Hey all! So glad to join you on here
My injury started out 3 and a half years ago with i think it may have been going over on my ankle in a pothole out at my grandparents farm due to the dogs digging holees. turns out i wouldnt get a diagnosis till 18 months down the track after going to an orthopedic and doctors etc and constantly being told its all in my head cause my mri, Xray and CT scan etc etc came up normal. I still had a wonky ankle and stuff and the pain came back 18 months later and we went to a new physio who did a squeeze test on my ankle and asked where it hurts!
I pointed right at the middle of my ankle and he goes you have a high ankle sprain/ syndesmosis sprain. So for a bit after that i went to physio and managed to get it better however still had an unstable ankle that i used a tennis elbow strap for that helped lol.
Then comes the most recent saga...................
About 6 months ago i decided i wanted to get fit and start at the gym as i was also at the stage where i felt i didn't need the tennis elbow strap anymore too. However i went to the gym and just signed up the next day i went back and just did some work on the treadmill and bike however my ankle was trying to go over on me but i just shrugged it off. When i got off i was a bit achy and limping and the physio at the gym asked if he could have a look at it! I thought why not and proceeded to let him have a look at it and told him about the past injury.
He did all these tests stretched and moved my foot around with quite a bit of force and pressed in areas that hurt so much i was in tears cause it hurt! When he was doing teh tests on my foot though i could feel things like really stretching in my ankle and he said i dont think you have a syndesmosis sprain you just have ruptured your atfl and caused a tear in your calcaneofibular ligament.
Next day comes after he does this and i cant walk or put any weight on my foot without it hurting and its so swollen and huge. Hence comes the next saga in this tale but anyway i go to teh hospital the next day cause my ankle is clicking and has turned like this bright red and blue color after sleeping that night and i get up with this. So my mum takes me up to the hospital to get it checked out. We go in there wait for ages to get an x ray to check theres no breaks cause of the clicking but it comes back normal and hence i am sent home with crutches and told that its a sprain and to try and be non weight baring for a few days and see how i go. Of course its a little hard to do this so i didnt totally stick to that as i went to see my normal doctor a few days later and was sent for a CT scan to check there were no breaks that couldnt be picked up on x ray nope nothing! Then its onto being recommended for an mri since i am still in massive pain in the two injured areas and nowhere else. However i am again starting to doubt myself cause they are all talking chronic regional pain syndrome again which i knew it wasnt.
However i made the appointment for teh Mri and went to it hoping against hope something would show up after my doctor had changed the referal due to a not my physio sent her and fortunately it came back with tear to the syndesmosis, and tear to teh anterior inferior talofibular ligament and grade 2 sprain to the ATFL and possible tear to the calcaneofibular ligament.
By this time i was experiencing severe instability in my ankle and every step i took made my ankle just collapse out on me even on normal stable ground which was just awful and even the physios taping wasnt helping and ended up finding out that the taping had been too tight and hence was cutting off my blood flow to my foot. But anyway after the Mri came back i rung my doctors for teh results and my doctor had said no action needed! LIke WTH why would you say no action needed when the MRI comes back with an injury you would think they would refer you to an Orthopedic doctor or something.
So i instead went and got a new doctor as i really just couldnt believe they could say no action for an injured ankle that was still causing problems. But at least now we had somethings to go on.
Now we went and tried a chiropractor who pushed a few out of place bones back in however it stired my foot up so much that i had to sleep on the couch for 5 days as it just hurt to much to sleep in my bed. Then since physio had failed we tried going to a sports medicine doctor but he said oh no its all in your head forget the injury we need to get you to a pain clinic and get you on pain meds blah blah blah and made me feel totally stupid and i was in tears after that. He also rung my doctor and said to her about that and i said well since he moved my foot around a bit i have since had a bit of improvement and i really dont feel that is needed and i will pass on the appointment to sort that out at this time cause i knew it wasnt that.
