Deb's Ankle Injury
A Very Personal Case Study

An unexpected ankle injury is giving me the perfect opportunity to personally test the effectiveness of the Gyroboard.

On 8 June 2009, I was carrying a box downstairs, my mind on other things, so that I forgot to take care. I missed a step and came down hard on the outside of my right foot. It gave way completely and I felt the ligaments tear.

The pain was instant and left me feeling very light headed. Unfortunately I was on my own, so I've had to administer first aid to myself (Rest - Ice - Compress - Elevate).

I always believe disasters can be turned into opportunity. What better opportunity than to get first hand experience on the treatment of an ankle injury with a physiotherapist who uses the Gyroboard as part of the exercise programme?

Physio Treatment at Performance Physio, Papanui

It wasn't hard to pick a new clinic. We'd been very lucky to attract the very supportive and enthusiastic physio to the Silver Ferns (New Zealand's National Netball team), Sharon Kearney.

Sharon is one of the directors for Performance Physio which has three clinics. I chose the Papanui one because it is closest to where I live.

Naturally, Sharon is a very busy woman and often away on tour with the Silver Ferns, so I was assigned to her staff member, Sarah Abbott.

Sarah is fantastic to deal with, always positive, supportive and has her patient's best interest at heart.

Her initial diagnosis was that I had a Grade 2_ AFTL ankle injury.

(AFTL stands for Anterior Talofibular Ligament. There are three ligaments that surround the ankle, and the ATFL is the one most commonly injured as it is a lateral ligament on the outside of the foot. This inversion ankle injury occurs often when a loss of balance unexpectedly occurs and the foot twists inwards.)

She strapped it up, handed me a pair of crutches, and ordered me off my feet as much as possible.

With it being the coldest part of winter, I didn't mind being under 'house arrest' so much, although I quickly found a new appreciation for people who live daily with disabilities and limited mobility.

Crutches aren't fun!

Nor is being confined to a La-Z-Boy Recliner. Feet up to try and reduce the swelling, and limited exercises (I knew how to write the alphabet in the air using a variety of fonts within hours!)

After a few treatments, we realised that my ankle injury wasn't getting any better. The swelling was not going down - in fact, most visits it seemed to be going up!

Sarah arranged for me to get an x-ray and an ultrasound.

This revealed that the bones weren't broken, and that I did not have an AFTL ankle injury.

Instead, I have a small tear to the Extensor Digitorum Brevis Muscle.

This, according to the ultrasound specialist was rather unusual. After she'd discovered it, she ordered me to stay where I was, and then rushed out of the room.

As if I was going to run away anywhere!

When she returned, she explained that it was unusual, and she'd gone off to find a doctor, to get his opinion. Apparently he was busy, so I was sent on my way, none the wiser about my fate.

Unusual Foot Injury

Sarah, my physio, did her best to treat it. However, after 8 weeks it still wasn't improving.

By now I was off the crutches, and starting to do some balance exercises on the Gyroboard. I also had an appointment booked with an orthopeadic surgeon.

Eight weeks of 'inactivity' certainly does affect your core strength. The balance exercises were helping, but everything seemed to aggravate the injury.

This was confirmed when I saw the surgeon. He recommended I stop going to physio, stop doing any exercises which would impact or aggravate it, including reducing the amount of walking and stair climbing I was doing in my job (bit of an impossibility that). As far as exercise went, he suggested I go swimming.

Regarding surgery, he said it was too soon to consider that an option. He suggested it would take up to a year to heal and the best thing I could do was let nature take its course.

Not long after my visit to the surgeon, I had a meeting with Sharon Kearney, discussing a project she is doing with the Gyroboard.

We discussed my accident and she reiterated that it was a most unusual injury.

Normally, when you invert your ankle like I did, the bone breaks, rather than the muscle tears. If the bone had broken, I would have been much better off too, because the foot would then be placed in a cast, and limiting my mobility would be easier.

Turning Theory into Practice

Because of my involvement with the Gyroboard project for the last three years, I know the importance of core training and how good core strength and stability builds up balance, co-ordination and prevents, amongst many types of injuries, knee and ankle injury.

However, I guess, like 99% of people in the world, think that core training is good in theory, but not really necessary for me, because I'm not an athlete or fitness fanatic. I'm just an ordinary, average, low activity person, with my main activities revolving around a computer.

This lack of focus on core training exercises has resulted in my suffering an unusual foot injury.

I have my own Gyroboard, the perfect tool for core training, but I have not been using it because I chose not to add a 30 minute exercise routine a couple of times a week into my extremely busy schedule.

One of the key reasons I started building this website was to research into and share exercises that help people build strength in high risk areas, including reducing the chance of knee and ankle injury.

I have learned a lot of theory, but not made the time to put it to the test on my own life. It's rather embarrassing to admit that my injury is due to poor balance! However, this is the cause behind my fall.

My tear in my muscle is starting to heal now, so I am slowly returning to working out on the Gyroboard.

Three months of not exercising is taking it's toll on my weight and fitness level.

I also had three weeks where I could not get to work, and I am still playing catch up. Plus there were unexpected expenses relating to the accident at a time of year when I could not afford them. And that's not even mentioning the highest power bill I have ever received, due to the fact I was home all day, every day during the three coldest weeks of the year!

My injury has been a wake up call on many levels.

I thoroughly recommend that people take the time to build up their core strength to help prevent all types of injuries, including ankle injury, no matter their age, fitness level, or inclination to exercise.

And the Gyroboard is certainly a fun and enjoyable way to do this.

Find out why Gyroboard are good for ankle injury and other injury rehabilitation - Click Here