Your ankle, the joint where your foot and leg meet, is an intricate network of bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Strong enough to bear your body weight, your ankle joint can be prone to injury and pain. Injury to any of the bones, ligaments or tendons in the ankle can cause ankle pain. Most ankle pain, however, is the result of a sprain, which occurs when your ankle rolls over your foot, causing a ligament to stretch or tear. Though sprains are often sports-related, they can also occur when you walk on an uneven surface or simply take a misstep. Common causes of ankle pain include:
If we are asking you to do something that is hurting too much, let us know! Physical therapy should not be severely painful. It is not common to be so sore that patients are in pain or it affects their daily life. If this ever happens during or after an appointment, let us know and we will adapt your program.
We recommend budgeting 40-60 minutes for a typical therapy session. The only exception to this will be your first visit, which can take about 20 minutes longer due to the physical therapy evaluation your therapist will provide. We also recommend showing up about 10-15 minutes early to your first visit. This way, you can complete the paperwork before your visit time and streamline the process.
A typical order for physical therapy will ask for 2-3 visits per week for 4-6 weeks. Sometimes the order will specify something different. What generally happens is for the first 2-3 weeks, we recommend 3x per week. This is because it will be the most intensive portion of your treatment. After that, it is common to taper to 2x weekly, based on your level of function and progress.
Yes. Physical therapy works based on the science of how the body rebuilds and heals. The biggest killer of progress is inconsistency. We recommend adhering to your prescribed sessions agreed upon in your PT Eval to achieve desired results.
