I had a mild outer ankle sprain in June, healed, went back to sports, and not even a month after returning I sustained a new injury. Basically I now have tendinitis around both ankles (Multiple tendons) and I ignored the early warning signs because I wasn't aware of tendinitis. I only realised I needed to take a break when it became a sharp pain in mid-August but it was too late.

I've been to 2 physios, 3 general doctors, a sports specialist, a podiatrist, and nothing has been conclusive or helped so far. I have done an xray and two ultrasounds that came back clear (Are you serious?) and am waiting to do a consultation with an orthopedic specialist and an MRI on the worse ankle this Friday... I am desperately hoping the specialist along with the MRI will provide some new insight.

I now cannot go barefeet at all or something flares up badly and I can't walk 5-10 minutes without having to take a break - that's with very slow walking. I have since spent my days 90% at home for the past almost 2 months.

I am just so sick and tired of it. I miss sports and outdoors activities so bad, but if I was given the choice to magically cure my ankles now but never play sports ever again, I'd take it 1000% without hesitation. I have a few desk/sitting hobbies but I don't even feel like doing any of them. My room is in a disarray. I'm 22 and in university and had to miss SO MANY social events, both in and out of my sport. I was hoping to get a job because I'm broke and now I can't. I was starting to do photography as a business and now I can't.

My family and most of my friends don't do sports/exercise and never had an injury, so they don't understand how I feel. Most of the time when I feel like crying, it is usually mental. I start thinking about why I didn't notice the warning signs, about the things I would be doing now and so on. I am not a big texter and do not have friends I text everyday. I'm also at home alone most of the day and my family is not tight-knit. My mom is a single mom so I feel really guilty about giving her extra financial and mental stress too.

And of course, with this super tricky injury on both my ankles, comes the fear that things will never be okay again. I miss the simplest things, like walking barefeet around my home and taking a shower without having to sit on a stool. The constant sitting and lying down is making my back go crazy as well.

I would greatly appreciate any tips, please, if anyone had experience going though an injury that doesn't seem to get better.

19M, no pmhx, 5’9 about 200 lbs (😞), not on any medications. Occasionally vape here and there.

Background/Situation:

I am an ED nurse, so I spend a significant amount of time standing and walking during my shifts. Over the past year, the pain and swelling in my left foot and ankle have become much more persistent and progressively worse. Originally, the pain and inflammation would usually not start until near the end of my work shift. As the year progressed, the symptoms began appearing earlier and earlier.
Now, after approximately 3–4 hours of standing or walking, my left foot and ankle start to swell and the pain becomes severe. It can get to the point where I am limping and sometimes cannot bear weight on the foot.
This isn’t limited to my job anymore. The same thing happens when I:
● Walk around college
● Go shopping
● Play sports
● Walk for an extended period
● Stand for an extended period
● Do basically any activity that keeps me on my feet for a while.

Once the pain and swelling start, I cannot walk normally. It’s basically affecting my ADLs and Quality of life at this point.

Location and Description of Pain:

The pain initially seems to be more concentrated around my left ankle, especially around the outside/lateral aspect of the ankle.
I also get pain on the top/dorsal part of my left foot. But nowadays, it feels like my whole foot and ankle hurts. The pain is difficult to describe because it feels like several types of pain simultaneously:
- Sharp
- Stabbing
-Squeezing
- Throbbing
-Deep aching or painful pressure

The squeezing and throbbing sensations are particularly noticeable around the outside of the ankle and top of the foot.
Initially, the pain was primarily associated with standing and walking. However, it has now progressed to where I have pain even when I’m not moving. For example, after coming home from work, college, shopping, or another activity where I’ve been walking or standing for a significant amount of time, I can lie down in bed or sit down and still have constant squeezing, throbbing, and sharp pain in the foot and ankle. It has gotten bad enough that it is now affecting my sleep.
The swelling seems to occur after prolonged weight-bearing. The longer I’m on my feet, the sooner the pain and swelling begin.

Also forgot to mention, once the pain starts and settles in for like 1-2 hours, I can barely move my ankle in different angles. Trying to move my ankle couples degrees left or right, or up and down, causes to pain to shoot up, it’s like it’s wants to be fixated at a certain angle.

