What to do if your calf is sprained and painful

Spraining the calf is something that many people will encounter in life. In this case, you should stop walking immediately and observe the sprain carefully. If the symptoms are mild, you can apply cold compresses. If it has been more than 24 hours, you should apply hot compresses. When local swelling or pain occurs and you are unable to handle it yourself, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment in time.

1. Distinguish the severity of the injury.

A mild ankle sprain only causes soft tissue injury, while a slightly more serious case may be a fracture of the lateral malleolus or the base of the fifth metatarsal. Even more serious cases may be bilateral ankle fractures of the medial and lateral malleolus, or even trimalleolar fractures. Mild cases can be handled by yourself, but severe cases require going to the hospital for doctor diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, it is very important to distinguish the severity of the injury. Generally speaking, if you do not feel severe pain when moving your ankle, you can still stand and walk with ease; if the pain is not in the bones but in the muscles, it is most likely a sprain and you can treat it yourself. If you feel severe pain when moving your ankle, cannot stand or move steadily, the pain is on the bone, or you feel a sound inside the foot when you sprain it, and swelling appears quickly after the injury, especially the tenderness point is on the outer ankle or the high protruding bone in the middle of the outer foot, then it is a sign of a serious injury and you should go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment immediately. If you are unable to go to the hospital for the time being due to limited conditions, you can temporarily follow the following methods and then go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.

2. Use hot and cold compresses correctly.

Hot compress and cold compress are both physical therapies, but their effects are completely different. Blood becomes active when it is hot and coagulates when it is cold. Therefore, when the ruptured blood vessels are still bleeding, apply cold compresses to control the progression of the injury. Hot compress can be applied only after the bleeding stops to dissipate the blood stasis around the injury. Careful readers must be asking, how can we know whether the bleeding has stopped? In principle, the boundary is 24 hours after the injury, and you can also refer to the following points: First, the pain and swelling tend to stabilize and no longer continue to worsen; second, the feeling of swelling when raising and lowering the affected foot is not much different; third, the temperature of the skin at the injured area changes from being slightly higher than the normal part to being quite similar. These can all be used as a basis for stopping bleeding.

3. Appropriate activities.

When swelling and pain develop progressively after an injury, do not stand or walk with your body weight supported. It is best to elevate the affected limb and limit any activity. When the condition becomes stable, the affected limb can be raised to perform active movements of the foot and ankle, but activities that may cause severe pain are prohibited. Wait until the swelling and pain gradually subside before you can walk around. Walk for a short time at first and then increase the amount of time gradually after you get used to it.

4. Massage correctly.

Before the bleeding stops, it is advisable to continuously massage the hematoma. The method is to press the local area with the thenar eminence of the palm. The pressure should be tolerable even though it is painful. The time is to press continuously for 2 to 3 minutes and then slowly release it, pause for a moment and repeat the operation. Each repetition is 5 times as a stage, and it is appropriate to do 3 to 4 stages a day. After the bleeding stops, knead the area, using the thenar eminence or the tip of your thumb to apply a certain amount of pressure and knead the area. The direction is centered on the obvious swelling, and knead in all directions around it centrifugally. Do it for 2 to 3 minutes each time, and do it 3 to 5 times a day.

5. Use medication rationally.

Before the bleeding stops, it is not advisable to take orally or apply externally blood-activating drugs. You can spray the wound with "Hao De Kuai" and take Yunnan blood-activating medicine orally. After the bleeding stops, it is advisable to apply Wuhudan externally and take Dieda pills, Huoxue Zhitongsan internally. In the later stage, Chinese herbal medicine can be used for fumigation. If you don't have any Chinese patent medicine on hand, you can also fry the flour until it turns yellow, mix it with rice vinegar and apply it to the affected area to replace the Wuhu Dan, and the effect is also ideal. Boil water with a small pinch of Sichuan peppercorns and a handful of salt for fumigation and washing, which is also a good alternative to Chinese herbal medicine.