Please help! Should I go to a chiropractor for my ankle injury?
I’m a ballet dancer and 2 and a half weeks ago I was stepping down of a step and rolled over the outside of my ankle. It popped when I fell and was really really really swollen. After that, I was on Christmas break and was walking on it a lot. The swelling would go down but by the end of the day my ankle was a giant marshmallow. I just started dancing 8 hour days on Monday and it hurts my ankle to point my food and bend my knee. It’s still really swollen. Sometimes it feels like my ankle needs to pop. I’m thinking maybe it got misaligned when I fell and maybe I should get an adjustment. I’ve been elevating it when I can, taking Advil, and icing and heating it. Do you think it would hurt my ankle to get an adjustment or help it? The swelling goes down but if i’ve been standing on it for a while it’s completely swollen. Any theories on what is wrong with it exactly and any suggestions to make it better? Thank you!
I’ve also been soaking it in epsom salts and just started wraping it in an Ace bandage.
It doesn’t feel like its fractured. I think it would hurt more. When it’s not as swollen it doesn’t hurt much. It hurts when it’s swollen and I’m moving it past it’s range of comfortable movement. I don’t really know how a fracture would feel. Would I be in more pain if it was a fracture? What are signs that it’s a fracture?
June 8th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
First of all, if there is swelling in your ankle DO NOT HEAT IT!!! this will only increase the swelling. Secondly, it sounds like it could be an ankle sprain and occasionally when you sprain your ankle, you also partially dislocate one of your tarsal bones (i can’t remember which one specifically). I would recommend going to the doctor to get an x-ray to make sure nothing is broken or dislocated. If it is dislocated, a specialist can put it back in place. I would recommend a sports medicine doctor or a foot specialist though, not a chiropractor. If the sprain is bad enough, the doctor may also recommend some sort of physical therapy.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I think you should go to a hospital first and let them take an x-ray or CT scan to see if it’s fractured. A lot of times its difficult to tell a severe ankle sprain from an fracture, and sometimes you can even still walk on it and everything while its fractured, so that’s a possiblity You don’t want a chiropractor bending it more unless you’ve gotten doctor confirmation that it’s only a sprain. In that case things like muscle exercises are helpful to heal sprains faster and properly so the chiropractor could possibly help you with that – ask your doctor what he thinks of you seeing a chiropractor while you’re there.
– I sprained my ankle really bad, and I was able to function normally without any pain after like a week of home care. But every now and then I would bend it a certain way, or just touch it in a certain area and it would start to hurt. I didn’t really do anything about it for like 2 months until I finally saw a doctor and it turns out that there’s a just a minor fracture that I had no idea was there. I mean, I ran on it and carried heavy stuff and everything. I did both normal and strenuous things and the only signs for me were tenderness to the touch and sometimes at night I’d feel a slight dull pain in the area. But that’s just me. I’ve heard other stories of people who’ve had not-so-painfull fractures and didn’t realize it till later either.
You might be just fine. But just thought I’d caution you that getting a check real quick before the you try to see a chiropractor wouldn’t hurt.