Single mother-sprained ankle-advice?

[Lacrymosa]

Hi there! I am a single mother to a beautiful sweet (but lively!) 19 month old girl. It's really just the two of us, so I'm in a bit of a predicament here. I sprained my ankle pretty severely yesterday, I have it on good authority that it's not broken (reallllly hoping!) because I can put weight on it, and walk---sort of. But it is really swollen and it's painful to walk so I am needing to rest so I don't do more damage to it. This is extremely hard when you have an energetic toddler! There are a few other things that will make this weekend very difficult. Asia (my daughter) and I are both sick right now with a sore throat/cough, and I also work one night a week which happens to be Friday night (I'm at work right now) and so every weekend I don't sleep from Friday morning until Saturday night, except I will take a nap with Asia on Saturdays when she takes one. My parents stay with her on Friday nights so I can work, but they aren't able to help out other than that so I'm on my own. I would go to the doctor for this, but I have no insurance at this time so I am hoping to just wait it out and do ice treatments and hope that it gets better. (I read that sprained ankles heal themselves.. is this true?)

Sorry for the really long explanation! I just know I'm going to be incredibly tired today, and I shouldn't do much walking. I wondered if any of you mama's have any advice, as to any way I can help treat my ankle without a doctor, or what I can do with Asia today that doesn't require much walking. We normally do a lot of things, and I am not one to be okay with her just watching t.v. all day, she would get bored with that anyway, she hasn't watched very much t.v. up to this point so she doesn't have a lot of interest in it. I am also one of those moms that becomes stricken with mom guilt if I'm not doing things with her all throughout the day! And although she is sick right now, she has never been one to rest when she's sick, she likes to stay occupied/stimulated. So... any advice would be helpful!

Thanks for your time and your responses. :)

[pbjmama]

Anything sitting down - books, games, peekaboo, bath times and if she likes baths you could do that multiple times, singing songs, have her race to get things for you. It will probably be hard at first but you will become creative fast! You can take ibuprofen for swelling/pain. You may have to adjust your expectations of being super mom for the day :) Sometimes you have to take care of yourself first so you can properly take care of your child. I hope it is a fun day!

[LeighPF]

You are in survival parenting mode. Your job is to make sure everyone gets through it alive.

-I second the recommendations for things you can do together while you sit down. Baths are brilliant. Colouring and stickers in the highchair are also big hits in our house when I am down. Pull out new and interesting things to play with. Read tons of books.

-Use TV to get a nap if you need to. Nap with her when she goes down.

-plan before you get up and gather everything up, like extra filled sippies and snacks so you don't have to get up again

-Ice and imobilization for the ankle. Wrap in in an ace bandage and stay off of it.

[Lacrymosa]

Thanks so much for the advice, we survived the day doing most of these things. I wish I could be supermom! I hate to say the cleaning gets slacked on big-time due to being a single mom, but I definitely think Asia getting a lot of one-on-one attention trumps the importance of cleaning!

Thanks again :)