unusual ankle problem

[dean_simcox]

Hi,

I have had some ankle pain for a few months now, but i have ignored it as i have been recovering from surgery on my hip (lucky me). I figured that my ankle would be ok after 2 months of rest, but i still have pain.

The pain is located on the medial side of the ankle towards the front, somewhere between the anterior tibial tendon and the and the tibia bone. Im not to good at describing it so i uploaded a photo of my ankle, with a cricle around the area where the pain is coming from. I also put a cross over the tibia bone and a line over the anterior tibial tendon.

The pain occurs with a mix of plantar-flexion and eversion occurs. The pain feels sharp, but its hard t exactly pin point. This makes me think that it could be cartilage inside my ankle?
I did see a physiotherapist (he seemed quite useless to be honest) and he suggested i had hurt a tenon in my ankle.

I first felt the pain after playing soccer. I didnt feel any pain during the game, but after i cooled down the pain started to set in. The pain i felt that night was rather high possibly 7 or 8 out of 10.

It has been about 2-3 months now and it hasnt gone away so im starting to get abit concerned.

I hope some one will be able to shed some light onto this situation.


Dean

[Heidi]

Hi
The area where the pain is could be the attachment point of the medial ligaments. I think it is unlikely to be cartilage if you can pin-point it so precisely.
Have you done anything for it yourself other than rest? Any exercises or self treatment etc?

[dean_simcox]

Thanks for the reply heidi,

Yeah i guess that makes sense. I just thought it was unusual that i couldn't actually touch the point that hurts, but just locate the area where it was coming from..

As for treatment I was icing the ankle when it first occurred, but since then all i have been doing is resting it.

Any suggestions?

[Heidi]

Yeah, with lots of long term ankle problems a large contributor is tight calf muscles. So the first thing I woudl suggest is stretching both calf muscles several times a day for a couple of weeks at least and see if this helps.
Also if you can do so pain-free, try strengthening the ankle with resistance band, working in all directions. You can find some examples here: http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/ankle/sprained_ankle/strengthening.php?injury=anklesprain