So believe it or not, I had been walking on a fractured ankle for a month. I knew there was a problem. I had walked with a neighbor two miles as we normally did every night and we had gone so fast that I suggested we do another round around the park – another two miles. At the end of the four miles, I felt something hurt, like a snap in my ankle and I barely made it home. I put ice on it of course and put it up and luckily my daughter offered to take our dog out for a walk as I laid in pain. Maybe I can get used to this I thought to myself. No conversation over who was taking the dog out.
Finally, after a couple of days I googled my immediate symptoms and it seemed like I had Achilles Tendinitis. It made sense to me, I had every symptom, so I made my daughter keep walking the dog and kept ice on my ankle every night. But then it started to hurt in the middle of the night so after listening to friends telling me to buy new shoes, shoe inserts, and so on, I finally listened to one friend and went to see her ankle doctor. He kinda laughed at me as soon as he saw my swollen bruised ankle. I don’t think you have tendinitis, it doesn’t swell like this, he informed me.
“But I googled it.”, I stupidly replied. Really I am going to tell the doctor I googled my symptoms and I know what is wrong with me?
“Thank you, but I am sure an xray will show you have a small stress fracture” he replied.
I was in shock, but sure enough I left with a boot on to keep the ankle straight for it to heal and I did have a stress fracture.
What was the worst part of this? I had just been given a new position at my job of 22 years where part of my job was to walk the entire 110,000 sq foot warehouse. So basically, I went to my doctor appointment at lunch and came back with a cast on. My boss immediately questioned what had happened.
“Well remember when you said I needed to have my foot looked at? I went at lunch time and he took xrays and it turns out that my ankle is fractured and I have to wear this for about 6 weeks.”, I explained.
I cannot even explain the look on his face.
I went home depressed and texted my girlfriend. Who told me that our neighbor had a knee scooter from when she had broken her ankle and maybe I could borrow it. Immediately my neighbor brought it over and I was able to go to work the next day with a plan to cover the warehouse. It’s always good to come up with a plan B for everything you do.
My daughter thought my boot was fun and exciting even though it hurt me more keeping the ankle in one secured spot. At least she volunteered to take the dog out, get me drinks, and food, but wanted to know when she could wear it. Kids?
So the moral of the story is while google might be great, rely on your own senses and always have a plan B.
