Seriously fucked up ankle

Thursday morning, during basketball practice, I went up for a rebound, and fell with my right ankle on somoene else’s foot. Needless to say, I rolled my ankle pretty badly. This isn’t the first time- I broke the same ankle two years ago (exactly, to the day. How ironic), and I’ve been spraining it minorly at least 3 times a year since. Now I wised up, and decided to get some treatment. I put ice on it right away, and later that evening I got it xrayed, and it turns out that is not broken. The following day I got it looked at by a sports physiotherapist, and she said that it’s a level 2 sprain (does that mean anything to you in America?), and that I tore between 30-50% of the ligaments in my ankle. My first treatment was like this: I received electronic stimulation for about 25 minutes, two kinds. One was to help ease the swelling, and the other to help ease the pain. She kept telling me that I should feel a little tingling in my ankle, but I really couldn’t feel anything until she turned it up to a very high setting, which was supposed to make me feel very uncomfortable, but it just felt a little tingly. From this, and from other things, she concluded that I had badly damaged many of the nerves. Anyway, after the electronic stimulation, she massaged onto my ankle a topical cream, then put ice on it. Finally, she wrapped it up with a bandage. Today, sunday noon, I took it off (as instructed) and put on a supportive sock laced with silicone on it. I had to go to work for an hour this afternoon, and after that I went to lift, which leads me to one of my questions. Is it ok to lift as long as I do everything lying down or sitting up, and attempting to keep my leg elevated? The only thing I did standing up today was pull-ups, 3 sets, and i was in the air anyway, so I don’t think I put too much pressure on my ankle. When I got home (an hour ago), I immediately iced my ankle, and now its turned into all kinds of pretty colors (on both sides). Its blue, green, yellow, purple… I was given some stretching and exercises to do for my ankle, which I did before I left, and they seem to have helped. (When I did these, my ankle was not all colorful. I think that all the walking caused it.) I am supposed to do these exercises, (stretching, light resistance, and balancing), until my next meeting with her. If anyone can critique this program, and possibly offer me any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. I’m just sick of messing up my ankle every couple of months.

You need ART on the peroneal muscle group and probably other lower extremity muscles and possibly various ankle ligaments. ART diagnosis is hands on.
A grade two sprain is a partial tear of the ligaments, not good, but not to bad. It shouldn’t require surgery, for instance.
I’m sure I would find some myofascial restrictions in the ares I listed above. This is affecting your ankle strength, flexibility, and proprioception. This in turn will cause the old “weak ankle” syndrome.

I don’t think ART really is the way to go on this one. Anyway, back about your level question. There are 3 levels 1-3. And subdivisions in the first. A 1- is a very minor one. Like the types you probably run out playing basketball. It takes you a few minutes but your fine. A 1+ is kinda bad. It might cause you to take a seat for the day and a litte swelling goes on. Anything massive that cause big noticable swelling and pain is a Grade II and all those are only ligament damage. A Grade III is when you seperate the bones in your foot. I’ve never had one of these and am not sure what to do. But it probably sucks real bad. Make sure to do all your therapy things. Remember RICE and the colors are the blood settling out of your ankle. It’s a very good things. You want it to change to a dark blue bruised color and then back to a regular color as soon as possible. You should probably stay off youir ankle as much as possible. At this stage any possible benefits from lifting would probably be outweighed by the potential damage to your ankle. Just take a rest week to let it heal. Make sure to do your Theraband. I’m sure you know what that is. If not… Find a new trainer. After your ankle is rehabbed… Spend around 5 min a day on each ankle. No one ever does this and this is why they keep getting injured. Myself included. It doesn’t take long spend some time strengthing your ankle everyday and it’ll be fine. Glad I could offer some advice and hope everything works out.

Your injury is very common amoung athletes. As irondoc put it, a level II sprain is where you have partially torn your ligaments. You shoul be back a about 100% if you rehab it CORRECTLY! I argree that ART will work, but you most importantly need to have you ankle reset by a chiropractor! One which has extensive experiance with athletes and who practices ART. You should be back in business in about 2-6 weeks, depending on your rehab and your ability to recover. I suggest you stay away from lower body training (excluding you rehab exercises) until you recover. Hope this helps. Here’s a helpful link … Log In ‹ Spectrum Orthopaedics — WordPress

Bony alignment is important, but repeated ankle sprains have damage in the peroneal group which limit normal movement and balance. The swelling needs to be treated first. Usually within one week I can start with ART. Most of my basketball players are playing in one to two weeks after the start of the ART. I normally have to concentrate on the actual sweeling for a few days to week. When yu are trained in ART, working on bruised tissue is possible, but you should wait until the color starts to lighten.
Art does have treatment protocols for ankle ligaments along with muscles. There are approximately 100 treatment protocols for the lower extremity. These cover the hip region to the foot. Some commonly injured ares that almost no one looks at in an ankle sprain are the ankle retinaculums, peroneal group, popliteus, and tibialis anterior. I had great success with ART on ankle sprains, with three weeks the longest time off from their activity.

No one’s mentioned nutritional support yet, so I will: Wobenzym. Look it up (there’s a thread or two), get some and start taking it in conjunction with all the therapies that’ve been receommended.

First, thanks for the replies everyone. Today, (monday afternoon), the swelling has gone down greatly, there’s only a little left on the outside part of my ankle, where the round bone sticks out. It is now only purple and blue, so that’s ok. About ART- I would definately think about it, but I doubt that it’s available in Israel. i’ll check into it.
Garett- Yes, of course I’m doing theraband. What do you mean by spending around 5 minutes on each ankle? You mean just balancing on one foot? Billy- Thanks for the website, I checked it out, and my therapist has given me a few of those exercises. The other ones I just can’t do yet, I believe I’ll have them added on as my ability increases. Char-dawg- thanks for the advice, I’ll see if I can find any of that. Finally, how bad do you think it would be for my ankle If I instructed at a camp between 08-13? Today was my first day, and even though I am actually stading up or walking around for an hour and a half at the most, it was killing me by the end of the day. I iced it as soon as I got home (I live a 3 minute walk from the camp), and now it feels fine. You think I can continue working as long as I sit or lie down when I can? Thanks again.

When you get all better, spend about 5-10 doing the Theraband or whatever type of rehab exercise you want on each ankle. It should prevent injuries like you have from happening again. And make sure to ice it as often as you can. If you can get some ice at camp. Take a break for 20 min and slap it on there.

I’m not sure where you are, but if you can find a good doctor who does prolotherapy, you are golden. This treatment would totally cure your chronic ankle problem. Look up prolotherapy in a search engine. I’ve had it done many times and it is head and shoulders above any other treatment out there. Good luck