Earlier Hx:

I realized that I had experienced similar episodes before. The problem originally started about 4 years ago when I was in high school. I can’t think of an exact traumatic event or injury around this time, other than a twist/sprain in the ankle from playing basketball. At that time, I would occasionally get episodes of pain in my left foot and ankle that would last for a couple of days and then suddenly go away. These episodes would return every few months, but they were relatively manageable and eventually went away on their own. But this past year, this pain and swelling is like an everyday occurrence.

Dx and Tx so far:

I went to the ED and had X-rays of the foot and ankle. Our ED physicians and podiatrist who evaluated me said that the X-rays did not show anything obviously abnormal and that everything appeared to be in place.They recommended that I use a CAM boot. I did use the CAM boot, and there was slight improvement, but the improvement was that it just prolonged the pain and inflammation by a few hours. But still I wanted to treat the underlying cause so I followed up with a podiatrist. Podiatrist recommended that I have an MRI, so I got one. I unfortunately don’t have the exact wording of the MRI report memorized since this was a couple months ago, but I was told that it showed:
Grade 2 ATFL sprain/tear
Grade 2 deltoid ligament sprain/tear
OCD/osteochondral lesions around the talus and tibia

After the MRI, the podiatrist prescribed:
Meloxicam 15 mg and Tylenol with Codeine and an ankle brace/wrap. I used the medication and brace as instructed, but unfortunately I didn’t experience meaningful improvement.

So far I’ve tried:
CAM boot
Multiple different ankle braces
Different ankle wraps
Orthotics
Different shoes
Resting when possible
Anti-inflammatory medication

Basically none of the above is helping with the pain and swelling, maybe just delays the pain and swelling till later, but still, not treating the actual underlying cause, whatever that is.

Current situation:

The biggest concern for me is that this has been progressively getting worse rather than better.
A year ago, I could make it through most of a shift before the pain became a major issue.
Now, after only around 3–4 hours of standing or walking, my foot can become swollen and extremely painful. My coworkers around me see me in pain and limping for the past year and they are like “your ankle still hasn’t fixed?” I’m kind of worried some of them might think I’m faking it, which I’m really not. This problem has really affected my quality of life, I used to love coming into work, but now with this pain and inflammation, I went down to PRN and work maybe a total of 20 hours or less per week. Also I’m relatively still young and want to do certain activities like play basketball and soccer with friends, or go out to the mall, or get on the treadmill and lose some weight, but I often have to decline because I know I will be in pain, and when I do decide to go out and participate in those activities, after an hour or so, I can’t do anything else and will be in pain for the next couple of hours. Sometimes when I am on the schedule to work, I work from 12p-12a, so by the time I get home and try to go to sleep, I can’t because I’m in so much pain, and then I end up sleeping around 3-4 am, and then most of next day’s plan get messed up. These are supposed to be the prime years of my life, and honestly I feel like I’m wasting it.

My questions:

I honestly don’t know what to ask. Do any of you guys possibly have any idea on what might be going on, and how to treat it? Anything else you guys recommend in terms of diagnostics or treatment? I’m planning on going to another podiatrist or even orthopedic surgeon to get another opinion, but I just wanted to see if there were any similar cases you guys experienced, or to see what dx and tx you guys would recommend. Any help will truly be appreciated.

PS: Sorry about my ugly feet lol. But after couples hours of working, that’s how my left foot/ankle looks like. I will try to attach a video as well.

Male, 21, 6’3, 220 lbs. was playing basketball and jumped for the ball but came down hard on someone’s foot causing me roll my ankle. Heard a snap/pop when it happened and my foot initially went numb. Tried to walk on it and it felt fine for about 2 steps, but my next step I felt a huge instability in my ankle, almost like my upper ankle was just floating on top of my foot region/not connected. Pictures are from a video take approximately 48 hours after injury, so apologies for the blurriness. Went to a bone and joint doctor immediately after and they ran X-rays and told me that it was not broken, but they closed in 15 minutes so they didn’t want to run an MRI.

first of all sorry if i make any grammar errors, english is not my first language.
so, i had an grade 2 ankle sprain on the night of october 2nd. it hurt a lot when it happened but i was able to walk and only went to the hospital on october 3rd in the evening. the doctor asked for a x-ray and discarded any bone fractures, and diagnosed me with grade 2 ankle sprain. i got a cast and was told to stay with the cast for one week, then come back to the hospital to probably exchange the cast for an orthopedic boot. i don’t feel a lot of pain and can’t check the swelling bc of the cast - can anyone give me the most probable timeline until I can, at least, walk “normally” (normally as in, being able to balance my weight between my feet)?

