“Just Walk it Off” – and Other Bad Advice Friends Give You About Ankle Sprains
Countless people come to our podiatry office year-round for help with a sprained ankle. However, wintertime does the outdoor walker or runner no special favors! Black ice and snowy sidewalks will likely cause unintended falls, increasing the number of sprains we’ll treat over the winter.
Also called a twisted or turned ankle, a sprained ankle means that the ligaments holding your ankle bones together have stretched too far. The worst ankle sprains involve ligaments stretched so far that they’ve torn. When you turn your ankle hard, there’s usually pain right away. Swelling and bruising come a bit later. So, at first, you may think it’s no big deal. “Just walk it off,” your buddies tell you.
Not a good idea.
Other bad ideas about how to treat an ankle sprain include doing nothing, putting off going to the doctor, and refusing to go to physical therapy.
The right way to treat a sprain
The first thing you should do when you sprain your ankle is to rest and elevate it while also applying ice.
Next, we highly recommend scheduling an appointment at our office for an evaluation of your sprain’s severity. Improper treatment of an ankle sprain means you may take longer to heal. The sprain may not heal well, putting you at a higher risk of injuring the same ankle before too long. Repeated injuries of the same ankle can cause chronic ankle instability. Once you enter that territory, it’s not easy to get out. You can develop balance problems or a fear of falling that severely limits your activity and quality of life.
Finally, a consultation with our podiatrists may reveal that you don’t have a sprain, but a fractured bone.
Our experienced podiatric surgeons, Dr. Craig B. Frey, Dr. Megan L. Oltmann, Dr. Jim Swienconek, Dr. Rachel Robinson, and Dr. Courtney Yoder, can help you avoid the long-term consequences of an ankle injury. Call Foot & Ankle Associates of Cleveland in Solon, Ohio at (440) 903-1041 or contact us online to schedule a consultation. We offer a modern office with the latest technology for podiatric patients in Portage, Geauga, Cuyahoga, and Summit Counties, proudly serving our patients from Solon, Aurora, Bedford, Chagrin Falls, Hudson, Macedonia, and Twinsburg.
