How to Treat a Sprained Ankle

A sprained ankle is a common injury and something that many of us have done. I recently sprained my ankle playing soccer, and I figured that it would just heal over time, without any effort on my part. Well I was wrong, and I finally went to a doctor when the pain was still there, and I got some advice for treating it, which I would now like to impart to any who read my humble articles.

Initially, wrap the injured ankle in ice. Fill a shopping or Ziploc bag, but make sure you put a rag or shirt around the bag before putting it on your ankle to keep it from getting too cold and stiff.

Wrap the ankle in an ace bandage. You'll basically need to make a figure-eight with the band, and make sure it's tight on there (but not to the point of cutting off circulation).

Take anti-inflammatory pain relievers as long as it's still swollen.

Elevate the foot above your heart to ease the swelling.

Stay off of the ankle if possible. You may have to resort to using crutches (I never did, as I really hated them and was afraid I would injure myself worse trying to use them). The point of this is to allow it to heal faster as well as prevent the possibility of injuring it further. Once you have taken these initial steps to treating your ankle, you must also take rehabilitative action to help the healing process. There are several things you can do. A simple thing to do is to make a circular motion with your foot, forcing it to stretch out as much as possible, especially in the spots where it hurts. You can also repeatedly rise on the tip of your toes in a repeated up-down motion on the injured foot. You can even sit and loop and towel around your foot, then pull your foot toward your body in a repeated stretching motion.

If the foot continues to hurt for over a week after the injury it may be a good idea to have an x-ray performed on it to ensure that there was no break or fracture. Unfortunately, a bad sprain doesn't ever completely heal up (once tendons are stretched, they can't really go back to how they were before), so the probability of injuring that same ankle in the future is higher than it was before the first sprain, so you really need to be careful how you use it.