How To Treat Ankle Tendon Injuries

I have seen people limp into the gym with a bandaged ankle, but still go on the stepper, grimacing and grunting as they step up and down. When asked why the ho and ha, during a workout. In other words, why continue to stress the affected ankle further. The normal response is ‘Oh I want to work through this pain. If I rest it, it will get worse’. No it won’t, so say the experts.  

The fact is that strained or torn tendons in the ankle may occur without a painful injury. What this means is that the person did not twist or roll the ankle and the pain just started without any warning. The injury can be from putting too much pressure on the tendon or just a natural deformity of the tendon. There are two large tendons in the ankle: the peroneal tendon which runs along the outside of the ankle and the posterior tibial tendon which runs along the inside of the ankle. The focus will be on how to recognise the symptoms of injury on the posterior tibial tendon and treat it.

It was in the early evening, and Frank decided to join his kids in rope skipping. It was a good excuse to leave his laptop after four grueling hours trying to finish a business proposal. True he had not done much exercise lately, but the need to stretch his legs and move his body was so tempting. In any case, he had read that rope skipping is a great exercise, so Frank was enthusiastic to demonstrate his fitness. He was doing very well and got the pace up to double time. He was even introducing new dimensions, like rope cross overs, to the skipping. Frank finished rope skipping, handed the rope to his daughters and proceeded to walk away. But when Frank took a step with his left foot, he almost fell over from the pain on the inside of his left ankle. He limped back into the house by putting all his weight on the outside of his left foot.

Frank assumed it was just one of those pains that would fade away; as such he didn’t go to seek medical attention immediately. By the third day, a large swelling developed that kept growing for the next week. The pain when Frank walked was not so intense but really painful when he pushed anything or had to pick up and move heavy items. When it became unbearable, Frank finally went to the doctor a week after the injury. Fortunately the x-rays were negative for a fracture. The doctor made Frank stand on one foot. Frank could stand on his right foot without a problem, but when he tried to stand on his left foot, it was sheer agony.

The doctor decided to treat the symptom with RICE therapy, acronym for rest, ice, compression, and elevation, and in addition prescribed a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. Frank was given an air cast and told to put his ankle out of action for three weeks. During those three weeks he also had to do rehabilitation exercises twice a day. By resting his ankle together with the rehabilitation, the tendon was strengthened while preventing it from any further injury to it.

Frank’s experience is not peculiar to ankles and to men. The advice is that pain in any part of the body, irrespective of your gender, should not be left untreated for too long. So next time you have an injury that’s sport related and hoping the pain will eventually go away, it may or may not. Your best bet is to have the injury checked out by your doctor.

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