just got myself a grade 2 ankle sprain. second one in a year, same ankle. ankle never felt normal after the first one but was still able to run comfortablly on it on all terrain after a long while about 6 mo. doctor didnt do any xray or mri. just felt it and said I partially tore two ligaments and that I need a brace, physical therapy and to ease back into it. he thinks a couple weeks I should be good to go.
Im actually contemplating never running on trails again because I dont want to destroy my ankle anymore than I have. Just wondering if anyone thinks I should push for an MRI or am i just being paranoid. horror stories are ok. Is it possible to get my ankle back to normal with alot of pt?
sorry to hear that. I’m going on 4 weeks from a grade 2 sprain. I had an MRI done and nothing they didn’t tell me already. I eased back into running (took about 10 days off from running totally). I have to wear shoes all the time now because when I stand/walk barefoot my foot rolls in and strains it again.
Did an 11 mile run yesterday w/o any pain, just slightly sore this AM.
MRI is completely unnecessary. Besides what is it going to tell you, you sprained an ankle? You already know that, you were there. Welcome to the club of repeat offenders of ankle spraining. As for get it normal, define normal. Will it be completely 100% as strong as before your sprain? If that is your definition of normal then the answer is no. If your running on a lot of rooty, and rocky trails there is a high likelyhood of inevitable inversion sprains. Once you sprain it once you will most likely sprain it again, and possibly again etc…
PT will help with regaining strength and balance/proprioception but there is no way to guarantee you won’t sprain it down the road. Basically what i’m saying is they heal and usually heal reasonably well but once these ligaments occur damage they never quite get back to good as new. There are a lot of people out there with multiple ankle sprains myself included that are pain and symptom free until they sprain it again. Once it’s healed and your pain free your good to go run, jump, kick whatever you please without much in the way of long term damage. Very few people ever require surgical repair for sprains. We have so many ligaments on the lateral side of our foot and ankle we can live without a couple of them, you will just have a little instability. It’s all part of being an athlete. You play and pay sometimes. If you arrive at the end with a pristine well preserved body it means you didn’t use your body like you were supposed to. We get injured we heal, we get injured again, we heal again. Our bodies are pretty good healing machines.
… We have so many ligaments on the lateral side of our foot and ankle we can live without a couple of them, you will just have a little instability. …
? Actually there are 3 (Three). (1) The weak, fan shaped, extra-capsular anterior talofibular the (2) intra-capsular, cord-like calcaneofibular and the (3) less often injured posterior talofibular ligament.
The anterior inferior tib-fib lig and or syndesmotic membrane/ligament is not on the lateral side.
I rolled my ankle in late FEB, trashed it. Wore a brace, thought I was good, started up again after 10 days. 2 months later, it’s business as usual: 30+ MPW, long runs of 10-12 mi, etc. Rolled it again on flat ground. This time (ER visit), it was a torn ATF and an avulsion fracture… or was some of it left over from last time? 2+ months later, and its returning to strength the right way. The providers here are great, and have taught me a lot:
Don’t push too hard- LET IT HEAL
No really, just bike and water run.
PT- this is the person who might just find the root of your problems. My entire R leg was tight, altering my stride (not full pronation, so it inverts, and breaks…). Gluteal muscles and core are weak. I can pick up a ton of weight on 2 feet, but that counts for nothing- if you are unstable, you’ll get hurt. If it wasn’t the ankle, the IT band would have tightened up and caused knee pain, or maybe my lower back would have tensed up.
PT again- get you flexibility and balance back!! If you aren’t tight, your body will flex and bend as it’s supposed to- as in, you can step on a root funny and have it be no big deal. If things higher up are tight, it will affect how the lower portions move- remember how my whole mess started? Granted, that ankle will forever be a bit less, but watch where you step and be disciplined about strengthening your supporting muscles and you may avoid another one.
Learn to tape, and do it when you trail run.
Come back slow- better that recovery take another 2 weeks than you reinjure it and sit out the rest of the year, right?
OK so I used the “need” part a little losely. It’s just a lot of us truely do have some pretty jacked up ATFL’s going on and am doing pretty well with it. I’m certain that anyone that has had 2+ moderate to severe ankle sprains don’t exactly have pristine ligamentous structures on the lateral aspect of the ankle. I have sprained my right ankle numerous times as a teenager playing soccer and skateboarding and am pain free in general. I do have some instability and really need to watch myself on trails. It does not however limit my overall running volume. So yes we need them but my point was pretty much any athlete has had a few good sprains in our day and these ligamnets aren’t perfect. We heal pretty well though.
You guys and your measly inversion ankle sprains, lol… Until you have to deal with an extremely painful, swollen, eversion ankle sprain, that takes forever to heal, you have no idea. I routinely sprained my ankle in high school during CC season and track season on our awesome state of the art dirt track and didn’t think much of it at the time. That was until I thought I would never walk again after rolling my ankle on an elevated concrete Basketball court one day and received an eversion ankle sprain/high ankle sprain. I ended up putting a rocket sock on it and playing in the Y-league game the next day=stupid, idiot… I was spraining my ankle pretty much every time I played BB after that for a little of a year and had to wear a brace just to go for a run on the sidewalk or treadmill.
Stopped playing BB about 3 years ago and concentrated on tri’s, doing the balance board and some ankle strengthening stuff and running on the grass besides sidewalks whenever possible now, which has helped out a ton. I have a crapload of scar tissue that is clearly visible on the ankle but no flexability issues or anything wrong with it now. It is super flexible now (too much, obviously) but whenever I roll it now, just like in HS, it is fine because it is stronger now.
I would say that running on dirt and grass can only help you (after it has healed properly)