General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Ankle surgery? Rss Feed  
Moderators: k9car363, alicefoeller Reply
2020-10-30 2:57 AM


3

Subject: Ankle surgery?
I'm trying to get as much perspective as possible because I might go under the knife.

My ankle feels "loose" when I touch ground since an injury 2 years ago. At that time I fell out of a kayak with my ankle strapped in and my ankle was stretched out in plantarflexion.

When I say it feels loose now, it's hard to describe but it just feels like things are not properly aligned. I am not "rolling" the ankle at all. I have sprained my ankle about 1-2 times in my life and not for at least 7 years. It feels stable in that sense.

Any kind of activity like running, walking a lot, stairs, biking causes s lot of pain for about a week. A splint helps a ton with the day to day but doesn't do much for the athletic stuff.

Exam shows positive ant drawer and that's it.

MRI shows an old ATFL tear and thickened CFL and a sinus tarsi cyst.

I've tried PT but nothing has changed. I can live with it if I wear the brace everywhere but I really want to get back to doing tri's and running.

Any thoughts?


2020-10-30 9:33 AM
in reply to: hyperalgesia

User image


1508
1000500
Cypress, Texas
Subject: RE: Ankle surgery?

I have dealt with chronic sprained ankles.  What you have is not the same as what I have dlet with though.  The only thing I can really relate to is torn ligaments in my knee.  It was clear what damage I had done and what the options were going forward.  For me, my options were to give up all sports or to have surgery.  The choice was easy.  I did the surgery.  It was a long slow journey to get back to running after the surgery and it was the worse thing I have gone through in my life.  I would not wish knee surgery on my worst enemy, but it has given me two and a half decades of an active life and I am still going strong so the surgery was worth it.     It sounds like the doctors and PT's are not really sure what damage you did or how to go about repairing it.  That would make surgery a little bit scary, but once they open things up and can see inside they usually know a lot more than they do from the scans so if your choices are to do surgery or to give up sports for the rest of your life I would say if you are young and active then do the surgery (if the doctors know what they need to do to repair the knee).

2020-10-30 1:43 PM
in reply to: BlueBoy26


3

Subject: RE: Ankle surgery?
Thanks for the reply!

It sounds like a great decision on your part for the knee. That is a definite success story!

I think in many cases there's just a lot of grey area where the decision hinges on how desperate the patient is.

I tried to pin my orthopedist down the other day and put the decision on him, "Depending on what you find on the scope, you could decide whether ligament reconstruction is necessary" and he pretty much dismissed that idea. Second opinion did same thing. I really can't blame them. We know the ligament is damaged.

Absolutely if I knew nothing would improve and I could not run again ever, it would be an easy decision. I guess there's just the chance that it will gradually improve over the next few years...

Lateral ligament reconstruction seems to be used PRIMARILY to restore lateral stability and prevent constant rolling of the ankle. It involves cutting ligaments and resuturing them back together or to bone. But my case would involve cutting ligaments that are actually already working to prevent rolling. So it's just hard to swallow.

OTOH, if everything is successful, reconstruction would make the ankle tighter and probably less prone to inflammation and pain. I would expect if all goes well to be lightly running again in 6 months. I can't tell you what a dream come true that would be. I mean like that would be incredible...
New Thread
General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Ankle surgery? Rss Feed  
RELATED POSTS

Best running shoe - bad ankle

Started by trihtrefftz
Views: 771 Posts: 6

2020-01-23 5:25 PM trihtrefftz