Hi folks new here just a couple of questions about nerve damage.
I'll give you the full story.
Around 18 months ago I went over on my ankle playing football which left me unable to walk for a few days, I then we through around 3 months of ultrasound/physio. I then started playing again but it was never right and had a bad tackle on the same ankle leaving me back at square one.
This is what I find to be a common problem, return to sport without appropriate sport specific physical assessment. Your ankle after injury is probably less than 67% if it is a grade I strain, less than 50% or 33% if it is grade II, and 0 if a complete tear. So it makes sense to rehab to about 110% , and get assessment before returning to match or sports specific fitness.
I then decided to go down to London to The Foot and Ankle Clinic, the specialist there thought I had a chronic tear of my ATFL and recommended I get an
MRI. So I've had an Xray and an MRI scan which showed no structural damage but nerve damage and they said I've got to go through some specialist physiotherapy exercises.
Nerves are kind of annoying, but physio can stop nerve irritation. Either through soft tissue manipulation, re-training of biomechanics, or strengthening, strengthening or even US, or Acupuncture. The only thing that will help nerves come along is a combination of graded activity, and especially pain management.
I'm going on holiday next week so I wont be able to see my physio for a while, I was wondering if theirs any particular exercises I could do while I am away?
What I would do is just keep it safe, and manage the pain on the trip. If you can see a physio try to learn a manual taping or wrapping technique. If not keep an ice pack or more close by.
The doctor said it could take up to 12 months to heal so obviously I would like to start straight away.
It should be a lot quicker than that. But the key thing is to enhance blood flow to the lower limb. You may want to keep the leg elevated whenever you are resting.
Thanks