bob and brad
the two most famous
physical therapists
on the internet
[Music]
howdy folks i'm bob schrupp physical
therapist brad heineck physical
therapist together with the most famous
physical therapist on the internet in
our opinion of course today we're going
to talk about swollen painful ankles and
how to fix them at home that's right bob
ankle pain
whether it's a sprain or just swelling
up ankles we'll talk about some reasons
very common uh you can do some things
about it at home uh and help get them
better without a lot of effort just had
a friend this weekend unfortunately we
all joined the 60 club i heard about
that and uh he complains of painful i'm
not a swollen ankle on one side oh my
god he's gotta get that checked out yeah
right
and there's a time for that we'll talk a
little bit more about that uh actually
do a giveaway at the end oh yes at the
end of the video yep okay stick around
yeah stick around it's gonna be a nice
giveaway too uh
for as far as this goes you know i'm
really into this right now because my
mother's dealing with swollen ankles uh
so uh you'll see some some things that
i'm working with her on
so uh
do we have a diagnosis for her
yeah she uh she just has lymphedema it's
you know she's got some congestive heart
failure and basically the aging process
nothing
serious is going on it's just a
management issue we'll get into that
near the end of the or the second half
of the video sure if you're tuning into
this and you just sprained your ankle
and your ankles swollen up as a result
of trauma ankle sprain or
something fell on it whatever
you can do some compression what you're
going to need to do is first of all go
to the doctor sure make sure you don't
have a fracture because that's going to
be treated a little bit different
particularly after the swelling fracture
ankle just from turning in my daughter
just went through this yeah yeah she
didn't fall she just twisted it just
twisted bad and yeah she had a fracture
and you can healed up quickly and for
the swelling you certainly can we're
going to i'm going to recommend that you
do the price p-r-i-c-e protect it and a
lot of this is just common sense so
protect it means
don't walk on it don't don't irritate it
don't make it painful don't try and work
through the pain protect it rest it and
when you rest it you're going to want to
elevate it get it up on some pillows or
on a leg wedge
to get it higher than the love your
level of your heart so that swelling can
come down back into your system
and then cold packs of course you can
compress it i would recommend for ankle
sprain i would probably use some ace
wrap or copper line copper
is less stretched right it just costs
more yeah um for the average person you
know this will probably work good you're
only going to need it for a few days
probably maybe a week you don't want to
do too much stretch right you don't want
to yeah you don't want to stretch it
real tight if you go to bob and brad uh
for ankle rehab ankle wrapping uh from
ankle sprains you'll get some details on
that we're not going to go into it on
this video but please go to that and you
will see all you need to know if you uh
have an ankle sprain or swollen from
that nature now if you just have
swelling like my mother her ankles swell
you know she did not sprain her ankles
and they're just swollen
and uh
and if you like push on it with one
finger
for a few seconds and then you lit up on
it and there's a dent there and it takes
a little while for the dent to come out
then it's lymphedema and you address
that a little bit differently
i would but again you should need to see
the doctor yeah because it's like brad
mentioned your heart may not be working
as well as it should be
and it's
because it's not pumping the way it
should it it doesn't take the fluid out
of the system as well right so it kind
of pulls right gravity pulls it down
right if you have problems with your
lymph nodes uh people have lymph nodes
removed this is a big problem for them
uh there's other issues that have to do
with that so make sure you know why
you're having why you're swelling but
it's not you know don't get too excited
you make very common yeah you may go to
the doctor and say it you know it's part
of
the aging process there's nothing we can
do sometimes they can give you some meds
to help it out uh one thing i would ask
so if you're at a doctor and he says
well i'm going to give you some meds and
the doctor does not mention anything
about
compression garments
ask them if compression garments would
be helpful
and we're going to talk about these tuba
grips which are inexpensive and boy
we've used them on
many many patients yes uh and they they
work well a lot in the nursing home yep
exactly c-u-b-i
grip yeah
uh so
i'll get into that a little bit more on
some details so you know which ones to
get uh as far as if you have the
swelling
and it's not a big problem you know you
know your heart
is okay you're dealing with that uh one
thing that can help get that fluid
moving is exercise right get some motion
going uh whether it be as simple as
doing some ankle pumps
every hour do 10 to 20 of them and you
can do them even more than that
uh going for walks if you're able to
walk safely go out for a 20 30 minute
walk
if everything else is fine in your
system to do that
water exercise
not many people have that available or
feel comfortable in the water but when
you're in water the compression aspect
of the water helps out about this yeah
so that you've got the exercise going
plus the compression of the water you
know four or five feet down helps move
that fluid up as well do we want to show
the abcs brad sure absolutely so when he
was talking about ankle pumps you can
just go back and forth like this yep but
you can also
like brad likes to say take a piece of
chalk and tie it to your
you are basically going to draw out the
alphabet in capital letters yep
so that was a 9b
c
i don't think you crossed the a
just kidding no
the idea with the alphabet is it it
forces your ankle to move in all
directions right so all the muscle
groups have an opportunity to work and
help pump that fluid
upwards where it needs to go
one thing to keep in mind with with
lymphedema
is
it's fluid that is just underneath the
surface of the skin
as opposed to it's gonna be a little
different than if you sprain your ankle
but because that fluid just underneath
the surface of the skin you want to make
sure uh
how you wear your socks and there's
something called a tourniquet effect
right and i'll show you that too but
keep that in mind
that the
fluid is just under the surface of the
skin because it really makes a big
difference
what i like to mention to people brad is
that the fluid is not going to go out
your toes it's got to go back up into
your body up into your abdomen where it
gets processed and then you pee it out
