Help! broke my ankle in three places and have a plate on the inside and screws on the outside. my doctor said i should walk in two days without crutches and now it 's been a week since the cast came off. i can bear with surgery pain more than the swelling on top of my foot. any advice on reducing the swelling? i also dislocated my ankle at the time of the fracture. is it possible to have a sprain on top of a fracture?

Help! broke my ankle in three places and have a plate on the inside and screws on the outside. my doctor said i should walk in two days without crutches and now it 's been a week since the cast came off. i can bear with surgery pain more than the swelling on top of my foot. any advice on reducing the swelling? i also dislocated my ankle at the time of the fracture. is it possible to have a sprain on top of a fracture?
Best thing for swelling is elevation and cold. Elevation should be just a little higher than hip level, and cold/ice packs (20 minutes every 2-3 hrs is what I've always been told). Not sure, but with such a sever fracture, I guess it would be possible to have a "sprain" as well as the fracture. But that should respond to same treatments.

You need to elevate your ankle above the level of your heart. So not just sitting with it up on a footstool, but laying down with your foot up on a stack of pillows. Also, you can ice for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, and repeat that. Bags of frozen peas work well because they conform to the shape of your foot. Just make sure that you don't put them directly on the skin (use a thin towel). Also, even though you may be allowed to walk, you probably will want to spend most of your time with the foot elevated.

After I had ankle surgery, the most important thing I did was keep it elevated. I sat in classes for a month slouching in my chair with my foot up on the desk. For the first several weeks, I had increased swelling, toes turning purple, and pain every time I let my foot hang down for even a few minutes. So just take your time and keep it up as much as possible.

As for a sprain... All of the bones in the foot are held together by ligaments. A sprain is stretching or tearing those ligaments. In order to dislocate your ankle (move the bones out of place) you would have to stretch or tear those ligaments. As long as you didn't tear them all the way through (or, depending on the ligaments involved, even if you did tear some of them) they should heal and just need ice, elevation, and rest.

Hope you have a speedy recovery!

WoW! this is the third time I have heard of this in the last 2 weeks! I volunteer at a hospital and saw it there, my grandma did it and now you! I hope you feel better too!!