Ankle sprain that will NOT go away!

acmacvic

 

I sprained my ankle 4 weeks ago running on a dirt road. I had significant bruising and swelling on the outside of foot. Iced, elevated and rested for 1 week and then ran again with minor pain and no swelling afterward. At two weeks post injury skied hard for the weekend. Again, minor to no associated pain, I thought I was healing nicely.

Then out of nowhere, days after skiing, I have swelling on the INSIDE of my foot with significant pain to the touch. Basically on the "boney" area on the inside of my foot, name of bone escapes me right now. I continue to ice and rest, now almost 2 weeks post "new" injury. It is better but still uncomfortable.

 

Any thoughts, help or suggestion would be MOST appreciated.

Angus

Michele Cellai

Angus,
A badly sprained ankle does not heal in 1 week, and it sounds like the initial injury was at least Grade 2 if not Grade 3. If you have never sprained that ankle before, you really should rehab it properly. I doubt you were running with minimal discomfort. More likely you altered your normal gait to take stress off the injury, causing trauma and injury elsewhere. Also skiing, even with the best boots, is going to stress the ankle a bit.

You really should go back to step 1. Since it has already been a month, see your doc and consider an xray. Otherwise P.T. to properly rehab the ankle and restrengthen the tendons and ligaments that support the area.

Hope you feel better.

acmacvic

 

Thanks Michele, I guess it's time to smarten up! I thought for some reason I could just power through this injury and it would go away. I tried that last year with an IT band issue with equal results. So...I'll do as recommended and learn from this.

Angus

Chris G

Not a doc nor do i play one on tv but have sprained my ankle too many times through the years. Its the kind of thing that never really truly heals and will always be weaker than the other one. Be careful and rehab it. If you sprain it bad enough it is worse than breaking it. Certainly not a one weak thing if you had a lot of bruising. There are some good braces that you can run in and stop all lateral movement. They will pretty much ruin the shoe you use them in though. I forget the brand but the best one was endorsed by usa volleyball and goes under the foot. Turns out indoor volleyball is the ultimate ankle spraining sport. Good luck.

Leigh Boyle

yup, don't mess around with this one. get it checked and make sure you didn't do any real damage. This is the kind of stuff where you push through and get torn ligaments and what not wedged in places they shouldn't be.