1st Ride After Breaking My Ankle

[Artista]

Oh, Aggie, I feel for your friend. I'll send you a pm about her.

Grits, yes, I still have a lot of swelling in my ankle. My foot was also really, really swollen for about a month following surgery. My ankle swelling would go down after sleeping each night but my foot always looked like a little balloon. I finally became concerned enough that I talked with my general practitioner about it. He said that he thought that the fluid was "trapped" in my foot and couldn't travel around the 90 degree angle and through the small amount of tissue in my ankle to dissipate. I got the bright idea to gently massage my foot from my toes, down my foot, and up around my ankle to help the fluid move out. I massaged it morning and evening and managed to get rid of most of the foot swelling within 48 hours. I would imagine that you would have a tough time keeping your foot swelling under control since your broken bone is IN your foot, but gentle massage might help keep the fluid from getting "trapped".

Another secret that I discovered is ice baths. I soak my foot and ankle in a bucket of cold water for 15 - 20 minutes at a time. I start out with cold, tap water and add ice as I can tolerate it. The soaking is far more thorough than simply icing.

I find it interesting that you push off with one foot while beginning to pedal with the other. I just step on the pedal while lifting myself onto the saddle...there's no pushing off for me. Fortunately, the foot that I begin to pedal with is not on my injured side. That means that my broken ankle doesn't even come into play until the bike has begun to roll. Still, the broken ankle gives me a twinge if I start in too hard of a gear or on a slight incline. Anyway, do you think that you could get your bike started by simply stepping on the pedal with your good foot and not push off with the broken one?

One of my goals after I get really stable on my bike again is to become ambidextrous