How to Treat an Ankle Injury

Even the strongest and most careful among us will get injured at some point in time. One of the most common injuries that people suffer is an injury to an ankle. This type of injury is incredibly painful, though can be cured fairly easily. If you do not want to see a doctor, follow the steps below to learn how to treat an ankle injury at home.

Instructions

• 1

  From the moment that you realize that you have received an ankle injury, it is very important to elevate it as fast as possible. Ankles swell up very quickly and then can make the injury even harder to care for. Sit in a chair or lie down on your back with your foot propped up on a higher surface.

• 2

  Once you have put your foot in an elevated position it is time to apply ice on the injury. Ice will help to keep the swelling down and will also ease the pain in your ankle, though usually placing a bag of ice or an ice pack on the freshly injured ankle will itself be uncomfortable.

• 3

  Taking medication such as Advil will keep the injury from continuing to hurt as badly and it will also decrease swelling and soreness later. Be careful not to take too many pills; The pain will be reduced enough to be bearable with only one or two pills.

• 4

  Nothing can hurt you more than continuing to do things on an injured ankle. This can worsen the injury into a break or make the healing process longer and harder. Use the opportunity when you are injured to have other people do things for you. It may seem unnecessary, but an injury such as this is serious and really needs to be taken care of properly. Avoid putting weight on an ankle injury.

• 5

  If you must move about and do some activity on your injured ankle, then you need a brace to protect it from further injury, to stabilize it and prevent from moving or bending the joint. This also helps control pain. A medical brace is probably the best way to manage this, though you can use an ace bandage effectively as well.

• 6

  Ease yourself back into activity. Once your injury has healed, or in other words you don’t feel pain when you press directly on the injury, and it is time for you to resume all of your activities, you need to remember not to overexert yourself and to take it slowly. Your weakened ankle needs to rebuild its strength. If you push too hard on it immediately after the injury, another more serious injury could result.