A swollen ankle is most commonly a symptom of a sprain, which has affected the surrounding ligaments, connective tissue and supporting muscles. As long as you don’t have any other underlying medical conditions, and you’ve sustained an injury lately, the two almost always go hand-in-hand. Generally speaking, as the severity of a sprain increases, so does the swelling.
While ankle sprains may seem simple enough, they truly require proper, dedicated attention, especially when they first happen. The body does it’s best to heal and rebind your ligaments for you, but left untreated, sprained ankles are notorious for being prone to future injury and pain. Before we dive into that however, let’s learn a little more about swelling.
Why Do Ankles Swell After Injury?
The actual swelling of your ankle is a combination of a few different natural functions of your body. While bruising can also occur, it mainly depends on your own individual body, and the severity of your injury. The swelling is a natural form of edema that occurs when a specific body part is injured, or undergoes some sort of trauma. (In this case, the ankle.)
To a degree, this accumulation of serous fluid and formation of excessive fibrous tissue is beneficial, but only for a short amount of time. This natural reactive process generally leads to tightness and limited mobility within the ankle joint, resulting in a much longer recovery period.
What Should I Do First?
While it isn’t possible for us to fully comprehend your sprain, the majority of sprained ankles can be treated at home with proactive care, ice, stretching, exercises and other forms of rehabilitation. Using the right techniques, strategies and exercises is absolutely vital though. This is why we recommend taking advantage of our step-by-step, seven day rehabilitation system.
However, to start off, our first order of business is to get the swelling in your ankle down. As we mentioned above, this excessive accumulation of fluid and fibrous material is only beneficial for a short amount of time. Once your body has gone through the process, it’s vitally important to relieve the swelling and begin the healing process.
