Sprained foot/ hurt knee- how long to wait?

[BelskyBlueEyes 0]

I had a very bad landing a week ago and sprained my foot and bruised my knee badly, possibly damaged cartilage/ligaments because I still have pain. (if it wasnt for the PLF I would have done worse, so am thankful!) I did not jump for a week, the doc said no activity for 2 weeks, probably wait 4 until I skydive again. This weekend would be the 2nd week, and I was hoping I could jump, but probably shouldn't push it. I have been told sprains are worse because they take so long to heal.

My problem is the longer I wait, the colder it gets, the harder the ground will be. I'm only on AFF3 for next jump and intend on PLF. Is landing on cold/frozen ground like landing on cement? I am very concerned since I already got injured and hard ground is not going to 'give'. I hate to be all bruised up through the holiday's too. What timing for AFF. Should I just expect it and oh well, such is life when skydiving in the cold/ winter time?

Also wondered if wearing boots vs. sneakers is better support for the ankle/foot, and if you put in those foam or gel foot inserts may help absorb some shock from landing? I would think all that landing is bad on the joints in the knees, feet etc.....

[skybytch 259]

Don't jump until you can run without pain.

I'm not a doctor but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once...

[AggieDave 6]

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I did not jump for a week, the doc said no activity for 2 weeks, probably wait 4 until I skydive again. This weekend would be the 2nd week, and not sure I should push it and jump anyway.

Why go against the advice of a doctor in this instance? The sky isn't going anywhere, and if you rehurt your ankle jumping before your body is ready, you won't be either.

You do whatever you want. I know that there are a good number of DZs that would look at you in that condition and tell you to come back in another week or two. If you *must* jump, don't cry if you rehurt yourself.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[matthias 0]

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The sky isn't going anywhere.

^

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[TaylorC 0]

i jumped with a sprain foot and it took about 3.5 months to heal instead of like 2 weeks like normal. do what your doctor says trust me it is better in the long run

[LemmingBoy 0]

The big question is if you think your next landing will be any better. If you are not confident you can stand it up, stay on the ground for a bit.

If you do insist on jumping, high topped boots would help, but an even better idea would be to wrap up the ankle and foot with athletic tape. Realize that being active on a bad ankle/ foot/ knee will slow down healing, but if you're not going to be seriously resting it, you might as well go all out. Before your jump, make sure you are walking around to keep it loose and try to keep it moving in the plane to keep it from getting stiff. If you are loose, you will have less pain and it will help prevent further injury.

Disclaimer- I am not a doctor, I just run marathons so I am used to dealing with my own ankle/ foot/ knee injuries.

[MagicGuy 0]

Hmm.. isn't the goal of your landing to stand it up? I mean, after landing safely, of course. Why is it that you intend on doing a PLF instead of attempting a stand up landing?

Just curious, maybe I read it wrong. Good luck!

[flyangel2 2]

Your next jump you might be under a reserve. Can you handle the landing with your foot and knee under a reserve? You never know when you'll have a malfunction.

What if you get a bad spot?

Oh, and don't get into the habit of butt slides. You can do damage to your spine.

Wait and get healed up.

Like the others have said here, I'm not a doctor, but I've injured myself in this sport. It's always good to heal up all the way.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[darkwing 4]

Sometimes whuffo doctors give advice that is waayyy too conservative, because they think you shouldn't skydive anyway, but I see no evidence of that in this advice from your doctor. With your jump numbers I say wait at least as long as your doctor says. Put some money in the bank, buy some toys (altimeter...)

Also, the often repeated advice from skydivers is "wait until you can run comfortably..." is pretty good. Assume your next jump will be an out landing under your reserve in someones trash filled back yard...

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[michalm21 0]

it's your leg (life) and it's up to you to decide as you know your body best.
Severe sprains are worse than broken bones, as they take longer to heal and become weaker afterwards.
It took me 2 months to get back up after my sprain.
It didn't look as bad as it was at first, and I thought I would be back up in 2 weeks tops, but it took me ... 7
I got back under canopy after I was comfortable running, playing soccer/basketball (my educated guess )
My advice is to wait, sky isn't going anywhere

[Broke 0]

Hopw does it feel to you. Can you run/jog and jump on your ankle with no pain? If so discuss it with your dorctor. They also call it medical advice for a reason. We are all advised to not speed, but how many people here speed.
Just make sure that you are healed before you hurt yourself worse than the first time.
If you are really that concerned about the cold. Take the winter off and save your money. Then you can bang out your AFF all at once.

