What Works for Me

What Works for Me
A Sidebar to our "Ankle" story

Andrew Veyette, soloist, New York City Ballet

I had three severe sprains on my left and three not so bad on my right. The last time, I knew exactly what I had done, which grade it was, and what to expect pain-wise. Even my Grade 3 only ever took six to eight weeks to recover. While I was out I did cycling and basketball free-throws—any kind of physical exertion. Dr. Phillip Bauman gave me a Malleotrain, an ankle brace with supportive pads. I wore it for a week solid until I needed to wash the thing. I do normal icing wrapped around the ankle, 15 minutes on and 15 off, every two hours the first 48 hours. After that it was two, maybe three, times a day. If you come back from an injury too fast it will swell up again.

Maybe this happens when I let myself get distracted. I stop paying attention in the air, and then I’m on my butt. Now I try to focus on dancing in a sound, organic place starting at the barre. It’s always when you think you don’t have to think about it any more that you hurt yourself.

 

Keith Roberts, Movin’ Out

My first sprain was Grade 2 +. My ankle swelled to the size of my calf, and I was in a boot for 2 months. There was nasty bleeding inside, so I had arthroscopic surgery to clean out scar tissue. But I would always get minor sprains, rolling over when landing from a jump. Then, in performance, I injured the deltoid ligament on the inside. After two years of taking anti-inflammatories, I realized I needed to have the ligament fixed. Dr. Hamilton did reconstructive surgery, and it’s worked really well. I haven’t sprained my ankle since then. The best exercise is to balance on a flat foot, standing for a minute with eyes closed. There are sensors within your foot that are the first thing that go, and that’s the first that you need to get back. And you can do ballet steps in a swimming pool, where you don’t have your full weight. That’s where I relearned how to jump.