Baffling 10 month ankle sprain

[physiofi]

Hi Sam,

Sorry to hear you're suffering with ankle pain. Thought I would add my 2 cents although I don't have extensive experience with ankles - and they can be fiddly at the best of times! While reading your post, I'll admit, as Karen did, it did crop up in my mind that perhaps it was tibialis posterior dysfunction, as that is notoriously difficult to rehab and can respond poorly. Where specifically are you getting the pain? Is it on the inside or outside of your ankle? When you say front and back of calf, do you mean back of leg and shin?

Are you doing any rehab or specific exercises at home now? A suggestion would be to work hard on balance and your ankle proprioception (your joint's sense of awareness of what position it's in). If you are very hypermobile (lax ligaments), your proprioception will be poorer even without any prior injury, so it is important to work on improving this. Examples could be: single leg standing, single leg standing with heel raise / semi squat, single leg standing with eyes closed, throwing and catching a ball (or passing it around body) while standing on one leg, work on wobbleboards etc.

P.S. with regards to insoles - do you still have them / wear them? do you wear them the majority of the time you're on your feet? they do take a while to get used to and you won't see the improvements immediately...give it a few months' if you haven't already (obviously irrelevant if you have).