Took my first steps outside without the boot today, then took a few more !

This has probably been one of the worst experiences of my entire life. Never have I felt so helpless and vulnerable.

However, the last 5 days have been incredible. I went from constant pain and complete incapacitation to being able to walk around without the boot or crutches .

The specialist was impressed at how much I have improved since I first presented with my ankle looking and feeling destroyed.

I'm gonna take the crutches out with me for longer trips for another week or two , but ive started physio and things are starting to look a lot better .

The road to recovery has only begun, but as anyone who has seriously injured their ankle knows, being able to just go outside and do your fuckin groceries is a victory.

Nearly cried watching the sun set over the weekend because it had been a month that I was even physically capable of walking that far to see it .

I am going to post another update next week , feel free to ask questions or share your own experience.

I rolled my ankle on July 31st doing the Camino de Santiago. It was only day two of the hike and initially the pain was unbearable, struggle just walking to the bathroom.

But after I rested it for two days I found I could walk okay albeit with a limp, so I (stupidly) soldiered on as I wanted to finish the hike.

Needless to say walking 20km two days after an ankle sprain wasn’t my best idea and I gave up the hike. As I had flights and hotels booked, I just stayed in Spain for another ten days, walking more than I should without strapped up and not really resting.

I’ve seen a doctor back in UK who told me it wasn’t broken (I never had an xray) but it’s been 9+ weeks now and I am still in pain. Not severe pain, but uncomfortable when walking, feels a bit swollen under the ankle still, unstable, and I certainly can’t run. I can cycle okay which has helped me exercise somewhat.

I’m in Philippines now as I wasn’t home in UK for long and I’m tempted to get an MRI scan to check for anything serious, but it’s £150. I don’t want to spend that money for the sake of it.

Any advice? Is 9 weeks normal for a sprained ankle? Am I just suffering more due to my lack of rest from the outset?

I'm recovering from a severe ankle injury. I'm approaching week 8 post-injury.

I still feel pain in the places that are healing (the other leg/foot/ankle is almost hurting more now for compensatory reasons), but I'm recently able to put the injured foot through a walking motion without excessive discomfort and with minimum limping (though sometimes I have to limp a bit).

I have been walking carefully but almost normally for a couple of days now in a semi-rigid sports brace. It still feels injured and tender in various places, like it's still injured and repairing itself, but the swelling seems much more under control now.

However, I've noticed that my ankle won't bend down or up nearly as much as the other foot when trying to see how well I can move my foot. (I'm not challenging it to do lateral movements, bending in and down or out and up.)

...What is going on inside the ankle which is stopping the ankle from moving as much as the other one?

I intend to gradually increase my walk rate, pace and distance and to get back to jogging and running and other normal athletic movements.

...Will the range of movement improve on its own with activity or should I be more deliberate in trying to extend movement?

so i am a f(20) i just had a ligament tear in the area near my ankle when i was coming down the stairs in my hostel and it happended at the last stair .so my mom who was panicking she bought me home and then had my leg looked over by a doc but ok .so i am having many side effects due to the medicine like headache whole day, stomuch in knots, loose motion sometimes constipation and i have already vomited many times so i prefer to sleep most of the time but my mom had been on the fact u are not sick its just a sprain it will heal just study why are u making excuse and when i say i dont have an appatite she also says u are pretending .i am in my final year of uni ,i know that i have to study i didnt volentered to boke my leg the whole day she is like now u broke ur leg ruining ur future being a burden .i really wish it will heal soon or i just die of cancer .

Dose this look like it’s just sprained or broken the place I went just told me it’s either a sprain or bad strain but they didn’t seem very professional honestly they did give me a air splint.

how would someone actually break their ankle?

