Sprained Ankle Still Swollen After Nearly 2 Months

by Jackie

While running on an uneven trail I rolled my ankle.
I iced/elevated it immediately after, but the next few days I unfortunately did not take care of it like I was supposed to.
The next few days it became incredibly swollen and became bruised around the entire foot.

I went to the doctor about 5 days after the sprain happened and got x-rays.
Luckily, it was just a bad sprain and he said I would be able to get back into running slowly within a week.

This was about 2 months ago, and I have slowly gotten up to 2-3 miles every other day to every 2 days.
I wear an ankle support brace every time I run and try to ice it as much as possible, but it is still swollen around above the bone on the outside of my foot, and sometimes I feel some pain as well (kind of a throbbing feeling versus the stabbing pains I felt when I first sprained it).

Is this normal, or should I go to the doctor?


Answer by Dominique:


Jackie,
Thanks for your running injury question.

Sprained ankles and pulled muscles can hurt pretty badly. The pain and the swelling can stay for a long time, especially if you continue putting pressure on it. Walking and running are not helping the ankle.

Considering you have done the X-ray a broken bone is probably out of the question (you have to give the high-paid doctors some credit...), but maybe you had a small hairline fracture which did not show up or was not noticed.

When in doubt or experience prolonged periods of pain always go see a doctor.
I'd also recommend some extra weeks of rest for the ankle. If you decide to keep on running with it and to persevere (probably not the wisest thing) use plenty of ice after your runs and, if inflammation persists, you can take some ibuprofen.

Best of luck,
Dominique