Andrews Ankle Update

Many of you will have suffered from an ankle sprain as it is one of the most common injuries we see in clinic.  Unfortunately there can be complications depending on the severity of the injury.  I had my own ankle sprain at the start of 2022 and came back way to early to running with detrimental effects (I’m fine now!!) Those of you following Andrew will know he had a really nasty ankle injury in November 2022 with significant ligament injury.  I do think that being a therapist with an injury really helps us to understand how the patient sat in front of us is feeling, it adds to our experience as clinicians and allows us to empathize.  Andrew is doing really well with his rehab and age is definitely on his side.  Have a read of his journey so far and a look at some of the basic exercises he is doing to return to full form

Ankle Update Blog

Hello everyone its Andrew here. I am really glad to have been back in clinic this week seeing patients again and getting back into the groove of things! We have some really exciting plans for 2023 and can’t wait to help as many of you as possible with your individual injury recoveries.

Today I am writing an updated blog on my own injury. If you aren’t aware, I suffered a serious ankle inversion injury back in November and have been on my own rehab pathway since. I wrote a blog soon after the event so if you haven’t read that I suggest you do before reading this one. In the last 6 weeks or so I have made significant progress on my journey. Shortly before Christmas I stopped wearing the protective boot I had used initially post injury and started walking on the affected ankle for the first time in around 5 weeks. Initially, this was tough, uncomfortable and difficult to adjust to as I still had considerable swelling and huge range of motion deficits which made walking pretty difficult.

However, over the last month or so I have completed ‘daily’ (well not everyday but as often as possible!) exercises aimed at increasing the range of movement in the ankle as well as gradually increasing my walking and driving.

The consistency of my efforts and gradual load increases have allowed me to make significant improvements, especially in the last couple of weeks where I am really noticing the ankle slowly feeling more normal again. The most recent period of my rehab has really helped me to understand the frustrations that can come up during long term recovery, as for a few weeks I felt as if I was not making any progress despite my efforts, only to see a real improvement more recently.

This section of my rehabilitation has provided me with a really important message to understand which I will definitely pass on to future patients; do not worry if things feel as if they aren’t progressing at the speed you would like, you will have highs and lows during long term injury rehabs but if you stay as consistent as possible with your efforts you will see the results eventually!

Keep a look out for more videos on YouTube of some of the rehab exercises I will be doing . The next stage of my rehabilitation will largely involve regaining the strength which has been lost in the muscles which stabilise the ankle and aiming to make them even stronger than they previously were to help reduce the risk of this injury happening again in the future. I will write an update on how that is going for me soon!

If you have suffered from an ankle injury its important to get it assessed so you know how to manage it moving forward, loading too early can result in delays in healing and return to full form. If you want help and guidance then get booked in for an assessment.

I wish you all the best in 2023.