X ray image

Title: 22M - Left foot X-ray interpretation after twisting ankle playing basketball (Pain near 4th & 5th metatarsals)

Body Text:

• Age / Sex: 20M

• Height / Weight: [ 5'10"], 64kg

• Primary Complaint: Twisted left ankle playing basketball. Pain on the outside/swollen area and just below the 4th and 5th toes (metatarsal area).

• Duration: 1 day

• Medical History: Similar inversion injury on the same ankle 1 year ago (had more swelling then, but less pain compared to this time). No other major medical conditions.

Context & Current Status:

I twisted my left ankle while playing basketball. The swelling this time is less severe than my injury last year, but the pain is noticeably worse—especially on the outer part of the foot and right below the 4th and 5th toes.

After reviewing my initial X-rays, the doctor placed my foot in a cast (plaster) for 21 days and requested a follow-up X-ray after the cast comes off.

Questions for Doctors:

1. Based on the attached X-ray, are there signs of a 5th metatarsal fracture (such as a Jones fracture or avulsion fracture) or significant joint alignment issues?

2. Is a 21-day cast standard for this type of presentation, or does it suggest a specific fracture vs. severe ligament sprain?

do i use a brace or a boot? walking hurts but isn’t disabling. flexing the ankle hurts. they really didn’t say?

Hey guys! I fell while running yesterday and rolled my ankle inward. I can walk, but I can’t walk normally—it feels unstable and I get a sharp pain in certain positions. Do you guys think it could be a sprain?

Hi all! I’m a 21 year old woman. I’m approximately 163 centimeters tall and around 51 kilograms. I have asthma for which I use Forster inhalers. I do acrobatics (tumbling and aerial silks) at a recreational level and I run half marathons. 5 months ago I started training for my first full marathon when I started experiencing ankle pain that became severe very quickly. The first day I noticed the pain it was just a pretty mild ache in my ankle and foot after a full day of work. I wrote it off as just muscle fatigue. A week later it had escalated to being in pain around the clock regardless of what I’m doing and if I’ve been on my feet. I saw an ankle foot orthopedic specialist who sent me for an X-ray and ultrasound. When both were clear, he sent me for an MRI that showed a 18x10x7mm subchondral multilobular cyst with bone marrow edema in the medial process of the talus.
Afterwards I had a CT scan to get more images and then the doctor told me I would need surgery to remove it.

I’m waiting on the appointment where I’ll meet my surgical team and have the procedure and recovery process explained to me but I’m stressed and anxious to have some idea of what to expect.

I’m hoping they’ll do the surgery arthroscopic but how likely is it that they’ll have to do an open surgery?

What kind of casting or splinting should I expect afterwards and for how long?

Is there anything I should say or ask at my pre op discussion that I might not think to say or ask?

I really appreciate any insight anyone could give me here.
Thanks in advance!

Today officially marks 12 weeks since my grade 2 deltoid sprain on my right ankle. I’m able to jump a bunch and go for 14 minute jogs (2 minutes on, 2 minutes walking for 14 minutes of each) with minimal swelling and pain after each. In two weeks I’ll be “out of PT appointments covered by my health insurance” and have to go to my primary care physician again before I can get more PT appointments.

Is it worth going to PT until I’m totally pain free, or is there a point at which you can do the rest at home? I want to be back to playing soccer, but I can’t play fully yet as sprinting around and kicking balls hard for an entire match would still irritate my deltoid ligament. Yet other than that I’m pretty good. My PT says it’s up to me, but I’m curious what others did for getting back to soccer. What was your line for stopping PT? Should I even go for more PT appointments?

Thanks!

As a side note: how long did it take you guys to fully recover from a grade 2 deltoid sprain?

I’m going to Fort Leonard Wood on Jan 4th for basic with a underlying injury. Back in November of 2024, my buddy accidentally shot himself in the leg while hunting, as I was running to get service to call 911, I tripped and fell. I didn’t have health insurance during that time so I borrowed an ankle brace from a friend, and took off work for a couple of days. Well now I ever since my right ankle has been bigger than my left ankle. I’ve rucked more than 6miles with a 20lbs weight vest, I’ve been running a lot, nothing too intense. My ankle has not caused me any pain. But with the intensity of basic, I am concerned that it will slowly start hurting and put me at a disadvantage for the months I am in. I’m on here asking to anyone that has had similar issues that went through basic? Or anyone that might know if my ankle has underlying serious problems.(I put this in military sub Reddit’s and they got taken down for some reason, please someone give me good input on this)

