I am a senior at Hereford High School and a two-sport varsity athlete and participate in team sports class every other day in school. In February 2018, while in my team sports class, I fell and landed on a classmate’s foot and I rolled my ankle. After the injury, I went to an orthopedist who diagnosed me with an ankle sprain and a small chip fracture and he told me to rest for two weeks and assured me that I would be back to sports in no time. I was put into a boot and wore it for the next two weeks that followed. This is my senior year and my injury coincided with the beginning of baseball season and I was anxious to start playing.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t seeing the improvement that I was told by the orthopedist to expect and my family and I decided to get a second opinion from a foot and ankle specialist. We decided to visit Dr. Stewart at the Timonium Foot and Ankle Center. At the first visit, Dr. Stewart carefully evaluated me and explained the condition and the expectations for recovery. He informed me that I had a moderate to severe sprain and he made it very clear to me that there was a possibility that I could miss the entire baseball season as these injuries can take 8-12 weeks improve. He also told me that if the condition did not improve with conservative care that I could require surgery.
Dr. Stewart provided a pro-active conservative treatment plan that he felt would improve my recovery and give me the best chance of returning to baseball this year. When I was wearing the walking boot, I felt extremely restricted and I did not feel like I was walking properly. Dr. Stewart recommended placing me into an ankle brace to provide more flexibility in my ankle. In addition to wearing the brace, Dr. Stewart recommended that I wear a compression stocking to reduce my pain and swelling. After few days of wearing the stocking, my swelling significantly decreased. He also suggested therapeutic laser as an additional form of treatment to help improve my recovery. He did not apply any pressure or give any sort of sales pitch, rather he informed me that the laser treatment could help speed up the healing process. Dr. Stewart indicated that a good number of his patients had a quicker recovery with laser, but he also made it very clear that there are no guarantees with any treatments and that this laser therapy is an adjunctive modality.
After discussing the treatment options with my family, I decided to undergo laser treatment for my ankle sprain and the results were incredible. After each session, my ankle was feeling better and I was able to move my ankle in ways that I was previously unable to. At the first visit with Dr. Stewart I was told that the recovery could be 8-12 weeks, yet in 6 weeks under his care I am back to playing varsity baseball for my senior year without any restrictions.
I can’t thank Dr. Stewart and his staff enough for the work that they have done to ensure I was able to go back to what I loved doing, playing baseball. I highly recommend Timonium Foot and Ankle Center to any person experiencing pain with their foot or ankle and thank them for the work they did on my ankle.
Matthew Kells
* Results may vary from person to person