It’s important to know whether you have suffered a sprain or a bruising to your ankle, before moving forward with treatment. Although a sprain does involve tendon damage and also tissue bruising, tendon damage is not usually involved in purely tissue bruising ankle injuries.
The doctor will first touch your skin, around the injury to see where the tender areas are. They will then move your foot about, checking out how flexible it is and the range of movement you still have. They will then ask you to walk around if you can and see how your body is leaning, reacting and moving to the injury. Then they will give you any one of these treatments, depending on their diagnosis.
Brace for your foot
If you have an injury to your ankle joint and the tendons are damaged, a brace will be necessary. This is to stop the ankle from bending and moving around, beyond what it is capable of right now. The injury will be made worse if you continue to walk around on it, putting your full weight on the sprain. They will also bandage the ankle, so your ankle has limited movement, while it heals. This is to keep the joint stable, while in the brace which will support the entire foot. You may find that during bedtime, you can take off the brace and elevate your ankle onto a pillow. However, you should remember to put it back on before you put your foot down as you get out.
Joint stiffness
It might just be that your tendons are fine, but your joint is bruised. When you have bone bruising, this can be a sign that there has been bone-on-bone contact. Speak with a Chiropractor who can align your ankle and foot and make sure that you gain your full range of movement again. The key is to allow them to see what the damage around the ankle is. They can assess whether you have weak tendons by doing static hold tests. They will hold your ankle in one way, asking you to push the opposite way. Then they will see which side of the foot is weakest and give you exercises to strengthen those areas.
Icing the area
Icing is a very common treatment because it helps to reduce swelling which speeds up recovery. The body’s natural defense is to swell the area with fluids. This can cause inflammation and prevent fresh blood with white blood cells from beginning the job of repairing. So ice the area for about 15 minutes and 20 minutes if you think it is severe. Do this about 1-3 times a day for 3 days and you should find that the ankle has healed quite a lot.
There are a number of ways to heal your sprained ankle. But the first port of call is with your doctor. He or she will let you know how severe the issue is and what type of treatment is best.
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