So I was bouldering on this one problem and fell about 20 feet (6meters). My left knee and right ankle started hurting quite a bit - right away. After a week, pain mostly dissapeared and I started climbing again. Pain has now returned - it hurts quite badly. X-Rays show nothing, but doc thinks it's a spain ankle and a LCL sprain or a lateral meniscus problem. I'm using Ace bandage to tape both areas to make it easier to walk. What's that mean as far as time off/ recovery/ rehab? I plan to see an orthopedic doc, but they aren't available for another few weeks. Any advice would be very appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Adrian
The sprained ankle should be "compress bandaged"- put a wad of tissue over the svollen part of the FTL ligament and wind a elastic bandage as tight as you can (the toes should turn white) around the ankle - keep it there for 20 minutes and repeat the process 3 times for three consecutive days. use the ace bandage as support in between.
Use a ortosis with lateral support constructuon (ask in a sport shop) to keep stress off the LCL and lateral meniscus. Whitin 2 weeks start doing fairly heavy knee extension in a gym machine - keep the reps at 1-20 , 3 sets and keep it slow going down!
Most likely you would benefit from a cortison injection in the kneejoint - on the other hand it would keep you weak longer. The only way to be really sure if you have a meniscus injury is through artroscopy and doing this a good ortopaedic surgeon will be able to repair it. Use a good antiinflammatory prescription drug for three weeks - and calculate this is the minimum time off from high level climbing. If there is a meniscus injury it will take even more time before you can safely perform dropknees etc.
Remember - most important - I can only make an educated guess - you should get a sports medicine trained MD to examine and diagnose your injury - this will avoid loosing a lot of time trying remedies for something you actually don't have
Best of luck
Bjรถrn
Lateral Collateral Ligament Sprain - Time off?