Made a parachute jump in October, 1977 and badly sprained my ankle.

First time I'd ever heard the "It would have been better if you'd just broken it."

It was months before I could comfortably run on it again and was on/off painful for well over thirty years beyond that.

I ended up with a soft leather brace I wore for 30 some years to keep me from repeating my gracelessness.

Bob

There's something to be said about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

Bob

Appreciate everyone’s comments and sharing their experiences.

To address a couple questions- I’m mid 40s, excellent health, no diabetes. I ski, climb, and regularly run rocky trails- no previous ankle injuries and I am generally extremely sure-footed.

From a mechanics of the injury standpoint the side of the road was gravel/dirt and sloped slightly downwards, I basically stepped into a cupped depression that forced my foot sideways rolling my ankle and then all my weight came down on top of it. I weigh 160 and had about 15lbs of gear/food in a backpack. The depression was loosely filled with leaves which hid it creating a terrain trap. The hole was probably about the same depth as a normal stair step. So if you’ve ever stepped down a stair case expecting a step but their was none, it kinda felt like that feeling except I landed with intense searing pain and had one of those everything just went black for split second things. I also didn’t hear anything (except for my scream) but felt the ankle “pop”.

The depression was also small enough that it basically captured my foot with no way to escape/fall to the side. Basically stepped into it and kinda bounced, I think I instinctively threw all my weight backwards and just kinda went into an uncontrolled sit down. I was also wearing low profile approach shoes (like hiking shoes) since we weren’t expecting to be hiking on any type of tricky terrain. I think high ankle support shoes would have lessened the injury, but I still think it would have been consequential.

The edema finally started to drain this weekend, I’ve also been using a topical anti-inflammatory Ortho prescribed. I spent the first 2 weeks basically 90% in bed with the leg elevated above my heart and iced every 4 hours or so. Then suddenly over this weekend it just all decided to drain, I woke up on Sat morning and all of a sudden the swelling was mostly gone. It’s still swelled around the ankle joint itself, but I can move it laterally now where as before due to the edema and swelling I had zero ROM. It’s also weight bearing now and moving around in the softcast\walking boot is much easier, but the ankle itself feels very unstable.

At this point I’m just waiting for an appointment with the sports clinic’s podiatry surgeon and will go from there.