Has anyone ever had chronic ankle pain due to ankle sprain?

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dlantoni

New member
Hello everyone. I sprained my ankle 9 months ago, while coming down some steps. Sprain wasn’t bad as I was immediately able to walk on it and put weight. Did limp for first few days. Till 2 months after the injury, I didn’t see a doctor and continued doing some strengthening work at home. But when it wasn’t healing, I saw an orthopedic surgeon who recommended official physical therapy, I did that for 2 months and my foot got way better than before.

I then stopped going to the physical therapist but kept doing those exercises 3-4 times a week. It feels like the recovery has flattened where it’s not getting better or worse. My orthopedic doctor says at this point it’s my personal choice if I want a surgery or not, depending on how uncomfortable I am with my day to day. Btw, x rays were clear, never did MRI.

In my current state, I can squat and do all weighted lower/upper body workout without pain but long walks makes the side of foot achy and stiff.

Any suggestions or similar experiences?

Edit: My doctor also told me I have slight high arch so he gave me arch rival (support)

Thanks!
 
@dlantoni I used to skateboard in my younger days. I have sprained both ankles numerous times, some severely (I’m talking black and blue and softball size). I’ve even broken one.

With that said, years later I have zero pain in my ankles, very good ankle mobility, and never had surgery. I also never really let them heal properly - basically as soon as I could walk I was back on the board. I also never did physical therapy.

That’s the long way of saying mine healed fine and I have no residual pain - hopefully you will be the same. Not sure what they’d do with surgery but if it were me that would be a last resort.

Maybe just keep doing ankle mobility stuff and see how it goes.
 
@zennah Thanks for sharing! I keep reading that most ankle sprains gets healed in weeks so I get disappointed that mine is taking months.

In any of your ankle sprains, do you remember it taking months to heal?
 
@dlantoni You might try wearing an ankle brace just when you take long walks, and see if that helps. Then after several months, you may be strong enough to not need the brace.
 
@dlantoni Incidentally, sprains can take a long time to heal - as you've seen - and often the way to recover is build the muscles around it, as the ligament may never be quite as tight and stable as it was before your injury. So you can build strength, and get back to doing what you did before, but it sounds like you didn't fully rehab it. Hence the need for the brace, and and continued strengthening.
 
@dlantoni Yes, I have an ankle that chronically sprains, and another that was broken and arthritic at this point. Both injuries happened 10+ years ago and unfortunately I get pain in both of them from running or doing high impact activity.

Most of the pain for me comes from the ankle with the break, as it had an unsuccessful surgery and there are remaining pieces of bone in it. I don’t have any advice, just commiserating. My only recommendation is to get multiple opinions if you’re thinking about getting surgery.
 
@dlantoni When I got the surgery, there were pieces of bone in the ankle they were trying to take out (also, prior to this they'd initially thought the ankle was sprained so hadn't initially treated it right). However, they didn't get all the pieces of bone, so I still have some in my ankle that are gradually causing arthritis.

I don't remember it being very painful prior to the surgery. After the surgery, I refused to take pain meds, so the day after it hurt a lot lol. The pain went away pretty quickly in the days after the surgery. Not sure if that's what you meant, but these days it mostly is a really low level pain I don't notice unless I've done impact cardio or the weather is bad.
 
@dlantoni I sprained my ankle back in early February pretty badly from skateboarding and it’s about 99% healed now. I never got mine checked out but it was veryyyy swollen and bruised (I would assume grade 2). Still feels a little funny when I turn it but other than that it’s much better.

9 months seems like a long time for it to still be hurting. Sometimes injuries are weird like that though and chronic pain remains. Does your doctor seem concerned? Did they given any other suggestions besides surgery?
 
@caritasium Thanks for sharing! No he didn’t seem concerned. He was just like now it’s upto my discomfort level if I want to do a surgery, otherwise he said you can do whatever you want with your ankle (lifting, playing sports etc.). It’s honestly kinda confusing.
 
@dlantoni Not quite the same, but I sprained my wrist last May in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class. I was in a brace for like 2 months or so, but I was told that it could take up to a year for it to feel completely normal. It gets a little achey here and there, but seems to improve little by little as time passes. Maybe you just need to give it more time to heal properly.
 
@dlantoni i had ankle stabilisation surgery with broström repair 8 weeks ago , so offering some friendly advice only…

honestly, just be careful. i rolled/sprained my ankle 5 times in 2022 roughly every 6 weeks. just when i thought it was getting better, boom. gone again. it’s so incredibly painful, swelling and black and blue. sadly i think it’s something like 20% of acute sprains end up developing into chronic ankle instability. the worst thing you could do is leave it untreated!!

i would talk to a medical professional and look at getting some physio or MRI scans done. 9 months does sound like a long time, and if you don’t trust your ankle to be stable i think that’s worth getting it checked out. everyone’s body heals different, and you don’t know how bad a sprain and the damage is without scans.

i got an MRI which showed grade 3 tears of anterior talofibular and calcaneofibular ligaments. so i went to an orthopaedic and he still recommended physio, i tried it for 11 months but ended up developing achilles tendinopathy and was eventually referred back for the surgery, and formally diagnosed with chronic ankle instability.

now that i am doing pretty much the same rehab exercises but with the surgery i can see a definite improvement. if you think you could stick to the physio plan, and do it properly i would say there is no harm in trying that route first. if you end up needing surgery then at least you have done some prehabilitation. the surgery is no joke, recovery is a long process and its 6 months before i am back to any kind of netball court.

i should mention- i am also hypermobile, so doomed from the start possibly lol

only you can decide what you think is best for you, hope you heal, and good luck with whatever you decide, im rooting for ya!
 
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