Basic First Aid : How to Tell the Difference Between an Ankle Sprain & a Break

[jessthetotalgeek]

i injured my ankle approximately 5 months ago.. i was told it was a sprain and no xrays were carried out, however i am still getting problems with my foot, it keeps giving way and i cant do certai things or walk on it too much through the pain, someone said maybe i have fractured it but i dont know anyone have any ideas?

[dannypo998]

This video is informative. Ankle sprain over here

[MissSlyFoxHound1]

Well, it's broken!!!!

[dillie1b]

sweet moustache captain

[MrsBarbieMinaj]

My ankle/foot isnt red or swollen but i can move it and it hurts like crazy !!

[Sader2202]

Thank god I have sprain.

[Bboyslinky]

LOL pause at 0:04 he looks like someone asked him a dumb question! lol

[john9276]

Good video. I have a sprain because it hurts like a motherf-er... Also, the other symptoms of a break don't apply

[kewalosurfer01]

Thanks for the clarification, Captain. Very good explanation.

[jackattackk1]

Its got to be broken if the bones sticking through the side of my ankle joint...Im going to the hospital. peace

[arnoldnavarro21]

so i guess you can apply the same reasoning to your wrist... ???

[thetrialshot]

hmm looks like i just got a sprain since i can move my fingers and my feet, i dont feel any numbness but it is discolored and i cant move my foot upwards...

[123Bayleef]

Not completely accurate. I had a fractured ankle that I walked on for 2 weeks before I finally went in for an xray. It was swollen and discolored, but with no obvious deformity.

[theotherlex]

Thanks Captain Joe! V. Helpful :)

[ryanespy94]

Captain JOE!!!!!!!

[xDamianiKillsXGaming]

k mine is a sprain i think, i feel fine but wen wen i move mine to the left it pops? fracture?

[qwerty49424]

May need to go to the emergency room, of-course you going to go....i fractured my ankle and it felt like a sprain but i dident want to risk standing on it after a good2hrs pain starts to kick in.

[nadnow]

thank you Captain , you just saved me 125.00 visit to my doc...I have a sprain !! You ain't kidding it hurts more than an actual break...thanks for the info...

[gobrandy2]

Just sprained my ankle earlier playing basketball from trying to catch the ball but when I landed someone landed on my ankle. :(

[PreciseArrow1]

THIS GUY IS A G!!!

[Autumn1890]

I just hurt my ankle this evening. This video was very helpful in determining whether I had sprained or had broken my ankle. I was able to stand and put weight on the ankle without too much pain. There was more immediate swelling to the left side of my left ankle. Thankfully my husband was there and he could help me get up. We've put ice on it, elevated it, I've popped some ibuprofen and he is on his way to walgreens to get the real ace bandages.

[Elegiafy]

do they break their own ankles to make the video? o_o

[xXxGildartxXx]

my foot isnt straight after i woke up in the morning......is it broken...

[bhanskate]

a ankle break is like 5x worse than sprain and trust me i skateboard for 30 years i would know, if u sprain u walk on it with some paiin if u broke it u either cant walk on it or u feel so much pain if u walk on it if u can walk on a broken ankle it will heal while in cast i broke my ankle about 4x before.

[andrenegwer]

Just sprained my ankle skimboarding, not fun.

[Rawrx310]

captain my captain!

[MsKitkatlover]

I liked this coz your mostache is so awesome

[DURALAVMSURVIVOR]

i broke my leg but i could walk on it after a snowmobiele accident

[swaggajacka2010]

@antatious lol

[MuEpsilonGamma]

Best. Mustache. Ever!!!

[MrBurtonrider1234]

Thank you Captin. You are loved

[anime976]

sory that was my mom i dont have kids!!!

[anime976]

thank you captain... your video informed me well my seven yr old son just sprained an ankle...

[rexman92]

great vid though there should proble be more possable ways to tell cuz the fact is mine so far seems like ither one o.o

[tittietwister101]

hes gots a mooostatch

[theman160090]

mines sprained

thank you

[jumper86]

There's going to be a lot of "deformity" in the foot/ankle region with just a sprain as well. Wait half an hour and with a bad sprain you'll be looking at a huge amount of swelling and later bruising.

