You missed a step while bringing up the laundry or miscalculated the curb’s height as you hurried across the street. It’s easy to do. Now you’re icing your ankle and hoping it’s “just a sprain.” Sprains can have their own complications, however, if not properly treated.
Errol Gindi, DPM, provides thoughtful, whole-patient care to patients who suffer from ankle sprains just once, or repeatedly. He and the rest of our team are invested in not only addressing your sprain, but providing preventive care so your condition doesn’t morph into an instability issue.
Your post-sprain symptoms may point to a mild or severe injury. If you have a light sprain, the damage isn’t too bad; a bad sprain is marked by considerable pain from stretched or torn ligaments, bruising, swelling, and an inability to put weight on your ankle.
Often, you can treat a mild sprain yourself with the RICE method:
These steps lower swelling and ease your pain. If your sprain is sports-related or you’ve suffered repeated sprains, however, Dr. Gindi might recommend surgery.
If your ankle is a casualty of multiple sprains or you haven’t healed properly from a bad sprain, your condition can snowball into a chronic ankle instability problem. Your ankle might buckle with no warning, resulting in another sprain, or worse.
One issue leads to another and the permanent instability-related muscle pain and weakness affect your balance, which in turn impacts your overall health and quality of life. It’s really no way to live.
If you feel like you may be at risk for ankle instability or are already suffering from it, Dr. Gindi is the man to see. He creates a customized preventive plan for you that includes proven strategies to increase strength and flexibility in both your feet and ankles. Such strategies include:
Some examples of activities that build better balance include tai chi and yoga, as does simply gently shifting your weight from side to side on a regular basis.
Dr. Gindi believes in educating his patients and caring for them with equal measures of clinical expertise and heart. Take advantage of his nearly four decades of practicing podiatry by calling our office for a consultation or simply booking an appointment through our online portal.
