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Ibuprofen and ice?
Last night, I flipped a bit late and smacked my heel pretty hard on the metallic edge of our pool. I've done this before as I suspect many of our rank and file members have in their respective pools. Usually, it's pretty sore the next day, but you manage to continue onwards with a mild limp for a while, and then it goes away.
This time, however, I find I can hardly walk this morning. It's really quite painful, and I can feel my heart beat via yelps of pain in my heel.
I am just wondering if any of you have some recommendations for expediting recovery. In the greater scheme of things, I realize this is a minor affliction. But when you can no longer keep up on walks with your 13-and-1/2 year old arthritic pugs, it tends to induce a certain amount of desire to return to normal.
Or as close to that as one can hope for.
Prognoses?
Ibuprofen and ice?
Ice, yes, but I am wary of NSAIDs, which have a lot of downsides including, perhaps, delayed healing!Originally Posted by smontanaro
Now heroin, that's a different story.
I heard that Speddo is coming out with new swimmer protective gear (pending FINA approval) including HealSavers and Backstroke Helmets. The HealSavers cushion the blow of heal strikes without increasing buoyancy or increasing drag. Backstroke helmets are extra thick caps with built in springs and stays for head and neck support. I understand Speddo is also working with DARPA on hand and body collision avoidance technologies.
Seriously, condolences… beyond ice, limping, and a few choice words I have no better solution. Swimming may be a non-contact sport, but when one does accidently contact walls, ladders, lane ropes and other swimmers the results can be painful.
so true! ever broken your finger when finishing a race? ever broken your toe jumping off the block? we don't even want to mention all those shoulder and knee surgeries our healthy sport causes...
back to topic: elevate your foot when icing, that should help as well. Other than that: keep swimming. You might be faster in the pool right now than on land.
My guess is that the lifeguards won't be thrilled when Jim's pugs do their business on the pool deck.
Or been hit in the face while swimming backstroke, causing a cut from your goggles' nosepiece, a split lip, and a black eye?
Back to topic: So sorry - no helpful advice, just commiseration.
"Librarians are hiding something." - Stephen Colbert
Jim -
All kidding aside, if the pain persists as you describe, get to a doctor for an exam/xray. I mashed my heel at Iowa State back when they had the metal corners on their deck and not only sliced it wide open, but also managed to shatter a bone.
It took quite a while to get over that.
Matt
Ice & elevate! I also smashed my heel during a 500 in college at Ill state Univ. while on a team meet in Bemeige, [can't spell it] minn. !!
You might want an x ray also.
Matt, did learning that you had shattered a bone lead to any kind of difference in treatment? I have learned, for example, that when you break ribs, there is not really anything the doctor can do about it other than advising you that with time, your ribs will stop hurting and heal on their own.
I am not sure if the same applies to a (potentially) shattered heal bone. I doubt that mine is broken, but on the outside chance it is, would being able to document this via an X-ray or other scan mean I'd need a cast or some other sort of treatment?
The older I get, and the worse my health insurance becomes, the less inclined I am to go to a doctor for anything besides, that is, a Rx for the Brompton's Cocktail I am hoping to secure one day soon!
Unfortunately, Michael Jackson's doctor is serving time, and I am not sure Kurt Dickson can prescribe juice of this sort across state lines, though god knows I would like to think he would like to!
The mind in pain, self-medicated with Sierra Nevada, sometimes begins to take little sortees.
I apologize if this sortee has offended anybody in the Dickson and/or greater USMS life-affirming community!
Prognosis Negative.
NI LMSC Chair/Web/TTR - http://www.niagaramasters.org
NI LSC Athlete Rep - http://www.niagaraswim.org
Prognosis Negative turns out to be...unnecessarily pessimistic!
Heel much improved after 3 Sierra Nevada Torpedos last night and a number of generic tylenols consumed over the past 12 hours or so.
And a hot bath.
And some ice.
I can hobble quite spiritedly once more, and can no longer count my heart beats in pain signals from the foot!
Best pre-Christmas ever!
Alcohol + Tylenol = good news for heel BAD news for liver!
Glad to hear your heel is better.
If you had broken bones in your heel Docs might have put you in a really attractive boot. I broke my "knee" about a year ago. Advice no weight bearing for about 6 weeks--in wheelchair, then as tolerated--with a hemi walker, then with a cane. I basically had to learn to walk again. BUT NO CAST OR BRACE.
I smashed my heel a few years back...very painful for about a week, then I could walk somewhat normally again. I had an X-ray, which showed I hadn't broken anything.
It took me a while to feel comfortable doing flip turns again, however...I concentrated on tucking and tumbling rather than flipping.
The only long term malady is a really thick ridge of callous type material on my heel. No amount of pumicing will remove it.
Good luck...
Jim -
As Lainey relates above, just a "boot" to immobilize my foot from mid calf down and provide some support. (this was, after all, a collegiate health clinic!)
And, as I was a college student at the time, I also used your beverage and medication route for relief.
The boot came off after about a week, mostly because my coach was getting antsy with the season progressing...
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