Another ankle injury question...

[Chris de Vos]

So about a month ago, I missed a step walking down the stairs, and my ankle rolled inwards and I landed on it with my full body weight... I've taken care of it, and swelling has all but disappeared, but the ligaments are still terribly stretched. I was an idiot in the short term, and ran a few days after initial injury, but at this point I've run one time in the last 3/4 weeks. I've been cycling, swimming and doing the rowing machine instead, but my ligaments haven't strengthened.

I have a theory (I don't know why it took me so long to think about this): is it possible that when I've been swimming, my kicks have been stretching my ankle and undoing all of the healing?

Any/all advice would be greatly welcomed!

[Joe]

Chris, I'm not sure about the severity of your injury so take this with a grain of salt.  My rolled ankle injury started healing when I quit babying it.  I did ankle exercises at work and made a concerted effort to walk normally.  At first I babied it and missed a couple runs because I asked too much of it too quickly.  Everything I've read says to max-perform it - use it as long as there is no major pain.  Whne the pain is too great, lay off.  Otherwise, do what you can tolerate.  Also, FYI, I got over the final hump when I started running in a new pair of shoes.  Maybe it cushioned me more, or maybe it was gonna get better at that time anyway but that was my experience.

[Chris de Vos]

Nothing would make me happier than to start running again. I'm on the verge of doing it, because its been so long, and serious swelling/pain/etc. stopped awhile ago.

[Joe]

I had a couple episodes where I could not run, but if you can tolerate the run I think you're better off trying to tough it out.  Again, a purely amateur viewpoint with no medical background to back it up.  Just my limited experience.