world's apart

The first thing people do when an injury occurs is to stabilize the injured part, to try and not move it around so much. Such was the case for my twisted ankle. It was iced immediately and wrapped, i assume to keep it stable.

However, my parents had a different idea.

The minute my mom found out, she immediately decreed that I was to go to Bulacan with them and have this looked at. Kailangan ipa hilot. Pag nahilot na, mas makakalakad ka na.

As I was in pain already and could not walk at all, I agreed. After all, its what they do in Bulacan, and if it works for them, why not on me?

Hours later, I was crying in pain as she twisted my ankle which was, up to that point, securely wrapped and resting since I wasnt moving around. The pain was excruciating...and in those moments, I thought to myself, there has got to be a reason why they wrap it up --- hell, they put it in a cast if need be! This injury is probably meant to be left alone...and yet here we were, twisting and turning my ankle like it was 100% flexible.

So when all is said and done (and after two sessions of twisting my poor injured foot), I am walking as opposed to hopping on one foot though my foot is still somewhat black and blue and bruised -- whether or not its because of the injury itself or because of the injury i brought upon my injury, I dont know.

I wonder though, is my common knowledge of how to treat sprains completely wrong? I know of the cold and hot compress and resting and securing....but why is the "old-fashioned" treatment so very different? The only similarity I found was that my foot was wrapped in heated pieces of oiled "Tangan Tangan" leaves. That would be the equivalent of the hot compress.

I dont think I'll ever figure it out...but I will say, that my mom's reaction when she saw me walking instead of hopping was that if I had not gone to the manghihilot and to the doctor instead, sinemento lang nila yan.