Edited to add:
I did a PLF on concrete with a hard landing, and didn't even get road rash. I know I was very lucky it could have been a more expensive lession than it was, and I will leave it at that

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[BelskyBlueEyes 0]

RE: Isnt the goal of your landing to stand it up?

Since I have only completed 2 jumps, the 2nd one with injury, attempting stand up landing is intention, but not experience yet. I would most certainly love to believe every one from now on will be text book perfect landing. However, since I am a realist, I will assume every landing will be a PLF and if it turns out I tip toe in on a bed of marshmallows, that's bonus and yay for me!! :) I don't want to ever get over confident and forget that you always need to remember the PLF, it may save your life one day.

I'm still VERY new to this whole thing, yea yea, safety conscious. But I think what I wrote above is something everyone should remember no matter how many jumps they have made.

[Tornolf 0]

On Friday I sprained my ankle fairly badly, as in unable to walk on it very well on Saturday morning. Since it was Bridge Day I just grabbed some Ibuprofen and made 3 jumps off the big bridge. All the landings were nearly tip toe standup landings, but that night my ankle was swollen from mid calf to my toes.

Moral of the story? Don't jump until you're positive you won't be making it worse. I'm hobbling around now in marginal pain because of my decision to jump, not that I regret it. Joints are the most annoying things to heal because they're hard to get healed up and will cause you pain later in life if you're not careful.

You can never go wrong with boots though. I'm so used to wearing my boots when I BASE jump that I use them when I skydive as well. It's hard to have too much protection.

A waddling elephant seal is the cutest thing in the entire world.
-TJ

[MotherGoose 0]

Wise buddhist skydiver, Swoopius, once said . . .

"it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground !!"

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[Orange1 0]

My doc gave me the go-ahead to jump 4 months after I broke my ankles because the bones were healed, but the soft tissue still hurt and I waited another 2 months on the "see if you can run" advice. Very frustrating 2 months. When I thought I was ready I "practised" a few times jumping off some steps a couple of feet high onto hard ground (though our DZ is basically beach sand). I was sure I was ready, and I basically was - but even with two perfect tiptoe landings, my ankles hurt that night, enough to make me skip the next day when I had planned to jump again. It worries me a bit that you think you may have damaged cartilage or ligaments... if you have another bad landing, you'll not only be in pain but may worsen the injury. Many of us know how frustrating it is and to want to push earlier, but I honestly think it's better to wait. It's not safe to just assume you can PLF the next landing and get away with it... remember you hurt yourself the last time even though you PLF'd then. Listen to the experienced jumpers (not me, the others who answered) - the assumption that your next landing may be an outlanding under reserve may seem conservative, but that's also exactly just what your next jump might be.

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[MagicGuy 0]

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RE: Isnt the goal of your landing to stand it up?

Since I have only completed 2 jumps, the 2nd one with injury, attempting stand up landing is intention, but not experience yet. I would most certainly love to believe every one from now on will be text book perfect landing. However, since I am a realist, I will assume every landing will be a PLF and if it turns out I tip toe in on a bed of marshmallows, that's bonus and yay for me!! :) I don't want to ever get over confident and forget that you always need to remember the PLF, it may save your life one day.

I'm still VERY new to this whole thing, yea yea, safety conscious. But I think what I wrote above is something everyone should remember no matter how many jumps they have made.

Hmm.. well, I guess I can see that after having a bad landing that you would want to be prepared to do it again. But going into the jump assuming that you will be doing a PLF? Do you think that might be setting yourself up to PLF even if you could have a tiptoe landing?

Don't listen to me - do what you are comfortable with and what your instructors say. But it just seems like.. you want to go into the jump prepared to do a PLF if necessary, but hoping and setting yourself up for a nice landing, because that's what you want to work towards. You don't want to have to do a PLF on every jump!

Good luck, and get healed up so you can get back in the sky!

[LuvToFly 0]

Like most have said, there are a few factors to consider. But among them:

Your age, your health, your level of physical fitness and your jump numbers

Don't know the first three, but with such low jump numbers, do not give in to the concern about losing currency or having to take a refresher course when the risk of reinjuring yourself is at stake. Have a worse incident and you can be out of the sport for good.

The other thing is, feeling strong, uninjured and physically agile is a great asset when taking on something that for most is a bit frightening and new. And for many people - that "edge" helps them to perform better when it counts most. There is nothing worse than feeling helpless or less than 100% when you really need to open a can of save-my-butt.

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