Heard a pop as I rolled my ankle

[Canklepop]

I would really appreciate any advice or encouragement. Running is the only thing that has kept me sane this past year. This morning I missed the last bloody step and rolled my ankle and heard a loud pop.
Ankle isn’t massively swollen or bruised but painful and can’t put any weight on it. Have been using the RICE technique but having googled the loud pop I heard and i’m getting very anxious that it’s a severe strain that could take months to heal. Am so so cross with myself. Already missing running. Has anyone experienced similar?

We are a bit expert on dislocations and sprains of all sorts of joints but especially ankles.
Yy to resting and ice. Ongoing. Make sure you elevate it when you are resting it. Regularly wiggle toes. you can try soaking in arnica or rubbing in arnica cream. Arnica helps with bruising.

When I have a bad sprain I can generally still exercise in water, not helpful at the moment, but just in case they open pools in time to help. In the meantime use baths to keep it moving, just gentle mobilisation exercises.

Google kinesiology tape. It is awesome stuff. You will need to google images how to apply it to get support. You will most likely find you are more comfortable weight bearing. Some people you can strap it once and the tape will last forever, DD it lasts a day at most. If you are a day at most person economically you may be better with a proper an ankle support. Sensibly when you get back into exercise either would be good for a while to avoid repeated injury. may also find in a few days with some form of ankle support you can do some low impact exercise, like fitness blender on you tube's low impact stuff.

I forgot stuff. I'm assuming your taking ibuprofen, not just for painkiller properties but also because it is actually an anti-inflammatory.

For reassurance the worse sprain I had for a while was jumping on one of those boxes at the gym and I flipped my ankle backwards. I nearly fainted it was pretty bad. I couldn't walk independently straight
away but I was walking on it with an ankle support (I carry they in my gym bag) fairly soon after. It could swim and aqua 24 hours later, but I was using an ankle support both in and out the water. I was back to full aerobics classes 2-3 weeks later (with ankle supports). I was out of ankle supports 2 weeks after that. If you keep mobilising it gently, limited weightbearing (but you must weight bear) and well supporting it for the next two days, you may well find you can pick up the pave quite quickly. Tge next time I couldn't swim due to other circumstances, but I was low impact fitness blending a couple of days later. No jumping, no tip toes and holding onto a chair for support if one foot.

I would definitely get this checked out. This happened to me during a hiit class pre covid. Was told it was a sprain at the hospital with just a glance over it and sent away with painkillers. Weeks later I was still in great pain and GP sent me for an X-ray and it turned out I had a severe tear to my Achilles' tendon!

@Hazelnutlatteplease thank you for the reassurance and advice, I will look into kinesiology tape (I have an elastic ankle support that I have been wearing since it happened this morning), as well as finding some low impact exercises online.
I wasn’t sure about ibuprofen in the first 48 hours as heard it can mask the problem.

@Macey78 thank you, normally I wouldn’t hesitate to get a second opinion at dr/ X-ray but given the current circumstances am trying to avoid the dr.
Can I ask if your ankle was very swollen and bruised? Did you hear a ‘pop’?

I do a lot of cross country running so I’ve had this a few times when I’ve rolled my ankle or gone down a rabbit hole, the ‘pop’ is quite loud isn’t it! Then it balloons up. Couple of weeks rest then gentle introduction back and should be ok.

@LochJessMonster that’s encouraging, the ‘pop’ was pretty alarming!

The first time I heard it I was convinced it was a broken bone. But it’s usually the ligaments.

I’ll attached a photo of my most recent one, this was the day after it happened. The ankle swells and then it bruises along the side of the foot.

Kinesiology tape is good on tendons too just in case it turns out its that. NHS physios dont seem to approve of kinesiology tape but every private physio I have been to straps joints and gets a far quicker rate of healing!! Its also really important in preventing re-injury as the ankle strengthens back up.

I have heard that about masking stuff, but the hospital always gets ibuprofen in quick!!! If you still cant weight bear at all after 24 hours with the joint well supported, that's a pretty good sign something more major is wrong. Even if it turns out "just" to be a bad sprain you need to be weight bearing on it to avoid complications. Therefore If you cant after 24 hours you need to be on crutches so you are at least partially weight bearing.

Also shoes with well padded sole. My go walks always come out during a sprain to take the pain out of the heel strike.

Also dont expect to fully weight bear first thing in the morning or after it's been elevated. The joint will need time to, for want of a better phrase, wake up. Speaking from bitter experience, it's also the most likely time to reinjure it. 12 weeks after injury, dont need supports except for injury, you're chilled and forget theres been an issue. Taking the time to just check before you put all you weight through it can be worth it!

Yy to the pop. On the worst one the fitness instructor heard it a couple of foot away.

Thank you all so much, I feel a lot more positive.