How long should a sprained ankle take to heal?

Question

I sprained my ankle about 10 months ago. At the time it did hurt and I could barely walk on it. However, I wrapped it up and within a day I could easily walk on it. I might not have used ice or elevated it as much as I could have. And recently I noticed that the sprained ankle is a little inflamed even now. It never hurts and I exercise and walk on it, etc. However, since I noticed this I am going to treat it like an initial sprain, ice, elevation, etc. Is this what I should be doing? Does anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks :)

Answer 1

You're too little too late. All injuries are to be treated with RICE: Rest, ice, compression,elevation. Rest being the most important. I've sprained my ankle (same one) twice now, and the second one was because of the first one. When you sprain something, the tendons/muscles in that area are violently pulled and ripped.This is why you can't walk, and why the area gets inflammed.However, the body has an amazing recovery system, so shortly there after you feel fine to walk.Then, you injury yourself again, and again and again. Your ankle is now chronicly weak and loose. You need to either see a doctor to get rehabilitated or do exercises that I was told to do. With your foot flat on the ground,push with the inside of your foot outward. You should feel the muscle on the side and front of your calf flex.This is the muscle that holds the ankle in place. Good luck!

Answer 2

I skateboard so i have rolled and sprained my ankle many times. I would advise to rest it, elevate it, and ice it. Depending on how bad you hurt it the longer or shorter it will take to heal. There is really no way to tell how long it will be until it heals. I've had some that felt much better the next to and some that took around 2 weeks to get better. It really just depends on the injury and how much you do for it. I would also recommend buying an ankle brace

Answer 3

You probably did more than sprain your ankle - you either tore a ligament, ruptured a tendon, or broke a bone. A sprain usually takes about 2 weeks to heal, sometimes a little longer.

The treatment you are following is the correct thing to do to relieve inflammation; however, you need to get an MRI and maybe an x-ray to see what you actually did to your ankle. There's a good chance that this problem won't go away without surgery.

Answer 4

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 5

It sounds much more like you have a fracture. A sprain, with icing and elevation, should be gone in two weeks.

You need to have it Xrayed to see why you are still having pain.

The bad new is that once you injure a joint, autoimmune disorder will attack that joint easily. The inflammation (the heat you feel) is a sign of autoimmune disorder. Take IBUPROFEN as the label says every 4 or 6 hours. It will help with the swelling and pain and inflammation.

If you are walking on it, use a very secure ankle wrap ...

Good Luck.

Answer 6

It depends how bad you sprained it. If it is bad then it can take up to 4 weeks. If it was a mild one then up to 2 weeks.It looks like you might have pulled a tendon. A tendon that is pulled that doesn't heal right can always become inflammed. I would talk to a doctor about it. He/she would know more.

Relax and stay off of it as much as possible. Use Heat/ cold wraps and elevate.

Answer 7

I have sprianed my about 12 times in my life on the left side, each time it spraigns easier and easier snce I was 9, now I'm 33 and just spraigned it again. I ride motocross so I wear a lace up brace all the time when I exercise or play sports just to be on the safe side but it does happen when I am not wearing it. Going 6 months curretly and it's still stiff and slightly swollen some... just have to go easy and watch where ya step, keep up some good exercise on it just not too strenous

Answer 8

It depends on your age, for a 20 yr.old probably 3 weeks, for a 60 year old 6 to 9 months.

Answer 9

Had it happened twice, and both times it took almost a year before it felt like the ankle had returned to "normal".

Answer 10

Right. If older, takes more than a month or two unfortunately.