Over 1yr of ankle problems. Need some answers please. - Foot Problems Message Board

dxma12d · 03-03-2008, 08:37 PM

I am a 24 yr old athletic male. My main sport is Basketball and I have severely rolled my ankle over 10 times as long as I've been playing. About a year ago I went snowboarding and went off of a few jumps. After the jumps my ankle felt tight and and when I got home to remove my boots, my ankle was swollen. It was no big deal at the time as I have injured it many times.

Then my ankle started to swell when I played basketball to the point where I had no ROM and I didnt even roll it. It would even swell on days when I would be walking around the store doing errands, and the pain would sometimes be so severe that I would go to the ER because it hurt so bad. I have had X-Rays, MRI, a Bone Scan, and Blood tests for Osteo and Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, and Gout. All of these test were negative. I even had a cortizone shot and that didnt help.

Its been over a year of frustration not being able to play the sport that I love and enjoy and it has even interfered with my work because I have to walk alot.

I am currently thinking about have arthroscopic surgery for them to see whats going on with my ankle.

If anyone knows whats going on, or has had the same problems and symptoms that I have, Please shed some light on this for me.

Thank You So Very Much.

emmie54 · 03-03-2008, 09:56 PM

I just had arthroscopy where the ortho surgeon removed massive amounts of scar tissue that didn't show up on MRI. Mine was from previous surgeries but numerous ankle sprains can produce it as well. have you seen a foot and ankle orthopaedic surgeon? My regular ortho sent me to one when I first started having problems and he found things on the MRI that the report didn't even make notation of.

janewhite1 · 03-04-2008, 09:35 AM

Emmie's experience, having an ankle arthroscopy that finds all kinds of problems the MRI missed, is very common. MRI's just don't seem to work as well on feet as they do on some other areas of the body--and many doctors don't recognize that. I'm having my arthroscopic surgery in 15 days, for something called anterolateral impingement syndrome, and your problems sound a lot like mine.

I walk with a cane, I've learned to sleep with my feet hanging off the end of the bed so I don't accidentally bend my ankles in a painful way. When I first saw my surgeon, he said, there are two types of chronic problems following ankle sprains. One is, it gives way, then hurts, the other is, it holds up, but is painful. The first is instability. Easier to diagnose, harder to fix. The other is what I've got. Also, he had me squat down. That hurt like crazy. Then he gave me a cortisone shot into a very particular spot, and it helped. For about 10 days, I was about 60% better, even after it wore off, it hasn't returned to being quite as bad as it was before the shot.

Go see a doctor who is a board-certified foot and ankle surgeon (not the same as podiatrist). Anyone else is probably useless for this.

dtjag1 · 03-04-2008, 09:35 AM

Instist on a foot & ankle ortho specialist.

emmie54 · 03-04-2008, 09:40 AM

Jane, my dx was impingement syndrome, too. very, very painful. re: MRI's. I had torn both peroneals (surgery #2, PTTD being #1) and only one showed up on MRI. The other was plain as day when he got in there.