in pull ups. The day after that she started going whenever she felt like it and only had two wet pull ups, one when she napped and one when she pooped! She hasn't figured that out yet...that poop goes in the potty. We will get there. Anyways she is doing really well and I'm excited. I thought since I am posting my naked boy, ill post V's potty picture, baha. Why not. Maybe I should post brynns bath picture, but maybe not since you can see more in those.
Brynn is growing quickly. Makes me a little sad that I probably won't experience this again. (We're done having kids!) I will have to wait until my kids have babies. Hahaha, it's funny to me I'm already thinking about that!! Brynn is super sweet and loves to be held. She is happy when she is next to someone. Especially me, but that's probably because I have boobs.
Anyways, things are good. Mega busy. It's hard to keep up with my kids. I feel like i go go go and it looks like I do nothing around my house. It's sad, but this will be a short time.
Oh, and the picture of Vella's mouth full of food is what Vella took. She takes a billion pictures every time she plays with the iPad. Okay ....not a billion, but yesterday she took a little over 400. No joke! Sometimes the pictures are funny, but usually they are of the wall or her feet.
I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I cut my hair. I wasn't sure what it thought of it at first, and then I decided I loved it. It's so much easier to take care of. It's great!!
Can hardly believe Greg and I will have been married for four years next month. I love that man so much!!