Next we tried a guy that puts ligaments back in place and works with footballers in our area but that didnt help either, then i tried an osteopath he could work on the upper calf and my calf but anything to close to my ankle just didnt work and stired things up. Then my mum wanted to try this lady she goes to for her back cause she was so certain that would fix up my ankle cause by this stage i had been to the orthopedic who recommended ligament reconstruction and whatever else needed to be done but will cover that down the track. However this lady just stired up my ankle and made things worse for me too and i was in so much pain etc from her so mum appologised for making me go to her and has now Plus i have areed if i go back to her she wont be touching my foot! And even told her that if i come back to her shes not to touch my foot and finally agrees with my not wanting people to touch my foot lol i mean i am 26 but my mum was just trying to help which is really appreciated but it wasnt helping to get things better.
However she has now accepted that surgery is all thats left to get my foot stable and no longer hurting etc so i am now waiting to see my orthopedic at the end of febuary again for him to tell me what he wants to do in surgery! However my recent ultrasound came back apparently as all things normal even with the few ligaments they tested and were testing tendons but who knows i have had most of my results tested as normal when i knew things wernt normal with the instability etc so i am pretty sure he wont change what he wants to do when even he has said my ankle is very unstable and if the boot doesnt work then come back and he will do ligament reconstruction using the tendon etc so i am choosing to believe that will still happen anyway
As my ankle still hurts and is totally unstable i cant even walk straight on it most of the time its on teh side of my foot and rolls constantly. But yes so i am hoping that i still get teh reconstruction surgery done as i really need to get my life going again rather than being cooped up at home.
So now i am just waiting to see him again and discuss what he wants to do in surgery and have copies of the ultrasound to take which i managed to get copies of from the hospital lol and am really hoping to schedule surgery to get it all fixed up! He is very knowledgeable though he somehow knew from looking at my ct scans that i got pain in the back of my ankle and big toe have no idea how but yes. Cant wait to find out the plans for my surgery and get it done and my life back. Now though its just waiting and bieng cooped up at home not able to get out and live life. Plus i have also been on crutches now for 6 months and am so tired of them but have ordered some crutch paids in Tye dye purple graffiti color to give me extra padding etc for comfort whilst using them plus its something better than boring old crutches lol and gives me something bright and cheery to get around on lol
But yes cant wait till the end of febuary and then surgery to be able to have my life back even though i know its probably going to mean long periods of nwb etc but i am totally ready for it just to be able to get my life back.
The new Orthopedic fellow i am seeing though did say that my nerves etc where stired up due to my injury and the clickeg etc was cause my ankle was so loose and that its not chronic regional pain syndrome however with teh way my nerves were from being injured i could very easily be at risk of that happening. Its like finally i knew it wasnt. I was also told theres no signs of healing happening at all in my MRI scan etc too which was why i was so confused with the ultrasound as i dont feel they have been healing either but yes i have decided either way who knows and i bet i still need the reconstruction etc anyway due to how unstable it is. We were also told that he doubts it will ever heal due to the MRI not showing signs of healing at all but yes guess we will find out soon enough but it makes sense with my ankle still being the same as it was 6 months ago lol
at least mostly the same with teh pain and instability. And then he proceeded to test my ankle and made the mistake my bung one was my good foot but really made me laugh at his mistake and said yes i have a very unstable ankle hence the clicking and pressed right on the syndesmosis area and my foot jumped high into the air it hurt that much and i gasped in pain and hes like yep thats a positive test result lol but it was really nice to find a nice doctor that had more idea than anyone else what was going on and new things that was happening with my ankle that i didnt even tell him. I really liked this doc and it was a nice change i came out for once feeling like i knew what was going on and how it could be fixed up and i was finally getting my life back on track. And it felt amazing to have that feeling for once in my life after living with it for so long
Apparently also if he had seen me when it first happened i would have been in a boot for 6 weeks with no removal except to shower and been NWB too rather than being told to be on it and use it like everyone else was telling me to do.
Anyway thats my story will keep you updated as i go now though i just have 25 days till my next ortho appointment lol cant wait. Though it really does help to come to a place where others really understand what you are going through so thanks for the invite here and teh support it really does help you cope through this having others to come to with similar experiences.
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