What to Do if You Have a Foot Sprain: 10 Tips
Your feet play such an important role when it comes to support and locomotion that injury to them comes with an extremely high level of inconvenience. If you think of all the activities where they come in handy from walking and running and activities such as exercising that deal with such movements, base support when lifting stuff, playing of sports, driving among many others, it is no surprise these are the body parts one would want to avoid injuries to. A sprain is when an injury that occurs due to the stretching or straining of ligaments in a given body part. Given that the foot has bones, it holds that they are also lots of ligaments. This is because ligaments are the ones that hold the bones together. Foot sprains can occur from lots of different scenarios such as awkward landings, knocks, falls among others. It is therefore important to know what to do if you suffer from a foot sprain, and that is where this article comes in as it will look to highlight 10 tips as far as dealing with foot sprains is concerned.
The first tip as soon as you get a foot sprain is ensuring that you rest the affected foot until the sprain heals. You should ensure that you don’t do any physical activity on the injured foot and that you keep it as still as possible until that time that you will be given the all clear that the sprain has healed.
The next tip as far as what to do when you have a foot sprain is ensuring you ice the foot at the injured part. This should be done for up to 20 minutes, 2 to 3 times each day as this helps with the pain and swelling due to the foot sprain. However, as is explained by the subject matter experts over at frontlineer.com, it is important not to apply the ice directly to your skin but rather put in a cloth or something before applying it.
The next tip as far as what you should do when you suffer a foot sprain is ensuring you elevate the injured foot. This should be done for the first 48 hours after injury and one should ensure the foot is elevated at a position higher than your heart whenever you are lying down. This is designed to help keep the swelling that is inevitable after a foot sprain, down.
Given foot sprain are usually accompanied by pain, the net tip is to ensure you take pain medication to deal with the pain. You can discuss with a medical profession about the best pain medication for you with over-the-counter options such as ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin among others being the most popular choices as is covered in detail over at frontlineer.com.
Speaking of medication, the next tip is to ensure that you take the pain medication according to the dosages prescribed. You should also take into account other preexisting medical conditions into consideration, such as heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure among others. This is why it is important to talk with a doctor before taking any pain medication.
Another tip as far as what to do when you suffer a foot sprain is wearing a protective boot if necessary. As is discussed in detail over at frontlineer.com, a protective boot usually helps in allowing your ligaments to heal quicker and better. It is therefore important to talk with a doctor so as to know the scenarios that require one to wear a protective boot.
The next tip as far as what to do when you suffer a foot sprain is concerned is ensuring you stop activity immediately after you experience a sharp pain indicating a sprain in your foot. This is important since if you don’t stop immediately, you are likely to make the injury worse and even damage the ligaments even further, making healing more complicated.
Compressing the injured leg is yet another tip to keep in mind as far as what to do if you have a foot sprain is concerned. This is achieved by wrapping the injured foot with wrapping cloth, with the technique that should be followed on this to be found over at frontlineer.com. This will help reduce the swelling and the pain.
As far as foot sprains are concerned, it is important to seek emergency medical services if there is heavy bleeding to go with the sprain. If you are unable to stem the bleeding, then you should head over to an emergency room as soon as possible so as to prevent extreme loss of blood, a situation that is life-threatening.
Another tip to keep in mind is to ensure that you also seek emergency medical services for grade III or severe sprains. This is an instance where the ligaments are completely detached from the bone. In such cases you will be unable to put any weight on the injured foot and you may also hear a loud popping sound. Such cases may require surgery to treat and as such should be taken seriously.
The above are some tips to keep in mind for when you suffer a foot sprain, with there being more to be found on this topic by checking out the ever reliable frontlineer.com.
