Chronic Ankle Pain

[emily]

A little background to help you understand my frustration.

2003- Sprained (as they told me) my ankle.

2003-2007: Chronic pain, on the outside of my ankle. 6 different pain medications, none made the pain go away. I had pain while just sitting on the couch. During this time I was a cheerleader, ran track and cross country. I saw 4 different specialists, had countless x- rays, MRIs and injections. I finally found a Doctor who knew what it was. I had surgery to remove the scar tissue that was wrapping around my peroneal tendons (I apparently tore my tendon numerous times)

2008- Finished physical therapy

2008- 2009: ankle pain again, just from walking across campus. Pain medications don't work.

any suggestions for my next action.

[Heidi]

Hi Emily,

Did you ever get rid of your pain following surgery? Has it been constant or has it come back again?

What did your physical therapy consist of? Was it all exercise based or was there soft tissue work as well...such as massage etc?

[emily]

Well, I'm not positive about the pain. I think the pain faded a little bit, but then came back. When it did come back, it was slowly. My physical therapy consisted of exercise and they put massage pads in the areas and let the machine run for 10 min.

[Heidi]

I wpuld advise some soft tissue therapy. Exercise therapy is an important part of the treatment process, however in my opinion, so is soft tissue work. A lot of physical therapists now seem to overlook this.

Try to find one that does do this kind of treatment (i.e. massage, trigger pointing, MET's etc etc)