Nothing can hinder us worse on our daily activities than feeling pain around your foot and ankle. Unless we can do all our work sitting down, we will really have to take a break and let our feet rest, and give them the treatment they need to heal and get shipshape again.
Foot and ankle pain is not easily diagnosed at all times. What you may think of as a sprain may really contain a minute fracture around the ankle bones, and feeling pain around the big toe might signal turf toe or an ingrown toenail. But healing pain around the foot and ankle can be started with a few basic treatments that will relieve the pain and make you feel better until you can get the injury checked by a doctor or podiatrist.
Let your feet rest.
Even if you only feel pain on one foot or ankle, you will still need to let both your feet rest, for hobbling around on one foot can cause extreme stress and risk injury to that foot. Sit down, or lie down if you must, for remaining in a standing position will keep your weight on your feet and can worsen the injury. Resting the feet is a required task for all foot and ankle injuries, from turf toe treatment to sprains and fractures.
Prop the feet up in an elevated position.
Most people instinctively massage the painful area, but this is not a good idea, especially if you’re not sure if you have a fracture or not. It’s better to leave your feet alone and elevated. If you’re lying down, try propping the feet up higher than your chest area to reduce blood flow to the feet, which in turn will decrease pain and swelling. If you’re sitting down, try keeping your feet at the same level as your hips.
Put an ice pack around the injured foot.
Get a bag of ice cubes and place it on the painful area, for applying a cold pack will do wonders to lessen the pain and keep the injured area from getting flooded with fluids and swelling. Most health sites like the Fitnez blog will recommend adding compression bandages too, but refrain from doing so until your foot is checked professionally, and in the meantime, stick with the ice packs. Minor injuries won’t need further treatment than this stage, while major injuries will benefit from being treated with a cold pack at the early stages.