[joshiedidit]

Please dont eat me!!!!!!

[oniondeluxe]

i can stand on mine but its kinda hard to move it. its discolord and purple. its not really swollen though. mi whole ankle is purple!

[em214rr]

captain joe brunny willl you look at my ankle!

[ihateblackrace]

not true i broke my ankle in 3 places and could walk on it but with great pain

[Pferdesuppe]

A few years back, I broke my ankle and was walking around with it for days - thinking I just twisted it once again. I finally decited to go and see a doctor after I couldn't sleep at night because of the pain and the colours ranged from a sunny yellow to a deep and dark blueish purple... So even if you can walk and move your foot normally, make sure that it's not broken by getting someone examining it properly.

[PurpleGlitterz]

please answer as soon as posible, but do u HAVE to go to the emergencey room? 

[sarahtheawesome123]

Hi I have a question. I play softball and when I went up to bat I hit and inside the parks home run. I barley made it to home plate but before that the catcher on the other team tripped my right before I was going to slide when I hite the gruond I put all the weight on my ankle and herd a crack my ankle is not black or blue but the swelling is huge and I can't walk on it or put any weight on it do you think I have a broken ankle?

Thanks

[biggiemacmexican]

@sarahtheawesome123 i have the same problem! i was playing basketball and went up for a rebound and landed on my ankle sideways and heard a crack. i cant walk on it. how are you feeling now?

[sarahtheawesome123]

@biggiemacmexican i went to the doctor and my ankle was broken. I got a cast, but i can walk on my cast. I am doing much better thx for asking! I hope u get better

[sk8erboi274]

my anckle is swollen and theres like a lump on the side but i can stand on it kind of walk and it dosnt hurt that much any more but its still swollen so could it be a fracture?

[JayBennett1973]

captain...do you have any remedies for sprained peckers?or should i just use duct tape and a popsicle stick?

[tophermurks]

i love you

[SbHstomper18]

just ask if they can move it.thats wat i do.

[deadlyfluffball]

@SbHstomper18 For no reason AT ALL I heard a halo reach score person say OVERKILL not cause of this but when I read it, it came out of no where.

[heatwave2012]

im volunteering for a biking event this weekend as medical staff so i may have to deal with some of these

[menace623]

This guy is such a badass. One of the few people who I've seen who seems to actually know what the hell they are talking about.

[vickiormindyb]

'Generally not be able to move it if it's broken.'

'Generally' is the operative word. Most people won't be able to walk on a broken ankle but we had a patient who not only did but bragged about doing so.

First-aid courses usually don't allow for how stupid the patient is going to be.

Any SENSIBLE person will STOP walking on a leg that's filled w/ pain.

This girl was plain stupid. You can cause more damage forcing it to operate under pain, some of which can be permanent.

[vickiormindyb]

The Emergency Physician at the hospital I went to when I broke my hand was a doofus. He wasn't even going to x-ray it, b/c he decided it wasn't broken. IDK what evidence he used to make this supreme assessment, but I told him I'm not leaving until they x-ray my hand.

The x-ray came back showing an oblique break that went from one end of my bone, up the shaft and ended on the opposite side of the bone.

[haithemovic]

i playrd a ftball match n now am hurted n i cant play

thnx from algeria

[luckykiwi16]

@antatious

Dare to dream.

[petedawg777]

the captains mustache has saved thousands of lives

[09Alpacino09]

O.o so i got a sprain :) i still skate with a sprained ankle i just ollied off a ledge on one of my videos xD but theyre was barely any pop cuz i was a lil scared :)

[xPancakes4lyf]

ya i injured my ankle 2 years ago i couldnt walk on it the next day i ignored it, wrapped it and skated with it ignoring the pain. and now when ever i run, jog, skate, etc. it starts hurting agian WTF!??

[dmyl004]

Fractured my ankle in October (5 months ago)

Fell whilst canyoning in a remote area, no way to get a helicopter so had to walk on it.

I experienced numbness in the area, and was able to apply a small amount of pressure, and as i continued to walk, I found myself putting more pressure on it. For this reason, i thought it was just a sprain, however when i got to the hospital finally, X Ray showed up as a fracture of the fibia.

Even if you think its just a sprain, always get it checked out.

