How to take care of a twisted/sprained ankle!

Hey everyone!

Today I was thinking about how many people get hurt when they are our playing sports or riding thier bikes or even just walking around in the house! You can twist and roll your ankle anywhere and I think I have done it just about everywhere (I'm so clumsy!).

Well I thought that I'd tell you the easiest and best way to take care of it, without having to sit in the doctors office for hours on end just for him to tell you the same thing I'm about to. Might save you some time and get you more time to be on Mene racking up the coins to buy that cool or cute new outfit! Yay!

So first off, if you twist your ankle, you're going to want to stay off of it if possible. Get to a place where you can sit down and put some ice on it for a few minutes. Initially when you roll your ankle, the fluid that surounds the joint is released, this causes the swelling and the swelling causes the pain. So the best way to nip that whole thing in the butt is to help the swelling! The ice slows the blood that rushes to the area and in turn slows down the swelling. Yay! Go ice!

The next thing you are going to want to do, which will probably happen later on when you have more time is to apply the RICE treatment. No, that doesn't mean you need to stick your foot in a bag of rice... let me break it down for you:

R-Rest
I-Ice
C-Compression
E-Elevation

These are the four principles in joint care that should be applied that night, or if you get the rest of the day off, then you can do it sooner.

R-Rest. Stay off your foot! Be lazy for a night. Sit on your couch and if you need something, have someone bring it to you. If you want to go all out and really annoy people in the process, you can get a little bell and ring it each time you need something. But there's really no need to be THAT annoying!

I-Ice. I already started with the ice but now that you really have time you can do it better! Take a bag of crushed ice and put it on the injured ankle. You are going to want to make sure that you put something between the ice and your flesh, or it could burn you, yes, burn. It's called an ice burn, and it would really suck! OK! You are going to leave the ice on for about 10 minutes but no longer than 15. Any more than that and it won't really make a big difference, your foot will just get really cold.

C-Compression. This is the best part and really makes your ankle feel great, if you do it correctly! What you'll need is a 2' or 3' ACE wrap. If you have someone in your house that knows how to wrap, then let them do it. If not, take a quick look at this. I'll try to explain in as few words possible ><;

Start by placing the wrap on the outside of your leg, you are going to roll it from the outside, in. Make sure to overlap it at least once so that it will hold it in place. Next is the some-what tricky part. When you wrap it around and you are on the inside of your leg, take it down so that it goes under the arch of your foot and comes back up on the other side. Don't twist it though! When it's on the other side of your foot, which would be the outside of it, wrap back over the top of your foot and around to the inside of your leg moving in an outward motion. (Holy crap that's complicated!) Basically, you are going to be making a figure '8', alternating between going around your ankle and under your foot. Don't wrap it too tight though. It should be supportive, but it should NOT cut off circulation. If your toes start to go numb, take it off!

E-Elevation. After your foot is wrapped and you are in position for some relaxing, take a pillow and prop it under the injured ankle. This will stop any extra blood from rushing to the area. It's like when a fight breaks out in school, everyone rushes around to see what's going on... your blood does the same thing. Think of your rolled ankle as a fight, lol.

Alright! This isn't included in the RICE but it's a good idea to take some sort of anti-inflamatory medicine, such as Ibuprofen. This will controll the swelling and by doing that, take care of the pain! Have someone help you with the correct dosage. An adult shouldn't have more than 100mg in thier system per hour.

Well, after that, just take it easy on the ankle for a few days. It actually takes about 3 weeks to be fully healed from an injury, but you should be able to walk on it like normal after a little pampering. Hope you all stay well, and watch your step!

OMG. Sorry this was so long! :shock: