An ankle sprain is a form of injury we we come by so often that it's quite easy to dismiss the injury as just another harmless twisted ankle. In truth, a twisted ankle is never harmless; nor minor enough to brush aside. If people would just begin to understand the real nature of the injury an ankle sprain is, they would learn how to take care of it, and would keep themselves from falling victim to poor ankle health, and repeated episodes. And it's just as well; about 20,000 people each day in this country fall prey to this kind of injury.
As far my understanding of the ankle sprain goes, I fall somewhere along the middle. The first time I sprained my ankle was years ago when I had just got married. It was early in the morning, and I was carelessly stepping through the leaves strewn across the garden, when somehow I slipped on a slippery muddy patch and twisted my foot. As far as I could see then, nothing seemed wrong at all; things seems plenty wrong though, once I gave it time. My foot became swollen and the ankle, very painful in no time at all; in no time at all, I was at the doctor's clinic, hobbling along with my husband supporting me.
The other time, I somehow twisted my ankle coming down the stairs at an airport. The doctor at the airport told me to keep my ankle elevated and on ice for a few hours; I went to bed that evening with my ankle elevated. The following morning I was so well-healed to all appearances, that I could go on my regular walk in the woods.
My reaction to my first ankle sprain was a wrong because you need to treat a twisted ankle with immediate rest and generous icing. You can't wait for a couple of hours for the swelling to cripple you and send you to the doctor's clinic. And the way I treated my second sprain was wrong because I thought that the moment the pain was gone, I could do just about anything to my foot. I could easily have permanently injured my foot. Ankle sprains are injuries that we get over and over again our whole lives through. And doctors say that the reason we get repeat injuries is that, we never treat each sprain with that kind of solicitous care that it needs; we never let it heal properly.
Considering how people love to rest, and hate exercise, you'd think it would be easier to keep people off their feet to allow for healing. The way people give themselves too little rest after a sprain is an important reason why one of three sprain victims will go on to develop serious ankle related disorders later in life. What would be the best way to go about treating an ankle sprain then? To begin with, a twisted ankle should be completely immobilized and rested - if it is a simple ankle sprain. For more severe ones, two weeks would be better. Athletes are among the most notorious for ignoring basic health rules like this. It isn't always the best yardstick to measure your situation by, how your ankle hurts. A lack of pain does not always indicate a lack of injury.
The ankle joint happens to be a particularly complex one; all the small bone structures in the assembly, are held together by a complex series of ligaments, and fibers of connective tissue. When the ankle is forced in one direction all of the sudden with much pressure, a few ligaments happen to get stretched too hard, and tear somewhat. That's when it is an ankle sprain. If you like to wear heels and if you happen to plant your foot the wrong way that your heel twists, you can be pretty sure that you've damaged a few ligaments in your ankle. It usually happens when you're climbing down the stairs.
The best way to treat it as soon as it happens, is to first get off the foot and rest it; giving it cold compresses with an ice pack is the next thing to do; and once you're done, to elevate the foot and rest it completely for a day should do it pretty well. An anti-inflammatory drug and a little medical advice could not hurt either. If you somehow manage to completely tear off a ligament, that can heal on its own too without recourse to surgery. You just need to completely rest the joint for a week. If you are rested for any longer than that though, you could end up weakening your ankle muscles through inactivity; and that would be inviting trouble too. A physiotherapist should help you get back on your feet with a few stretching exercises. The best way to deal with all of this though would be to never falling in the first place. Staying away from high heels, would be an excellent start there.
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