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I suffered a sprained ankle whist hill walking last Tuesday. The swelling has begun to reduce but the bruising, along both sides of my foot, spreading onto my toes is still very visible.
How can I improve the recovery time? I am already itching to get back out on my bike, but I am currently only just able to hobble/walk, with the occasional whimper if I catch my foot on an uneven surface.
get some physio advice and let it heal fully is what I'd suggest - I sprained both ankles so often playing footy when I was younger that I now can't even really feel when they're starting to go over. As a result I don't play runny, turny sports any more.
I'm pretty sure that it was playing again the next week that buggered me up for good.
Dunno...somethings wrong with my ankle just now. Seeing the phyio on Wednesday. Will pass on the advice.
Are you sure it's only sprained - if it's not improved after nearly a week?
I thought I'd sprained mine - very bruised, lots of swelling but I could just about walk on it and over several days it improved. After 5 days I went to A&E and the Xray showed I had a broken fibula! Same as that american sprinter who finished half an Olympic 400m relay race after breaking his.
So a quick visit to A&E may by an idea unless the swelling is almost gone.
What does help swelling is:
1) Keep off it as much as poss
2) Lie down with your leg up higher than your heart.
3) Ice - a bag of frozen peas is perfect here.
4) Ibuprofen (not paracetamol)
5) Firmly bandaged
Good luck.
If you're sure that you've not broken it (You'd probably know if you had broken it), just start gentle range of movement exercises and build in/up weight bearing exercises as pain allows. Once pain resolves build in proprioceptive (joint position sense) exercises to ensure that you dont damage it again. Physio might add friction massage or some sort of electrotherapy to the above to help with ligament regeneration and repair.
As for reducing swelling - active plantar and dorsiflexion in supine lying will help you reduce that by using gastrocnemius muscle pump to help with draining fluids.
Use a stick or a crutch if you need one.
Cycling is probably a decent activity to do as it doesnt put a lot of weight through the damaged ligaments.
Thanks for the replies.
I visited A&E after suffering the injury as there was a concern that I had broken it, x-rays showed no break so I was discharged with the advice of keeping off it and not applying a tight bandage.
Will give it a couple of days and if there is no improvement I will go for a second opinion.