Quick Rules For Faster Recovery From Foot Injuries

Most of us who are old enough to get into a "PG-Rated" movie have experienced the pain and indignity of a sprained ankle or foot. It often happens when we are rushing about or engaging in sports, and it's usually a simple matter of your body going east while your foot goes west. Ouch!

As podiatrists, sprains and pulled muscles are our most popular injury. It hurts and comes with a considerable amount of pain, so people are quicker to reach out for help. However, with a sprain or pulled muscle in the foot, by the time a patient gets to a doctor's office or Emergency Room, the opportunity to quickly lessen the pain and promote healing has passed.

What to do? Ice and heat therapies are the two most effective resources you have for a sprained ankle or foot. However, ice and heat are not "synonymous." You use each separately at different times and for different reasons. Using the wrong therapy can actually aggravate the situation.

Here is a simple rule of thumb for suddeninjuries: Ice first, heat later. The greatest amount of swelling occurs in the first minutes after afoot or ankle injury. Cold reduces swelling, so by quickly applyingice, you can significantly cut down on the recovery time.

If you or someone near you hurts their foot or ankle, here is what you need to do immediately to help:

1. Get to a safe place. If you went down while scurrying across a busy intersection on a yellow light, do what you must to get to the curb quickly. Likewise, if you came down "wrong" while snatching a rebound under the boards, pass the ball to a teammate and get out of traffic. You want your hurtankle to be your ONLY injury of the day.

2. Determine if you are injured. Particularlywith athletes who are in exceptional condition, muscles can stretchand recover quickly, thus the term "walk it off." For mostpeople, this might not be true. The best way to determine if youare injured is to sit on a chair or bench with your feet flat on thefloor. This should immediately take the pressure off your hurt foot or ankle and ease the pain a bit. Take a moment to collect yourself. Then see if it hurts to stand, walk or stretch your foot in several directions. The hallmark of a broken bone is strong and relentless pain. If the pain is more of a throbbing that increases and lessens depending on your movement, then likely you have a sprain.

3. Wiggle your toes. The quickest way to determine if you have broken one of the 26 bones in your foot or your ankle is this: Wiggle your toes. If you can't move all of them, and your pain is constant, then you need to proceed to the Emergency Room for professional medical treatment.

4. Ice the foot or ankle immediately. Thequicker you get ice or something cold on the injury, the lessswelling will occur and thus there will be a shorter recovery period. If you believe you have a sprain or twisted foot and are away fromhome, stop at the 7-Elevan for a bag of ice. Minutes count, sodon't wait until you get home. If nothing else is available, graba couple of cold sodas out of the machine and wrap them in a towel. In a pinch, paper towels wrung out in cold water work.

5. Elevate the foot. Whetheryou're sitting or lying down, prop your injured foot up so that itis above your heart. This decreases the amount of blood rushing tothe injury and therefore reduces the swelling.

"Icing" therapy should be done only withinthe first 48 hours of being injured. Whether a plastic bag with icecubes or – my favorite – a bag of frozen peas, carefully applythe cold to the injured foot. Start with 15 minutes on, then 15 off. (You don't want to add frostbite to your troubles!) After doingthis every so often over the course of two days, both the pain andthe swelling should lessen considerably. If they haven't, then youneed to see us.

Heat therapy should start on the third day ofthe recovery process. It is now helpful because – to put it in childliketerms – gentle heat sends the signal that "the emergency isover." The extra blood that rushed to the rescue can go home, andthe muscles and ligaments that tightened to protect you foot can nowrelax. It's a process.

As with ice, heat therapy should be done forshort, on-off periods of 15 minutes at a time. An electric heatingpad is best, but a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel also works. Don't use heat while you are sleeping, and continue to keep the legelevated whenever possible.

Crutches are helpful for two reasons: Mostimportant, they take the pressure off your injured foot whilewalking. Second, when you are out, they signal to those around youto stand clear and not bump you. (Best not to go down a secondtime.) For under $40, you can order crutches through your pharmacist(many Schnuck's pharmacists will do this), or most Walmart's nowcarry them.

Finally, gently wrapping the injured ankle orfoot in an ACE bandage is a good thing. The compression from the ACEbandage protects your foot from re-injury. However, when home, takethe bandage off so blood can circulate freely.

Let me emphasize that this "ice first, heatlater" recipe is only for sudden sprained ankles or a pulled muscleor ligament in the foot. Other body injuries, like a pulled backmuscle, have a different protocol. Chronic conditions, like shinsplints, also have a different use for ice and heat. We'll addressthose challenges in another blog.

If your seemingly simple sprain continues toseriously hurt after 48 hours, please call us at the Snyder-StuartPodiatric Center nearest you and we'll set up an appointmentquickly.