Unless you suffer a fracture or another type of severe foot injury, many people’s first instinct is to try to “walk off” a foot or ankle injury. Our bodies are incredibly resilient and can overcome a variety of ailments on their own, but at the same time, if you don’t give it the care and attention it deserves after an injury, pain and related symptoms can linger.
There’s rarely a good reason to put off treatment for a foot injury, but there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t delay in providing proactive self care or seeking out advice from a professional. In today’s blog, we share five reasons why it’s not a good idea to put off treatment for a new foot or ankle injury.
Why You Shouldn’t Wait To Treat Foot Pain
Putting off proactive treatment can be problematic for a number of reasons. Here are five big reasons why it’s not smart to ignore a foot injury.
1. Symptoms Tend To Worsen Or Persist – Many foot issues only get worse without proactive treatment, while others give the appearance of healing despite the fact that issues are bubbling beneath the surface. Your ankle may not be painful a couple weeks after that sprain, but unless you’ve worked to strengthen those injured ligaments, your ankle will be weaker and less able to remain stable when stressed, which puts you at an increased risk for subsequent sprains or a more serious injury like a fracture.
2. Treatment Is Usually Simple – Most treatments for mild to moderate foot injuries are incredibly simple and straightforward. You may only need a couple weeks of activity avoidance and physical therapy to get back to full strength or perhaps become stronger than the pre-injury version of yourself. Don’t put off treatment because you think it will be extremely hard or complex.
3. Resources Are All Around You – Some people don’t treat their foot or ankle injuries because they don’t know the best ways to care for it, and they opt not to lean on the resources around them. Of course a professional like Dr. Silverman can give you advice tailored to your specific situation, but there are also plenty of reputable websites that offer insights and helpful advice that you can find with the click of a few buttons. Just make sure you are sourcing information from trustworthy and professional sources!
4. Problems Can Snowball – You may think that only your foot is affected by your recent injury, but an untreated injury can have a domino effect on other systems. All of a sudden your ankle, your calf, your knee or your hips are working to compensate for weakness in your foot, and this change in stress and strain can lead to joint problems or similar issues in other areas of your body. It’s not uncommon for untreated ankle injuries to cause related problems in your knee or hips as your whole gait is now impacted by the underlying foot injury. Do right by your whole body by treating the initial injury.
5. You Only Get One Body – At the end of the day, you only get on body, and if you are physically limited because of an untreated foot or ankle injury, that can and will affect your overall quality of life. Being physically limited because of a treatable problem is no way to go through life, so you owe it to yourself to give treatment a real effort so that you can become the strongest version of yourself.
If you want to take the first step in overcoming a new or persistent foot or ankle injury, consider connecting with Dr. Silverman and the team at Silverman Ankle & Foot today at (952) 224-8500.
