Talking About Health And Medical Care

Ankles: sometimes you can't live with them, and other times you can't walk without them. So many things can go wrong with ankles, and oddly enough, not all of those things have to do with your actual ankle bones. When your ankle has swollen to three times its normal size, here is how your ankle doctor will determine what is wrong, and then fix it.

The Fluid Is Lymph Fluid

Lymph fluid helps remove toxins and bacteria from the body in order to keep you healthy. When you are experiencing an especially bad infection in or around your ankle, lymph fluid will collect there to try and pull the infection out. Lymph fluid makes the area swell, but it will also cause your ankle to become hot to the touch (a sign of infection) and very red. Your doctor can use an empty needle to draw a sample of the fluid out of the swollen area to check for infection.

You Have High Blood Pressure

When you have high blood pressure, fluid builds in your peripheral tissues. This fluid has leaked from your arteries and veins into the surrounding tissues, and it gets stuck there. In your case, your ankle is swollen because you have high blood pressure (whether you know it or not). Your doctor will check your blood pressure to see how high it is, and then prescribe a diuretic that will expel fluid from body tissues. Within a few days you should notice quite the difference in the size of your swollen ankle, foot, and/or lower leg.

You Sprained It

Sprains to ankles are quite common, especially if you have flat feet and/or weak ankles; this can cause your foot to roll all over the place until you severely sprain it. The soft tissue damage typically caused by a sprain causes a lot of pain and swelling. Elevating it and icing it for a few days will help reduce the swelling. If it does not, you will need to return to your ankle doctor to see if there is something else wrong.

You Broke It

It takes some doing to break an ankle, because of the location of the ankle bones and the improbability of how you land on your feet (not your ankles) from any height. However, if you did break it, your doctor will discover that after taking an x-ray. If you break your ankle, it results in the most excruciating pain you can imagine, and the pain is accompanied by major deformity and extensive swelling. Your ankle will need a cast and lots of rest, if not surgery. For more information, contact companies like Carolina Foot &  Ankle Specialists.