A few months ago I started with a pain on the outside of my right ankle just below my ankle bone. I don't know what caused it, it just started hurting as I was cooking in my kitchen one lunchtime. A few weeks later I was seen by an NHS physio who said I'm sprained a ligament in my ankle. There was still slight swelling in the area and it was giving me occasional pain. He gave me a set of stretching exercises to do (standing facing a counter top and leaning in towards it to stretch the muscle in my back of my ankles, feet turned in, turned out and forwards, hold for 30 seconds, 8 reps of each position) and told me to ice my ankle for 25 minutes 5 times a day.

I had difficulty doing the exercises (I have suffered with ME/CFS and Reactive Arthritis for the past 20 years) but I gave it my best shot. I had the most trouble with the ice though. I used a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a hand towel. After 25 minutes my foot was very cold and a few minutes later I had a very sharp pain going through my ankle as if someone had hammered a red hot nail through it under my ankle bone. The pain lasted about 30 seconds and was 8/10 on the pain scale, I had to breathe through the pain and it actually brought a tear to my eye. Gradually the pain eased off but it was still sore for an hour afterwards.

This happened several times after my ankle being on ice so I telephoned the physio. He said I must carry on with the ice and the exercises if I wanted to heal my ankle. I explained that I couldn't do that because it was making things worse and he coudln't offer me any other advice because the ice and exercises should not have caused the pain.

I still suffer the odd twinge from my ankle and it occasionally swells up. Does anyone have any idea why the pain got worse after treatment? Is there anything else I could try?

Thank you!

Clair

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