Hi

I'm after some advice regarding a bad sprain. On Saturday night my left ankle gave way coming down the stairs and I fell hurting it pretty bad. Went to casualty where it was xrayed and told it was just a sprain and sent on my way (nothing on it and just told to ice and rest). So went away and kept trying to walk on it as told but ended up going over on it again as it was too painful to walk on. My wife ended up sourcing some crutches to help me as I was in so much pain with it. I ended up going back to casualty last night because I could not bend 3 of my toes. Got to see a senior Doc who said it was a very bad grade 3 sprain and I needed to keep off it and use the crutches. He put a tubigrip on it and that was that. I had to go to the physio today and she has told me the complete opposite of what the doc said! I am suppose to be walking on it and weight bearing! Who do I believe? I feel like I'm being pulled in different directions especially when I look online and find that it says grd 3 sprains should be initially immobilized! Any advice or help would be great. I really don't want to spend a 3rd night in casualty to be told something else.

I badly sprained my left ankle in May, 2008. I did not resprain it though like you did. I had once sprained my ankle many years ago and used crutches until it healed.

I have never been told to put weight on my injured ankle! Never! Why would someone want you to put weight on an injured joint?

I babied my left ankle when it was first sprained. I had it hurt so bad at night that I had a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep. I could not find a comfortable position for the ankle for months.

I did not overdo it with the walking. I walked as little as possible when I was healing. My ankle has now finally healed up where it does not hurt me at night and I can walk around stores and do my shopping without it throbbing after 1/2 of walking.

I would definitely recommend staying off it. Don't keep using the ice anymore. Ice should only be used during the first day of the injury. Also, I found that using an Ace bandage and wrapping my ankle up helped it to not hurt as much. Just be sure you don't overdo it and wrap the ankle too tight.

I did find that by taking either Salba or Chia seeds did improve my healing of the ankle. Chia and salba contain a lot of good proteins and omega. I also bought a pair of old lady orthopaedic shoes. Believe it or not that helped tremendously more so than just staying off the ankle.

Use your crutches properly and don't put any weight on your ankle until it has healed. You're looking at at least 6+ weeks of the crutches. When I first sprained my ankle years ago I had to use my crutches for at least 7 weeks before I could put much weight on it.

Your ankle is one of the most vulnerable joints in your body. It literally bears your entire body weight so you must be careful about having this joint heal properly or you will have a lifetime of problems if not properly treated.

I would suggest you get another physio therapist. I never bothered giong to a physio therapist as I knew how to baby my own ankle. Maybe you should look online for some ankle tips and do's and don'ts for yourself instead. Or ask your doctor for a different therapist to go to that adhers to his instructions about weight bearing on an injured joint.

Hi thanks for the reply.

I have had a good look around the web and everything seems to say the same thing or is very similar about grade 3 sprains. There seems to be a lot of places saying it needs to be immobilized in a boot or cast? The hospital are not wiling to do anything like that so what do I do? Is there anything I can put on it to protect it and allow me to rest it other than the tubigrip they put on it? I have looked around some sites that seem to sell the type of boot that hospitals use but they are expensive?

Am not sure about the cost of those boots you refer to. From my knowledge of stuff like that the boots are usually used for bunion surgery patients. Am not aware of the boots being used for ankles. Just keep off the ankle as much as possible.

When my ankle was badly sprained in May, 08 it swelled up and most of my foot turned black and blue! Ow! It hurts to even think about this now. I ended up having to wear a size bigger shoe on one foot as the whole foot swelled up. I did find some relief using Mobysyl cream on the ankle. No smell. Sort of like IcyHot but without the smell. It did relieve a lot of the pain. I only took aspirin for the pain and nothing else. A good Ace bandage is probably as immobile as you want to get though.