A sprained joint is defined as a ligament that has been stretched way beyond its limits and becomes torn up. Having a sprained joint is definitely something that can cause a serious disruption in your life. It can have a serious impact on your mobility, as it's often hard to put weight on the sprained area. You can take measures to mitigate the pain, but you also need to take measures to help it heal.
Control Pain and Inflammation
It's a tremendous understatement to say that controlling pain and inflammation in your sprained ankle is an important step to getting your life back. A couple of things you should do include keeping the affected area elevated, immobilizing the area with a brace, applying ice packs to the affected area, using compression bandages, and considering painkillers if the sprain is fairly severe. Of course, once you get over the worst parts of the initial injury, you can start doing rehabilitation exercises to help the sprain disappear entirely. If you have a mild sprain, you'll usually be able to put weight on the affected area after about one week. A severe strain will often entail several steps and could include a couple of months of treatment.
RICE
If you haven’t heard of the RICE method of injury treatment, then it's something you should seriously look into if you have a sprained ankle. Injuries such as ankle sprains can be treated with the RICE method. RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Of course, the first method is to rest. If you're having severe pain, that's the body’s signal to stop what you're doing. Ideally, you should rest for two days, as this will help to avoid making the injuries worse and also prevent bruising. Ice is the next step, and you should apply ice as often as possible the first two days to prevent further swelling. Compression is also another means to prevent swelling, and elevation will help to eliminate throbbing and significantly reduce any internal bleeding.
Physiotherapy
This treatment method isn't something you can do right away; however, it will aid in your recovery. If you have a torn or partially torn ligament, it will do you some good to do strengthening and mobilization exercises. This type of physiotherapy has often been shown to help patients get on their feet much faster than others. There's no question that having a sprain can be a difficult proposition. However, following these treatment plans and simply taking it one day at a time will help you to overcome this injury. Impatience can slow recovery or even make your condition worse; going slow and listening to your body will get you back on track in no time.
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