Sprained ankle recovery.

Mykaelous

Alright so I sprain my ankle for the first time about 17 days ago at a trampoline park. I am finally at the stage where I can walk normally but my foot is still stiff, swollen and a bit bruised up. I've been slowly ramping up my activity since last week and two days ago I did a 5 mile walk without too much difficulty although I would say that after 3 miles I began to limp again with no pain. Today I was on my feet all day at the water park and slowly the limp returned towards the end of the day.

I guess I am being a bit impatient as this has put a damper on my planned cardio as it happened 6 days into my 100 day get fit challenge. I just want to know how recovering from such an injury has worked for other individuals and perhaps when I can expect the swelling to go away and my full range of movement to return. I can rotate my leg fully, but the swelling seems to be limiting the range of motion forward and back for my ankle. Should I wear a compress while working out to keep the foot from swelling. It seems like activity simply causes the foot to swell a bit limiting my range of motion but not causing any pain(it just feels like you can't move it any further like squeezing your hand). No I haven't seen a doctor as I don't have any type of medical insurance and I figure they would just put a splint on it and tell me to rest and send me a $500 + bill.

mickiebabs

Have you been following RICE? Rest Ice Compression Elevate? It would be good to do these after a workout or a lot of time on your feet. More than once a day would be better. I'm not much help with ankle injuries but I wouldn't think it'd be much different than knee injuries which I'm VERY familiar with. Compression while exercising would be good but don't leave it on all day. While you'll want to take it easy on the workouts until your healed, try not to baby it too much. Taking ibuprofen will help with any swelling.

The most important advice I can offer is not to push yourself too far. Trust me. I was 12 weeks into recovering from a knee injury and thought I was doing well enough just to screw up and set myself all the way back at the beginning. It ended up costing me much more down time and a lot of money. 7 months and $6,000 later I've still not been released to resume jogging.

Good luck to you and I hope it heals quickly.

Mykaelous

Thanks for the advice mickie. I practiced RICE for the first 4 days, but stopped afterwards because I read that it should only be done for the first few days. I think I will try RICE after workouts and wear the compress during exercise to limit swelling. Thanks again.

mickiebabs

No problem. I hope the advice helps. My orthopedist and my physical therapists all still harp on me to make sure I'm following RICE on pt or workout days.

Good luck.