Sprained ankle

[matty2670]

How long should a sprained ankle take to heal? Twisted it quite badly last week and even though the swelling and bruising's almost gone, it's still too painful to walk on properly. Have had to take time off work but I don't think anyone believes me! I assumed that after a couple of days it would be fine but it seems to be getting better very slowly. Is this normal?

[Postdog]

A bad sprain yes. I've done it a few times in my job and it's been up to 2 weeks before it was nomal

[Velvetee]

Are you icing it, resting and keeping it elevated?

[aniani]

Hope you had an X ray

[matty2670]

Thanks for your answers, guys. The Doctor just told me to get an elasticated support bandage and I'm taking it easy at home! At least I know now that this sort of thing can take a while to get better.

[dr b]

As an ex-basketball player I have way too much experience with sprained ankles. Google "sprained ankle rice mice". RICE is rest-ice-compression-elevation, which is what you need to do for about a week. If swelling/bruising is down, time to move to MICE: movement-ice-compression-elevation. A good "movement" exercise: fill the tub with warm water and trace the alphabet with your toe (I'm not kidding about that).

This site is a good one:

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sprainsstrains /a/anklesprain.htm

[daffy654]

3 weeks of not weight-bearing should sort it out.

[Lborobrewer]

It can take up to 6 weeks for a sprained ankle to fully heal, as long as it takes for a fracture.

Do not drive a car whilst you have a sprained ankle as you will not have any insurance.

If there is pain on palpation in the malleolar region and one of the following:

i) over the bottom 6 cms of the posterior edge of the Tibia or the medial malleolus (the bony protuberance on the inside of the ankle)

or

ii)over the bottom 6 cms of the posterior edge of the fibula or the lateral malleolus(the bony protuberance on the outside of the ankle)

or

iii) Unable to weight bear immediately and for four steps some time later., e.g. in the Emergency Department

then the ankle should be x-rayed to rule out a fracture.