What should I do about my sprained/twisted/hurt ankle?

Question

I landed it on it's side while playing basketball a month back, and it's been prone to getting hurt a lot now.

What should I do for it?

Answer 1

1. Stop playing basketball for at least a month, probably closer to 2 months. This will suck. But you need to properly rehab the ankle until you regain full strength in it.

2. This is a list of exercises that you will need to do:
http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sprainsstrains/a/anklesprain_3.htm

Partially from the above:
What if the pain continues?
The most common cause of persistent pain following an ankle sprain is known as incomplete rehabilitation. This means that patients either don't complete the right type of rehabilitation, or they don't progress properly (i.e. too fast or too slow). If you feel that your progress is not going along properly, ensure you seek advice. Talk to your doctor, work with a physical therapist, seek proper advice!

3. Once you feel fully stable, don't push it by playing basketball. Stretch before every exercise. Get at least to the point where you can run on it. Then see if you can do lateral side to side push off on it.

Slow and steady is the only way to go on rehab. It sucks. Its maddening, but if you rush it, and try to hard, you will cause more damage and have to sit out even longer.

4. Once you are comfortable putting weight on it in all directions, and feel with 95% confident on it, then get back to basketball. When you first start playing, mentally you will hold yourself back, but as your confidence returns, you will play like nothing happend.

Don't forget to stretch before playing though. That is the fastest way to get reinjured.

Answer 2

what you really need to do is strengthen the tendons and ligaments in your ankle so you can play basketball again and if you do your exercises just for the ankle then within in the next two weeks you can play again. the best way to get full range of motion in your ankle is to do some ABCs with it. it might feel a little uncomfortable at first but after you do it a few times it will feel alot better. another thing you can do is one legged squats while balancing on the injured foot. that will definately strengthen the ankle and also work the muscles around it. make sure to do some ice and heat to flush out the swelling in your ankle since the blood is probably draining to the bottom of your foot so it might look like you have a bruise on the bottom of your foot. as of now just stay off of it for like a few days and always ice for 15 minutes within every hour

Answer 3

Stop playing basketball and let it heal. Support it with an ankle bandage.

Answer 4

Ice it but raise it when icing it !!!
support it by using an ankle bandage !!!
Don't forget to stop play any sports until it heals!!!!
I hope it heals soon!!!

Answer 5

Read http://www.helium.com/tm/148271 and fix it.