sure yeah so exactly so you you can't if
you have a tourniquet effect
it can stop the fluid from flowing back
up into your abdomen so whether you're
wearing socks or using the tuba grips
which we'll get into a little bit but
the tourniquet is when the socks or the
tuba grip rolls down like this
and it creates a roll like there now if
someone has uh edema and they have this
little tourniquet roll after about 20
minutes or longer
and you take that down you'll see a ring
yes right around the leg and it'll it's
like an
indentation all the way around there and
because that fluid is just under the
skin
the lymph cannot it stops right there
yeah i mean you still have blood flow
and actually can increase the lymph
right and and make the swelling worse
how many times have have you seen this
brad with somebody who has ted sockets t
e d stockings yep and you'll see that
line yeah they'll roll down and it's
worth uh you know you can use some
people use these compression socks which
are are nice they're uh they actually
squeeze more by the foot and less up
here so it forces the fluid up but these
can roll down too
these are made so they don't roll down
so easy but the problem is very
difficult to put on they are dif and
they're kind of expensive yes um and
difficult to take off
yeah
yeah i i did get some of these from my
mother and she just she's held nothing
to do with them they're too hard for her
to get off um so but uh for a number of
people if you're more mobile and you can
get things on on and off your feet i
know chris the pharmacist actually wears
them every day when he because he stands
yeah all day long standing um and he's
in his 50s right usually people in their
20s not so much yeah unless they're in
athletics uh but before we get into more
on this just using gravity lying down
uh if you're gonna lie down this is a
big thing i have with my mother
just a couple pillows yep
or you can actually use a
foam that's made for it
yeah i'm gonna slide a couple pillows
underneath my ankles so in your bed just
put a couple pillows
and uh you know assuming you can sleep
you know that way and
this so bob's feet are up just a few
inches and that's going to be helpful
uh com you know to get that fluid to go
right towards the proximal towards the
heart
these even work better yet they're
usually more comfortable and they get a
little bit higher height and you can do
your ankle pumps really easy because
your
legs are suspended off the end yep it's
actually a perfect time to do the ankle
pumps right whether you're lying on the
couch or in bed you can use that you may
not be able to sleep with this all night
if you can and you can't sleep on your
side right yeah
so you may have to start with that yep
exactly
uh beds now my mom's bed the feet lift
up you got to button up
as that's what we're doing with her
uh if you're in a recliner elevate the
reef the feet on the recliner right
absolutely yeah my mother refuses to do
that yeah sure she's like a kid again
she does what she wants and so we
try to encourage payback brad i know all
right that's awesome
um for the tuba grips now we mentioned
those socks wherever i put them are
expensive hard to get on
these tuba grips
they come in rolls yeah but yeah you cut
them off yep exactly uh this you wanna
well i'm gonna say you can go online as
a cheapest i found them they're about a
dollar a foot uh go to tuba grip
and there'll be a section in there say
how just type in how to fit tuba grip
they'll tell you you measure the girth
of the person's ankle and these are in
letters a b c d e f g they get the right
size do they have different compression
or not yes they do three different
levels i'm glad you asked that typically
you're going to want the middle one 10
to 20 mil millimeters
ask your doctor there you go exactly um
so when you get them on they should not
be real tight
we mentioned that before if you can fit
two fingers the rules i uh some i from
aaron remember he he's he's the guru on
this uh if you can put two fingers in
there and it's snug around there that's
good if you're having a hard time
getting there it's too tight or if it's
just floppy
it's gonna be not effective when you put
the tuba grip on there this is a benefit
too as it's open-toed which is what you
want
if you have uh
the socks these are socks are okay but
you wanna make sure there's no seams in
them right and they fit really smoothly
around your toes uh particularly if
you're diabetic yeah you might be more
prone to skin breakdown with
with lymphedema yep exactly uh these are
a little short this should come up a
little bit higher to just below the knee
sure again don't allow them to go down
and tourniquet uh just pull them up and
it's just one of those things you have
to check throughout the day
sure
boy there's a lot of little things to
think about
for ankle swelling but right
the big thing is elevate
exercises range of motion uh and the the
compression socks again i think the tuba
grip for the money is the best way to go
your mom wears these all all day long
well she's supposed to
but she doesn't always like to wear them
so but yeah you should wear them all day
long um take them off at night
you know i put her name on there because
she lives in a place with other people
but it's nice to put the data on there
because we bought her some a while back
i don't know yet yeah it's like when did
we get those i can't remember um and
sometimes it's such a bad thing to put
the date on there yeah it's a good idea
i'm just saying it's a brad thing it's a
good habit yeah it is it's one of those
habits that pays off criticizing it i'm
just saying that's not a bomb thing no
it's not a pop thing but like your
friend
he has one leg that's swollen the other
is not
sometimes you may put right and left
sure um because it
changes these stretch out a little bit
on the swollen one i've had some
patients that were more complicated that
we did have to put right and left
the date and then we always made sure
their name and the date was in the front
of the same place because
uh we lined it up then yeah so
everything was consistent that's for
more complicated cases
so
our giveaway oh yes c6 right
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this is uh our most powerful massage gun
i should say it is it's got the the most
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yeah that's for those people who really
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these guns used to run
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we're very happy to have our name on it
go to bob brad.com go to the giveaway
section you can sign up or you can go to
facebook oh brad it'll be pinned to the
top of the page
right up there yeah very good good luck
you could be the big winner the
cornucopia
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