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Not looking for STW medical advice - more looking for sympathy I think!
Sprained my ankle/tore ligaments, slipping on ice, about five weeks ago. Foot went totally sideways when I fell. Went to A&E, x-rays showed nothing broken, so sent home with advice on icing/wrapping/painkillers/
Five weeks on, damn it's still painful! Limping still, can't walk down stairs normally, etc etc.
Called nurse, and paraphrased advice was "sprained ankles take awhile to heal, and you just need to HTFU".
Any advice/sympathy/heckling on healing a sprained ankle?
I have done mine a few times.
Normally 5 or 6 weeks until it was relatively normal.
My issue is that if i don't do ankle strengthening (wobble board etc) it aches. In fact i need to do some now.
It will hurt for a while longer. I bought an aircast support and just got on with it (running,biking etc) as i am just stupid and got bored
I only know about ruptured achilles tendons. The injury is not the same (obviously) but one thing I learned is that for this kind of injury, go find some YouTube videos. They will be much more useful. About 10 weeks in it started to show signs of healing.
Also, worth doing an achilles tendon test (Thompson test) - there are a few reports out there of people who turned out to have that rather than a sprained ankle, which is what I was initially diagnosed with. "Just walk it off and stop making such a fuss".
A wobble board is a good idea. The problem with bad sprains is not just that you damage ligaments, tendons etc, but you also lose proprioception - the ability for your brain to know exactly where your foot is in relation to the rest of you - with the result that you're far more likely to turn your ankle again in future. Basically your foot starts to turn and your brain doesn't register it in time to compensate and, crunch...
Using a wobble board regularly will help your brain recalibrate and make this less likely. It's also worth looking into how to properly tape your ankle, so the tape provides both a little support, but also, through skin sensation, helps with proprioception. A good sports physio wouldn't be the worst call if you want to rehab it properly.
From the perspective of someone with a long-term weak left ankle who wishes he'd done all those things earlier.
+1 on a bad sprain taking weeks - and even a decade later I will go over on that ankle if I am not careful.
They're bad news. I could walk on mine after 2-3 weeks but remember it taking a good few months before it felt 'right'.
About 18 years and counting for me. It'll always be a weak point but I stick to doing quality one leg balance work and that keeps it plenty strong. If I don't keep up with strength training it sucks.