My Ankle Sprain and Recovery
I Sprained My Ankle!
I decided to make myself into a case study for everyone to gain some understanding about ankle sprains, acute injuries and frequency of treatments. If you follow me on social media you might have known that I sprained my ankle in June. I missed the last step on my stone stairs and took a spill. As always - this is not medical advice! This is just what happened to me and my personal experience using Chinese Medicine to treat an injury. (Feel free to scroll to the bottom of the post if you want the herbal product links)
Red light treatment with electro acupuncture
The first thing I checked was, how bad was it? With any injury you always want to assess if you think anything might be broken and if you do suspect that - go to urgent care, ER or a place that has an x-ray in order to confirm. I was able to get up, walk and bear weight right after the fall without much pain so for me this meant I was ok to skip a potentially expensive trip to urgent care.
I immediately put my red light (LED) panel over my ankle for 30 minutes. As with most ankle sprains it just starts to swell and get worse after the fall no matter what - this is the inflammatory process. My experience with using red light is that I know it will control the swelling and help with pain in these situations, but these results are hard to track or notice because the injury just happened and no matter what, during this time, there will be pain! I know that using the red light immediately will mean I will experience less swelling and less pain later on! So even though, I was still in a lot of pain after this treatment, and I could feel the swelling and tightening come on because it was so soon after the injury, I also knew to trust the process. It might have appeared worse at this point because before I sat down, I was walking on the foot and after the light treatment I wasn’t able to put weight on the foot anymore. What is important to note is that this would have happened whether I did the red light treatment or not. The red light treatment just contributed to my overall faster recover but despite the fact that it was hard to notice that in the moment.
After the red light I decided to confine myself to the couch. I applied some dit da jow liniment and treated the injury distally with acupuncture. This means I did not do acupuncture directly into the area that was injured but instead used points on the affected channels that were away from the injury, on the leg and and near the toes. The purpose here is to get some flow away from the affected area that was going through the inflammation process and starting to swell. During this treatment I felt a lot of comforting tingling sensations in the channels away from the injury. For the most of this day I progressively felt more pain, stiffness and immobility. I had to walk bearing weight only on the ball of my injured foot. I applied an herbal plaster overnight.
The next morning was rough for the first 20 minutes but once I moved around more it felt much better. This told me that gentle and careful movement was needed. This is the case a lot of the time for ankle sprains (strains) as long as there is no fracture or tear. I was in a lot less pain after walking the dog. I did my second acupuncture treatment with electrostim and red light but this time I did needle into the injured area that was now a little bruised and puffy. I also did a moxibustion session in the affected areas and along the affected channels.
Walking On The Treadmill 24 Hours Later
Electroacupuncture or Acupuncture with electro-stimulation (e-stim)
In the afternoon (same day)I gave myself my third acupuncture treatment which looked a lot like the previous session. I made sure to get up and pace around the house every 10-20 minutes or so. I even did a light walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes. At this point I already felt 70% better. This was just a little over 24 hrs after the injury. I wore herbal plasters overnight again.
The following day (day 3), the ankle was tight in the morning but once I walked the dog, it was again, much better. I did a pole moxa session and I started my fourth acupuncture treatment but this time I focused more on the area that was bruised and puffy and treated it with electrostim and red light. Immediately after this treatment the area was itchy. This, for me, has always been a healing sign. It reminds me of having a scab form over a wound and when it starts to itch. The area was itchy the entire afternoon, and I applied some Tiger Balm white to the areas that were itching. I was able to walk 1.5 miles on the treadmill at moderate pace. Practicing yoga asana really helped on this day as well, especially when I focus on pressing different parts of my foot into the ground during standing poses. I also did my regular kettlebell workout. I wore herbal plasters overnight again.
Day 4 I am at about 85%. I have some swelling in a focused area and my pain is at a 2/10. I probably wouldn’t do any running but walking feels normal with some tightness that only shows up after I have been sitting or resting for a while. My fifth acupuncture treatment is focusing on the opposite side of injury. I can feel the tendons on the opposite side getting a bit sore. I also used a tendon liniment on both sides.
Days 5-7 the swollen area is getting smaller and less swollen. The tightness upon waking is not as noticeable. Walking feels normal. The injured area is only tender to the touch, a little puffy and bruised. I only gave myself one treatment in these days because I was not in pain and quite honestly I was busy doing other things. I have been working out and moving around as normal. I feel I am about 90-95% recovered at the one week mark. I’m using the herbal plasters now, every other day to avoid skin irritation.
By day 10 I felt 100% recovered. There is a small amount of puffiness at the site of injury however I was no longer experiencing any pain. I have been resuming my normal exercise routines. I gave myself a maintenance treatment of electroacupuncture and red light therapy. By day 14 the swelling was no longer noticeable.
I Did Not Use Ice
Pole moxa treatment
During this healing process I did not use ice. I know it is pretty instilled in us that as soon as you sprain an ankle you should ice it, but I have learned through martial arts training, Chinese Medical training and my own personal experiences that icing an ankle sprain is the wrong way to go. Icing it can temporarily reduce the swelling that initially happens. When you continue to ice this type of injury it freezes or slows down the circulation. The cold will get trapped deep inside the joint which impedes the healing process and causes more pain and tightness. This can often result in prolonging your recovery time and you run the risk of your injury developing into a chronic situation which can make you prone to other injuries. If you’ve ever sprained your ankle and felt like it was never the same since, it could be due to icing it. Before Chinese Medical training I sprained an ankle that I iced and iced and iced. It eventually got ‘better’ but it was always tight. The ankle was operating at 80% for a year until I started treating it with Chinese Medicine techniques and it finally returned back to 100%.
If you really feel the need to ice it, or you already have iced it, stop after the initial hour of injury. Some other options besides icing if you can’t get yourself to an acupuncturist right away is: herbal ice, a warm epsom salt soak with ginger or mint. Ginger is warming and dispersing, while mint is cooling and dispersing. Tiger balm white, kwan loong, white flower oil, eagle brand oil. These are all cooling and dispersing liniments. (scroll to the very bottom for product links)
Treatment Frequency
Things to note: I recovered faster because I had frequent acupuncture treatments starting immediately after the injury. A lot of times I don’t see people for their ankle injuries until its been a few days, weeks or months after the initial injury. I had treatments daily, sometimes twice daily, while many patients might not come for a follow up treatment for an entire week or longer. Treatment as soon as possible, and frequently is recommended, though I understand not everyone has the ability to do this.
If you are considering acupuncture treatment after an acute ankle sprain, try to get an appointment as soon as possible. At the frequency of twice a week, it’s possible for you to recover in 3-5 visits or in 2 weeks. At a frequency of weekly visits you might take longer than 3 weeks. Waiting longer than 3 weeks can put your injury at risk of being in a chronic state. Ankle sprains that have become chronic tend to experience pain during treatment and can take many months to heal with acupuncture. Those who are not able to get treated as often can consider using topical herbal products. You can make a virtual herbal consultation with me in order to find what is right for you, or check out some of the products I used and mentioned in my recovery.
Recommended Products
These are my affiliate links at Kamwo Store
Herbal Ice (San Huang San/Three Yellow)
You might also be interested in reading: Chinese Medicine and Plantar Fasciitis and Runner’s Knee and Acupuncture
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Written by Dr. Emily Siy 7/24/23