[knine1195678]

@dmyl004 so wht happened to u after tht? did they do surgery?

[dmyl004]

@knine1195678

No surgery was required, but my leg was in plaster for 6 weeks then in a special boot for a further 2 weeks. I was on crutches for the whole 8 weeks. Its only finally back to the point where i can play tennis on it in last few weeks.

I just wanted to make the point that regardless of what you may think the injury is, you should ALWAYS get it checked by a doctor.

[TJhemenway2]

i sprained my ankle last week and it heald in like 3 days but come to find out, part of my ligament was torn 2 so yea thats painful lol and i also herd if u sprain something ur more likely to break it if injured in the future

[vickiormindyb]

I didn't feel any numbness when I broke my hand. I just suddenly couldn't move it at all. It felt like it was locked in place, as if an invisible vice clamped around it making any movement impossible.

I was still trying to figure out what was going on when the opposite side started swelling up before my eyes. I watched it happen.

Then I was positive something was wrong, b/c I've never seen swelling happen so fast that I could watch its progress.

[MrRichmonder]

Thank you Captain.

[Ashes2266]

fml

[redballyou]

fml too

[Alphieboy]

im norwegian so spraind is not like geting ckracks ing the lig or anything ( i m a litle noob atound those areas cuz in norwegian the word 4 spraind is (i think) is forstuet ps did sprain my besid little toe i did sprain tha in the gym a school

[rhblakeman]

Sprained my left ankle coming off a ladder in early June this year, came down on some equipment at ground level that caused it to flex inward quite a bit - also got a line of blisters from my arch up behind the ankle bone to the top of my sock, think it was from rubbing a metal bar on the equipment. Iced it right away for a full day, ended up purple from arch to knee and the blisters eventually leached the blood from the bruising. Took aspirin/acetominophene mix and the thing swelled up to my...

[rhblakeman]

knee - stopped taking that and went with 4x 200mg ibuprofen and the swelling and pain reduced. Kept icing for 3 more days. Took a week to be able to use a brace due to massive swelling. Worked it as I could, soaked in epsom salt soaks, etc and I'm finally able to use it normally although no running yet and I have to rest it if it hurts, about an hour of standing. Took 3 months to get near normal but that ankle is still bigger than normal and getting better.

[DSUATC1]

WOW- Please dont put a cold gel pack on the ankle without a type of barrier in between. Towel that is wet is probably the best. That is probably why this guys foot looks so red. Frostbite!! Also- Sprains can look very deformed from the swelling that can take place very quickly.

[HipHopCreation]

yes u can dislocate any joint but it is more likely to break :) i dislocate my ankle 2 days ago i had to pop it back in place was the most unreal pain ever

[skateprogressweekly]

i think someone can tell if they can move their foot or not

[BillyAteSocks]

this is off topic but a while back i sprained my toe and now its dislocated, its 1 cm back than the other one. and it hurts sometimes

[Rojcam12]

how do u tell if u just sprained ur ankle and not dislocated it?

[RawrUberGamer]

is it possible to dislocate the ankle?

[Bolduccjperson1]

it is possible to dislocate any joint

[RawrUberGamer]

it thought the ankle was made out of blades, similar to the wrist, thats why it allows more movement than many other joints

[BillyAteSocks]

yep

[RawrUberGamer]

do you know how wrists/ankles dislocate? if you do plz teach me :D

[Phead123]

Damn! My foot is Sprained i dont know :(, I cant move my Foot, cant stand on it, tooooo much Pain, it hurts so Much, Damn. :(

[vickiormindyb]

I don't see how you can tell.

The doctor couldn't even tell with my ankle.

He told his student doctors they weren't going to touch my ankle, b/c he thinks it's broken.

It ended up NOT being broken, just had a lot of pain in it.

Then, with my hand, the doctor (different from the above) refused to x-ray it, thinking it unnecessary.

But I refused to leave w/out an x-ray, b/c I felt something shift & snap when I fell.

My hand was broken all the way up the bone shaft.

[geezablade]

thanks capt very helpfull

[kaxx000]

thanks i needed to know i've broken and sprained my ankle and went to the doctor alot to see what it is so now i know thanks again

[Bolduccjperson1]

thnaks mine is a sprain! i dident know what it was!