Sunday night, I visited my parents' grocery store. It was the second time visiting my parents since the breakdown I had between my Mom in the beginning of the year. I guess it's been so long that I wasn't use to walking down the same dark lit stairwell that I've been walking down for the past seven years. As I reached the bottom, I missed a step and heard my ankle pop. I was screaming in pain but I was more worried about injuring myself. "I have race in two weeks," I thought to myself as I was crying out, "Please, let it be okay!"
When I got home, I did three of the four things you're supposed to do with an injury - Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate... RICE. I did everything except Compress. My ankle was a little sore but it didn't look that bad but the next morning - I woke up with a sore and sprained ankle.
Because I was sitting all day at work, I didn't think I needed to RICE. When I got home that night, my sore and sprained ankle turned into a kankle, a swollen ankle. Apparently, I had 72 hours of RICE-time left. The next morning I went to the grocery store and bought a bag of frozen mixed organic vegetables and a bag of frozen organic blueberries (for my yogurt). For the whole day, my left leg was elevated on a chair with a bag of frozen goods resting on my ankle as I was speaking to customers on the phone.
Today, my ankle feels 85% healed. It's still a little swollen, which I could have prevented through Compression - this is a lesson learned. I have two days left before my next training day. I expect it to be 100% healed by then. I have a nine days until my next race... eek!
What I've learned is that RICE isn't effective unless you do all four - REST, ICE, Compress and Elevate. Learn from my experience... and don't walk down a dark stairwell.
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