Confused by Ankle Injury

Hi everyone,

I sprained my ankle playing ice hockey about three weeks ago, and my doctor has confirmed that there is no fracture. I feel very fortunate considering what happened.

I will try to describe what happened and the extent of my injury is as much detail as I can. I apologize in advance for the long post.

1) I was standing with both my skates facing forward.
2) I was slew-footed from behind and fell backward.
3) As I fell, my right skate turned so that it was perpendicular to my left foot.
4) The toe of my right skate then dug into the ice.
5) My ankle folded under me as I fell backward.

So, in short, I sprained my ankle by eversion.

From what I have read, I am supposed to be feeling pain on the inside of my ankle, but I am actually feeling pain in between the outside of my ankle and the front on my ankle.



Looking at this picture, I am feeling pain where it says "Lateral process of the talus"



Looking at this picture, I am feeling pain in the region from the Calcaneo-Fibular Ligament to the Anterior talofibular ligament.

When I walk normally and up and down stairs, I don't feel any pain. I only feel pain if I try to run or if I put extra weight on my ankle.

Also, I should note that I am actually a goalie in ice hockey, I only sometimes play forward. The reason I mention this is because I tried to go into my "goalie stance" to test how it would feel. When I did so, I felt pain in the same places I mentioned above.

Next, I gently lowered myself onto my knees as I would if I were making a save (called "butterfly" position), and I slowly tried to get up as I would after making the save. What I did was:

1) Lift my left knee up, but leave my right leg laying flat on the ground.
2) Push up with my left leg, and force my right knee into the ground.
3) Lift up my right knee, while keeping my foot anchored on the ground.

When I did step 3, I felt a sharp pain ABOVE my ankle. It was a sort of "clicking" sensation.

FINALLY, my range of motion is fine but when I rotate my ankle, I feel a little bit of pain in the places mentioned above (except above my ankle, no pain there) but also a little bit of pain on my lateral malleolus.

I have been employing RICE for the last three weeks, but am concerned by the lack of any dramatic improvement.

I apologize again for attacking your eyes with all that text, I am just worried because I have spring hockey coming up and my team needs its goalie!

Thank you for your help.