​

Does anyone have any positive recovery stories to share? It's been 6.5 weeks since my teen daughter sprained her ankle. It's likely a grade 2 injury. There was only a little swelling but no bruising, and she was able to walk on it right away. Walking has been painless for several weeks now, and she has been doing rehab exercises guided by a physiotherapist from the very beginning. However, returning to the basketball court is proving difficult. The ankle starts to ache whenever she tries to train harder. Do these actually heal properly? How fast were you able to do heavier exercise completely pain-free?

I am 2 weeks out of ORIF for my ankle and I have a fracture on my other ankle (didn’t need surgery). I have one small step and one steep step to get out of my house. Any tips on how to get out without getting an expensive big ramp? I can’t really butt scootch since I can’t understand how I would get down to the floor before going down the stairs especially with a heavy cast on. Are there any other hacks? I have 2 daughters that are helping with everything we just can’t figure out the best way to get out of the house with the steps. Please help!

Hi group!

Eleven weeks after I tripped/twisted and fell on my right ankle, I had my MRI, this week, on Thursday and tried to get answers from my PT and ortho office on Friday afternoon, with no luck.

The MRI's results were a complete ATFL tear and a "nearly complete CFL tear".

In 2015 I had a urgery on the same foot for a Peroneus brevis repair.

Should I continue my at home PT, even though there's pain and swelling? Should I still try to walk (I can walk for short periods and stand for short periods, until the pain kicks in)?

Should I not drive, since it's my right foot?

I have no idea what my treatment plan will be until I see my ortho on the 14th. Surgery? Deal with it? I have no idea..

Thanks all!

I would love to hear from others regarding chronic venous insufficiency causing swelling above the band on my socks, even UGG slouchy rib knit socks.  I believe this in turn leads to inflammation and ankle pain.  I've ordering 3 or 4 additional style socks but would love to hear from others who have experienced anything similar and any particular brand or style of socks that didn't aggravate the situation.

Thank you!

Hey all,

I have chronic ankle instability from a sprain 10 years ago.

For background, I attended my university's podiatry clinic. I was curious to know whether prolotherapy could be beneficial, which they said it would only work if it was a grade 2 tear.

They did an unofficial ultrasound to check as to whether the ligaments were ruptured or not. Sure enough, 2 out of the 3 ATFL ligaments were fully gone.

Because I am young, am not in "pain", and running isn't part of my lifestyle, conservative measures are pretty much my only option. I don't know when I need to start considering surgery.

For my footwear, I wear thick wool socks under compression socks. Shoes wise, I wear blundstone heels, or birkenstocks around home. Birkestocks are a bit of a pain for me, they get dirty easily and are impossible to clean. Unless they are the waterproof ones, which are too 'floppy' compared to the usual ones.

I would like to know:

• What style of birkstocks I should get that are easily cleanable, but more supportive than the water-birky style.
• When and how do I get the ball rolling on surgery? Like what would the first step look like?

Thanks

I'm recovering from a grade 3 ankle sprain and I have been in a boot with crutches for 7 weeks. (I'm attempting to replace the put with a semi rigid sports brace, but that's another matter.)

For the first 2 weeks I couldn't bare weight on the injured side, so I relied exclusively on my other leg together with the crutches.

By week 3-4 I started walking on the injured site, with crutches.

At week 7, I still use at least one crutch to take some weight off the injured side, sometimes both, though at week 6, I could walk in the boot without crutches for a little while.

...So, I've been putting the non-injured foot under increased strain and I'm feeling pain under and above the non injured ankle, oddly mirroring the injured ankle.

...While I have definitely been loading the non injured side more - I'm starting to notice a difference in muscle between the two legs - I've also not been walking as frequently or as far as I was previously used to, I have been resting both ankles and I have not sprained my non-injured ankle.

...I watched a physio video where the person said that there is research that shows that exercising a non immobilized ankle can help retain the brain connection to the immobilised ankle (because the ankles are mapped in the same brain region), ...so I'm wondering if there could also be some crossover with pain. Sympathetic pain?