Dealing with a severe ankle sprain

Four weeks yesterday I seriously sprained my ankle. Trust me to do such a thing whilst trying to perform an exercise to build reaction and strength in the muscles surrounding the ankle joint! *face palm* It was totally my fault and not something I will do again!

Having had a very exciting meeting I wasn’t keeping track of the time and consequently had to race (within the speed limits) to reach that evenings rugby clinic. Still buzzing from the meeting and disappointed at myself for not keeping track of the time I wasn’t focused sufficiently to perform a complex exercise (I got caught up in a 12-inch hurdle whilst performing lateral ankle hops.) You live and learn eh! Good thing I wasn’t coaching a large group at the time!

At first I was in so much pain and worried as I couldn’t move my foot. (I hadn’t sprained my ankle since I was in primary school so the pain felt very alien). Thankfully my boyfriend Richard was there training with me and able to calm me down and carry me back inside. Having had a great number of injuries himself, Richard took on the role of therapist and could assess my ankle without much prompting from me (A sports therapist in the making perhaps?)! The injury didn’t seem too severe in that nothing was broken but instead a lot of soft tissue damage had been done. I’d fallen into a plantarflexion/inversion position so a lot of anterior structures had been damaged. I placed it at a severe grade 2 injury, and hobbled my way home for immediate treatment.

Immediate swelling

Over the next few hours/days the ankle swelled up quite significantly and bruising of a beautiful violet blue developed! I used the R.I.C.E protocol of rest, ice, compression and elevation for a good 10 days straight, and tried to keep off my feet as much as possible. This admittedly wasn’t as much as I ideally would have since my parents were visiting and I wished to show them around rather than be stuck indoors, but I survived!

Richard applying Kinesio Tape

Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation

The swelling was pretty significant!

In addition to using a crepe bandage with horse-shoe padding to encourage a greater decrease in swelling, I used Kinesio Tape to help lymphatic drainage. Again Richard put his therapist skills to good use! The effects of this tape were most evident in the bruising, where on removal you could see where the tape had once laid (small thin .5cm lines no longer the colour of the bruising).

I had some beautiful bruising!

In the weeks prior to this injury, training had been going well and so this caused me the most frustration. However I have managed to adjust my training accordingly. For the first week I laid off training legs completely, only concentrating on my upper body – fun and frustrating at the same time. Slowly but surely I have gradually been working the ankle through proprioceptive work on the ground and then on un-even surfaces. At 14 days the ankle was still too painful to perform general resistance work with therabands so I stopped and moved on. Listening to your body following an injury is key to progress and not regress. I have finally managed to get back squatting by performing front squats as this doesn’t cause any pain at the ankle. Back squats however are another matter. I tried this exercise first, but found that my ankle was uncomfortable and consequently changed my form. I wasn’t having that! So I tried loading from the front i.e. front squats. Flexible training at its best!

Rehabilitation begins!

Thank you to Chris Rennison-Rae for allowing me to change the nature of our recent shoots due to the injury. Dancing on pointe and jumping around are not ideal with a poorly ankle! And I think the alternative photos turned out quite nicely!

You can see my swollen ankle if you look closely!

Four weeks in and the swelling has almost disappeared but what remains seems to be within the joint itself. Actively placing the foot in demi-point and pointing the toes/ankle is now possible. I am also able to jog without pain but springing off one foot is not yet comfortable. With swelling still present in the joint I am continuing to follow the R.I.C.E protocol and hope that I can up my rehabilitation soon. I expect it to take another 2 weeks to fully recover. Then I think I might try my hand at some running along our beautiful coastline.  

 - E