Spraining your ankle is never pleasant, if it stops you working too it can be downright stressful. As we discuss in the ultimate guide for ankle sprains, the body is very good at healing naturally yet sometimes it needs extra help along the way and here are some guidelines on how much time it may take for you to feel ready to get back to work.
Don't forget the PRICE guidelines discussed in the ultimate guide to help you along the way!
At this point, your ankle will still be sore and probably swollen, so regular rest and icing will help greatly. Try to move the ankle to prevent stiffness and when you walk notice if you are limping.
If you are struggling to take weight through the ankle and limping heavily you are not ready to return to work!
After the first few days, the initial pain should begin to subside and you may notice the bruising gets more obvious or travels into your foot. Continue to follow the PRICE guidelines and at this point, you may also benefit from wearing an ankle support to allow you to walk and bear more weight.
If you can't get your shoe on and find it difficult to climb stairs and you have a physical type of job, you are probably not ready to go back to work!
By this point, you should be getting your full range of movement back and be able to take weight through your ankle almost normally. It may ache if you have been standing for long periods of time, so support may be useful here but otherwise walking should be getting easy - so should stairs. At this point, unless your job involves long-distance driving or standing for more than 6 hours you are most likely ready to be back at work!
Healing at this point should almost be completed. Swelling should be almost gone unless you are spending a lot of time on your feet or have returned to playing sports. Your limp should be gone and you will hopefully almost be back to wearing most of your normal shoes. You should be able to perform an emergency stop and stand on 1 barefoot for more than 20 seconds.
If you cannot do these things then please seek advice from your local GP or physiotherapist.
If you can you are hopefully happily back at work with your sprained ankle a distant memory! Yay!
If your ankle continues to feel weak and unstable or you have you a job that demands you get back on your feet quickly, a support may be exactly what you need to speed this process up.
Wearable within a shoe, this particular support provides extra stability to your weakened ankle and the criss-cross straps can be adjusted by you to provide the right level of pain-relieving compression.