We’ve all sprained our ankle at one point or another, and we generally view these sprains as a relatively short-term injury. Many people can hobble or walk on a sprained ankle minutes, hours or days after the injury, and we tend to expect the recovery process to continue to run its course until the injury is an afterthought.
Unfortunately for many, what they assumed was just a short-term injury ends up continuing to bother them months down the road. Why is this the case, and more importantly, how can you overcome ankle sprain symptoms that have persisted for months? We explain how to overcome lingering ankle sprain symptoms in today’s blog.
Why Do Ankle Sprain Symptoms Persist?
Ankle sprains, especially very minor ones, can sometimes heal on their own without much effort from the individual who suffered the sprain. These sprains have have healed without direct treatment efforts, but that doesn’t mean that you can always just push through an ankle sprain and eventually you’ll feel back to normal. For more moderate and severe sprains, you’re not going to be able to “walk it off” and feel better a few days later.
In these more severe sprains, the ankle ligaments that provide support to your ankle joint are damaged. This makes it much harder for them to do their job effectively. If these ligaments remain weak, you may notice a host of symptoms including general discomfort, pain, instability or looseness in the ankle, especially during movement or athletic activities. Even though the inflammation, swelling and soft tissue tearing that is present shortly after the injury have subsided, the ligaments have been structurally compromised because of the tearing and healing. If you don’t recognize this damage and work to counteract it, it shouldn’t be surprising that symptoms persist months after a sprain.
Simply put, it’s not that your body hasn’t worked to address the sprain internally, it’s that you’re not providing the additional treatment needed to help your body get back to a pre-injury level of fitness. You need to address this ankle ligament weakening in order to put your symptoms in the past for good.
Overcoming Persistent Ankle Sprain Symptoms
Even though you may not have treated your ankle sprain perfectly following its onset, it’s never too late to pursue active treatment and work to reduce or eliminate persistent symptoms. In many instances, your best move in these cases is to connect with a foot and ankle specialist in your area. Dr. Silverman would be more than happy to examine your ankle and really get to the bottom of your symptoms. Oftentimes ligament weakening is a factor, but if the injury has affected your gait or how stress is dispersed on your foot, additional treatments may be warranted.
In many instances, persistent ankle sprain symptoms can be effectively managed with weeks of targeted physical therapy. PT will strengthen the injured ligaments and ensure they can adequately handle the stress you throw at it, but restoring strength isn’t the only benefit of physical therapy. It will also work to restore range of motion, flexibility, balance and confidence in your ankle, ensuring you can get back to doing all the activities you enjoyed prior to your injury.
Other treatments that may prove helpful alongside physical therapy include:
- Orthotic shoe inserts
- Low-impact exercise
- Heating pads
- Anti-inflammatory medication
Don’t accept that ankle discomfort is your “new normal” as a result of a lingering ankle sprain injury. Attack the problem head on with the help of a foot specialist like Dr. Silverman and get back to all your favorite physical activities. For more information, reach out to Dr. Silverman by filling out this contact form.