Length of healing time

[mishele75]

I fell about a week ago and rolled my ankle pretty bad.  Initially, it didn't hurt that bad but I iced it anyway.  The next day I couldn't walk on it.  I followed the RICE instructions and stayed off it.  By the 2nd day, I was able to lightly walk on it.  Now, although I can walk on it and put my full weight on it, It still hurts to move in certain direction.  Going down stairs is particularly painful.  Is this normal?  It's still a little swollen, right by the ankle joint.  Thanks for any feedback.

[Dr Vinod]

Hello!

It is good that you are following RICE.

Apply ice packs for the inflammation and take some non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs or ibuprofen.

The pain and inflammation has to subside in couple of days till then do not exert much force or strength on your ankle.

If it does not decrease you have to go for an X-ray of your ankle and also suspect ligament damage.

Always wear protective footwear and take proper preventive measures in the future.

Take care!

[baschwal]

Hi
From my experience, this is pretty typical.  I wouldn't be too worried if I were you, especially since you said you rolled it pretty badly. It's really good that you're following RICE, and now that it's been awhile after the fact, heat should help too. Heat will help increase the blood flow to and around the injured area, bringing in more of the white blood cells that help clean up damaged cells, as well as help bring in more oxygen and nutrients to the cells that are repairing. For me, going down stairs was the worst as well, and took the longest time to be able to do pain-free. It's great that you can see quite a bit of improvement since you initially injured it, and I think that if you just continue to baby it a few more days, you'll soon be all healed up!