Is your armor thin again? Do I want to wear it down?
It's been over 2 weeks, so I guess I'm overdue. While there is much to be happy about, a cloud of uncertainty still hangs over my head. It's now been over a month since I injured my ankle, and it's still not better. The daily or twice daily battery of exercises, stretching, and icing seem to be helping restore my range of mobility, but it's not all back yet. I'm not entirely sure what a reasonable expectation should be, but I know it's not happening fast enough for me. The prospect of anything short of a full recovery is pretty depressing for someone that spends so much time running around trying to kill themselves in all sorts of different sports. While I enjoy cycling, I don't think it could replace tennis, racquetball, basketball, and football from my life.
With the Internet, the amount of information at my fingertips is amazing, yet saddening. I was really hoping to find an article that said, "Conformance to a regimented physical therapy plan involving X, Y, and Z had a 99.5% chance for full recovery" or "You're screwed". Alas, life is never that simple. The one thing that I did find is that almost most of the research on ankle supports is pretty consistent in it's findings:
1) Rigid/semi-rigid supports work better than the lace-up type.
2) The lace-up type is only marginally better than tape.
3) Tape isn't very good.
4) While most braces restrict the range of motion in static loading, there is insufficient data to say that any of them help at all in dynamic loading. Of course this is the only situation that you really care about.
5) "The best "support" for a near maximally inverted ankle at foot strike was found to be fully activated and strong evertor muscles".
So the jury is still out on whether this thing is going to do me any good whatsoever. I do know one thing, it sure as hell isn't that comfortable. Well, back to my PT.
Rehabilitation of ligamentous ankle injuries: a review of recent studies
Efficacy of Prophylactic Ankle Support: An Experimental Perspective
