When will the swelling stop on a sprained ankle?

Question

I sprained my left ankle around 11:30 this morning. I was in a Volleyball game and I fell. It went comepletely 180 degrees towards my other foot. It started swellin instantly. How long will it take for the swelling to go down?

Answer 1

It actually depends on the severity of the sprain. I'm not sure if your quite giving us the accurate amount of twist that actually occured during the accident. 180 degrees implying your foot went completely backwards? If that's the case I'd imagine you'd have more wrong with you than a sprain and should definitely see a Doctor. You said towards your other foot so I think you're most likely trying to say that it twisted 90 degrees towards your foot which would be more likely. The amount of swelling, bruising, and pain are ways to judge the severity of a sprain. A good way to decide whether this visit is definitely worth a Doctor's trip or not is to think back to when the injury occured. Could you put at least half your weight on the injury immediately after it occured. If not, you should probably see a Doctor. If so it may not be that bad but I wouldn't rule a Doctor visit out in that case either. If by tomorrow or the next day there isn't an improvement I would see the Doctor in that instance as well. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

With any injury that swells, the majority of the swelling occurs in the first 24 hours. During that time you need to apply ice and keep it elevated, or at least horizontal. In the case of an ankle, prop up your foot on a pillow, and put a bag of frozen peas around it. The peas form fit much better than ice packs.

After 24 hours start applying heat, to encourage increased blood flow and hurry the healing process along. Stay off the foot as much as you possibly can, and keep it out of shoes. The swelling in a joint sprain that is properly treated usually goes down within a week, bruising may take as long as 6 weeks to go away depending on how quickly you heal.

If it is really, really painful, you may have torn multiple support tendons. If the swelling isn't going down inside a day, or if the pain is really bad and the Motrin/Tylenol isn't helping, you should go to the doctor. They can fit you for a splint to support the ankle and put you on crutches for a while, at the least they can wrap it properly. You can also try wrapping the ankle yourself after 24 hours, using an elastic bandage. Wrap a figure 8, starting under your foot and coming up over the top of the foot and around the ankle. That way you pull the foot back into correct position and it helps stabilize the ankle. Don't do it until after 24 hours because the swelling that is going to happen will just make it get too tight and cut off circulation to your toes. Even with the foot wrapped, you need to keep off of it as much as possible. It is going to be really sore for the next few weeks, and the more you try to walk on it, the longer it will take to heal.

Answer 3

I badly sprained my ankle about 3 weeks ago. I was in a hurry going down the stairs, lost my balance and landed on a bad side of my left foot, causing my left ankle to be stretched going on the inside. The first 48 hours were excruciating and the pain was un-believable. I've never had a serious ankle injury before.

So I immediately treated it using the RICE method. The following day, the bruising and swelling were so horrible. I found out that I got a second degree sprain and immediately panicked after that. I had a football game on that week and it been looking forward to it because I've been training for rt. I had teammates that had similar injuries and it took them months to fully recover, some of them stopped playing altogether. So I kinda had a short-term depression because I can't imagine myself not being able to run and play sports anymore.

Because I was so desperate to recover again, I contacted a lot of people that I know who do sports and asked them if they had similar injuries. One friend of mine, from the boy's football team in my university, told me about H.E.M. Ankle Rehab. I got a copy 4 days after I got injured. I immediately read and followed what was instructed and felt improvement on the first day. I was able to walk a bit, but I was in pain.

A couple of days after that, the swelling and bruising were subsid-ing significantly and on the fourth day, I was walking comfortably again. Although I've had felt a bit of stiffness, I continued doing what was instructed. My sister was surprised that I have recovered this fast. I told her about this book and was shocked on how effective the procedures were. I'm just so happy that this book was shared to me and how effective it is.

Heal your ankle fully & fast?

Answer 4

hello a few web sites are very complicated however the fundamentals are take a soreness killer to begin of with and practice ice for an extended as you wish so long as you do 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off and under no circumstances practice ice straight and utilising the elastic bandage for the reason that that allows you to hold the swelling down as good wish u think larger quickly

Answer 5

The first 36 hours ice it, after that apply heat.
The swelling will go down as the inflamation recedes.
That depends on how bad the sprain was.
If you have any doubt that it is broken instead of sprained, have it xrayed.

Answer 6

If I keep it elevated, ice it, and wrap it... usually for me it goes down SIGNIFICANTLY in a day and a half. But it may take a week or two for it to be totally unswelled (but it will take 4 weeks to heal).

Answer 7

when the muscles deal with strained muscle fibers and the nerves no longer signal painful sensations

Answer 8

You should probably see a difference by tomorrow.

Answer 9

a while maybe a day or 2
try ice. and it will go down faster.

Answer 10

COULD BE WEEKS