Ankle fun

So, it's been over three weeks since my ankle had an encounter with Whistler mountain. The sprain is healed, but the wound hasn't yet scabbed over, and the skin has not yet grown back. This means there's a chance it will still be open when I head to East Africa next weekend. This of course wouldn't be ideal since it's not always easy to get clean water to cleanse the wound. The past few days have seen a lot of improvement, so here's hoping... I've got antibiotics in case anything goes wrong.

During the last three weeks I've seen 3 different doctors who gave 3 different methods for maintaining the wound.

The first was the emerg doctor at Whistler mountain who suggested soaking in salt water, then using Polysporin and then keeping it covered with a tensor.

The second was the doctor on call while my primary doctor was on vacation. I told him what I had been doing, and he said "why the heck would you pour salt in your wounds?", and said that salt water was an old wives' tale. This doctor suggested using hydrogen peroxide, and then Polysporin.

When I had a chance to see my normal doctor I told him what I was doing, and he said "why the heck would you use hydrogen peroxide? You're trying to re-grow skin, and hydrogen peroxide kills all cells including skin cells..." So his suggestion was to clean the wound with mild soap water twice a day, and coat it with silver sulfadiazine which is primarily used on second or third degree burns, but works for regenerating skins on deep abrasions as well.

What struck me most about this is not just the fact that three doctors' methods for treating a relatively common problem could be so different, but more that each successive one thought the other doctors were nuts for prescribing their methods.

Anyhow, although the wound is still open it's looking a lot better than it did even a few days ago, so I hope to see an immense improvement this week. At this point I can walk around with no problems, and although I haven't done too much activity I imagine I should be able to start working out etc... again soon.

Have fun!