swelling from twisted ankle
neeb
Posts: 4,473
Ok, I know this isn't the place to get medical advice, but it's a fairly trivial thing and I think there are some GPs and sports physios who hang around here..
I very stupidly twisted my ankle on Hogmanay (yes, alcohol was involved.. :oops: ). Classic inversion injury. I could walk on it the next day with some pain, didn't have full range of motion for a couple of days, but it feels 99% fine now. I can run in a figure of 8, hop around on the ball of my foot etc, and it seems to have the same range of motion as the other foot. Thing is, the outside of the ankle is still swollen and there are signs of tissue damage in the form of diffuse bruising. I even have the slight purple stripe at base of my foot. So the ankle seems almost functionally perfect, despite looking like it has suffered a significant injury. The only pain is some dull tenderness around the swollen bit and vague pain at some extremities of motion (nothing that would stop me moving it there). Managed a fast 30 mile ride today including some stomping out of the saddle, and everything feels fine.
All the advice I can find on twisted ankles seems to be about restoring functionality / full range of motion. Can I assume that if the ankle is fully functional that there is nothing much wrong with it and the swelling will go down in due course without causing any long-term problems?
I very stupidly twisted my ankle on Hogmanay (yes, alcohol was involved.. :oops: ). Classic inversion injury. I could walk on it the next day with some pain, didn't have full range of motion for a couple of days, but it feels 99% fine now. I can run in a figure of 8, hop around on the ball of my foot etc, and it seems to have the same range of motion as the other foot. Thing is, the outside of the ankle is still swollen and there are signs of tissue damage in the form of diffuse bruising. I even have the slight purple stripe at base of my foot. So the ankle seems almost functionally perfect, despite looking like it has suffered a significant injury. The only pain is some dull tenderness around the swollen bit and vague pain at some extremities of motion (nothing that would stop me moving it there). Managed a fast 30 mile ride today including some stomping out of the saddle, and everything feels fine.
All the advice I can find on twisted ankles seems to be about restoring functionality / full range of motion. Can I assume that if the ankle is fully functional that there is nothing much wrong with it and the swelling will go down in due course without causing any long-term problems?
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Yes0
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I think what's happening is that the swelling is protecting it, so it goes up and down depending. Sometimes it's a little more painful, then it swells up a bit and feels mostly fine. Looks like it'll take a few weeks to settle down, but I guess the best thing is to use the ankle as normal and to ignore discomfort. Fortunately cycling puts less stress on it than walking / running.
Lesson learned, I'm getting too old for benders, even if only once or twice a year..
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I did some Googling when my son twisted his ankle badly playing football. One of the most commonly suggested rehab exercises appeared to involve the use of a balance board0
