Back in January, I sprained the crap out of my ankle while playing volleyball. I landed wrong on a jump, and then someone else landed on me. I could barley walk after the injury, and had to actually be carried up the stairs by one of my school’s football players so I could go to bed.
Of course, my lovely insurance doesn’t cover any urgent care places within 100 miles of my school, and only pays 50% of hospital costs, so I just decided to treat it myself. I put on a brace and tied my boots really tight so I was able to walk on it.
July comes along, and I could walk, but not run or jump. I finally got it x-rayed and it showed absolutely nothing. They told me I need to see a specialist about this. Today, I finally saw a podiatrist. She told me there was nothing they could do about my ankle. I have some kind of tendon injury that needs to heal naturally. I was told it might get better in 2 years, or it may bother me the rest of my life. I even got a “Lots of people live long, happy lives with injuries like this!” speech. She gave me a shot of cortisone and sent me on my way.
My ankle is feeling a bit better after that shot (even though she missed the first time and hit BONE…ow!) but the cortisone has made my bloodsugars skyrocket. 2 hours after the appt, I was at 451, and it took 10 hours to get back down. I’m upping my lantus by a 1/4 tonight and hoping for the best.
I’m just angry now. I used to be a sprinter on the track team, but now I can’t run for ANOTHER 2 years??? I’ve already gained 10lbs since doing this due to lack of activity! If I don’t get better, I’m going to have to completely change my career plans too. I wanted to be a park ranger, but that’s going to be difficult if I can’t pass the physical requirements! It’s hard to become one as a diabetic anyway, much less with a lame ankle.
Sorry to hear about your ankle. One thing I would recommend is to get a second opinion from an orthopedic surgeon who is in-the-know with ankles. Might be worth a shot. I hope the cortisone really helps to get the pain under control and maybe bring some inflammation down to where the situation is more conducive to healing. Don’t despair about the future, realize you just now finally started seeking appropriate treatment for an injury, so although you’ve been living with it for months, you’re just actually taking the first steps towards recovery now. Good luck.
@TimmyMac,
I also am sorry to hear about the injury to your ankle. This is merely a suggestion for what it is worth. If you swim and are near a pool, you may want to exercise that way while you are waiting for your ankle to get better. Good luck!
Ah the orthopedic cortisone shot. I had one for an arthritic shoulder back a while and no one warned me my BG was going to skyrocket. Haven’t had one since, as this was just too much to deal with. But if it helps to know what to expect, the high BG lasted about 3 weeks for me.
Swimming & bike riding are good alternatives, btw.
I was 279 before bed. I took DOUBLE my normal correction and increased lantus by 1/4. I STILL woke up at 295 -_- You’d think a podiatrist who specializes in diabetic foot problems would have warned me.
I sprained my ankle badly many years ago. I learned then about a wobble board that helped me rehab my ankle. It’s a round board with a rounded dome centered on the bottom. I started by sitting and placing my foot on the board and rotated and dipped the outside edge of the board in a circular fashion so that my ankle joint moved back and forth as well as side to side.
As my strength and flexibility increased I eventually stood on the board rotating the ankle joint through a full range of motion. It’s important to challenge your ankle but not overdo it. There’s a fine line between good hurt and bad hurt.
It would be ideal if you could consult with a physical therapist to help guide you through various exercises and stretches that could help rehab your ankle. At the time of my injured ankle I learned that a high percentage of people that sprain an ankle go on to re-injure it within two years. Using exercises and stretches to rehab your ankle helps to diminish that possibility. In my case, I did not sprain my ankle again.
If you can’t consult a physical therapist, there’s info online that you could use. You’ll need to discriminate as to what is legitimate and helpful and what is quackery. Good luck.
Sorry about your ankle injury. Would it be possible to transition your workout to a pool to have less stress on the ankle but still exercise. Would a PT consult be possible. They may show you some exercises you could do on your own. Nancy
Almost word-for-word my reaction to this experience, substituting “orthopedist.” Well, I guess he wasn’t a diabetes specialist, but still, you expect these guys to know some basic stuff about this hormone they prescribe so often. When I told him about it in my follow-up visit he was quite taken aback.
Just wondering. Does the high BG stop all at once, or does it gradually go back to normal? I have marching band camp next week and would hate to suddenly bottom out.
For me it just gradually tailed off. Of course it all depends on how your own system metabolizes the cortisone but I think you should be ok if you just keep an eye on it. By your reference to Lantus I take it you’re on an MDI, basal-bolus regime? I’d expect the lantus requirement to taper down over several days [edit: when it finally starts to wear off]. But I think part of managing this particular situation is to try to be incremental as you up your dosage and not get too freaked out trying to push your BG down to the levels you’re used to seeing. To some extent you have to just accept that the cortisone is going to be pushing things higher than you’d prefer while it lasts. I’m fairly OCD about BG myself so I know that can be hard to do…
Sorry about your ankle. Cortisone can really mess with the BG’s. I had to run a 50% increase for a week to ten days when I have had shots. Don’t give up on your career yet, give it time. Things may look bad now, but you have plenty of time to make a decision.
TimmyMac, the crazy BG levels vary by individual. I had a fairly large dose cortisone injection that helped for 30 days. Three weeks of that time, I was taking triple boluses and increasing basal and it was not until the end of 3rd week that the BG came back down. But, depending on dosage, and metabolism, each person’s high BG time will vary.
That’s a pretty decent increment actually–should give you an idea how much more to raise it next time without risking a crash. If you can get it down to “acceptable” (whatever that is for you) within another few days you should be ok.
Someone on another thread introduced me to the term “rage bolus.” I’d never heard it before but it precisely describes what I want to do when I’m dealing with stubborn or inexplicable highs. Always best to resist that temptation, hard as it sometimes is!
I used one of them yesterday. I was at 275 and was just like “SCREW IT! I’M TAKING 12!” surprisingly, I only dropped to 61.
but I think I finally figured out my bolus. I’m having to slightly more than double it. and 1 unit is dropping me about 20 instead of 50. I haven’t figured out my lantus yet, so this will probably change by tomorrow lol.
For me it dropped all at once. I woke up at 3 am the day before I was supposed to move back to school with my bloodsugar at 27. The pain in my ankle is back too, but at least my bloodsugar is back under control
