What not to do.... listen to your first aid training!

Ok, so you know you have first aid training when you're younger - probably either through school, a guiding association, or maybe your parent's took the time out to teach you the basics.... you know - what to do if you burn yourself, how to stop a nose bleed, the basic recovery position and probably the most used in your life - how to deal with a sprained.... well anything.

Well i'm here to tell you, don't listen to that inner voice - resist it! or end up doing what I did!

So the saga starts back last Thursday, for those of you keeping up with the blog, you know that's when I went to see the night glow at Bristol Balloon festival. Well the weather had been dicey and so I wore my boots to go up thinking that they were the best option if the ground was uneven and slippy. Well uneven and slippy it was and I turned my ankle on the way home and pushed my foot forward to squash my toes in the end of my boot. Oh well! not the first time i've turned an ankle so as soon as I was home I propped it up, stuck some ice on it and took an anti-inflamatory before going to bed. The next day - all looked fine and I walked to work.

Saturday rolls round and I defy you to know i'd done anything, so I spent the day doing the usual - food shopping, tidying the flat and just being active and by the evening (when I went to the theatre) my foot was mildly aching. Ok, so maybe it wasn't totally fixed. I took another couple of anti-inflamatories and went to the show, on my return home I once again propped it up and put on a cold compress before heading to bed.

Sunday morning and my toes are tingling. Strange but as I moved around the sensation stopped and I assumed i'd trapped a nerve whilst I slept and so I just threw on my boots a second time to go back to the balloon festival. By about half 8 my foot was aching, specifically my toes but there was no bruising, I could move them all and nothing seemed too wrong.

Monday and it's back to work and oh my! I can barely put my right foot down... hmmm strange. Quick trip to the GP and its a hospital referal for an x-ray, only they'd had so many emergancy cases I was in a 5 hour que to get it looked at, so they gave me a referal to come back the following morning at 8 and they ordered me a taxi.

So yesterday morning I went to get it checked out and what had happened? well i've got a stress fracture across the top of my foot! the Dr told me that by listening to my inner first aider and doing what I should had done, i'd actually stopped the bruising coming out which would have indicated on Friday there was a problem, so it was entirely reasonable for me to then proceed to abuse my foot by excessively walking on it!

Thus the moral of the tale is..... don't do what you think you should or you end up doing more damage than good! lol!

All in all though there is nothing to be done, it's just a case of resting it as much as possible, cold compress of an evening and some painkillers during the day. I'm allowed to walk to and from work and around the flat but as little as possible to aid the recovery. I just can't believe something so stupid as turning my ankle has caused so much damage to my foot!

xx