Ankle Swollen for 3 Years

Hey everyone,
About 3 years ago, I was walking along the beach and I rolled my ankle severly, it became incredibly purple and swollen and the lifeguard and friends were certain it was broken.
I went to hospital and got an x-ray, and it turns out it was some rare fracture that doesn't show up from x-rays (sorry I can't give more specific details, It was a long time ago). I had a cast for about a month, then got it off and it seemed fine.

Soon after, I rolled my ankle, and although it wasn't as painful as the beach incident, it became purple swollen and tender again. The thing is, I can walk on it fine, I just can't roll my right ankle either left or right, as that hurts a lot.

For the next few years, it was on and off, It would be great for a couple of months, then I'd roll it and it felt like it was being help up by paper again.
The past 6 months, it was practically perfect. Then last week I crunched my ankle so incredibly bad running at a baseball game and It feels like I'm back to square 1 with progress.

I really want to get something done about it, does anyone have recommendations? It's been crook for so long, that my right leg muscles are noticably smaller than my left, from shifting weight to my other ankle.

Any suggestions or explanations would be great.
Thanks in advance,
Mike

When you go over onto the outside of you ankle (which I presume is what you did) you can damage ligaments and muscles that stabilise the ankle. The ligaments on the outside of the ankle have a lot of proprioceptive (balance) receptors. If you damage the ligament you can affect your balance which then leaves you at risk of further injury. The muscles that run around the lateral ankle bone are used so that if you start ot go over on your ankle then the proprioceptors recognise this and then recruit the muscles to put your ankle back to neutral. If these are damaged or weak then they may not be able to neutralise the ankle.

To fix the problem you need to do some balance exercises - standing on one leg. You should be able to do this without putting your foot down for at least 30 secs. Then when you can do that close your eyes and stand on one leg (obviously stand near something you can hold onto if you start to fall). The second thing is to strngthen the muscles. The basic exercise would be cross you feet (bad one on top) and then push your feet into each other as if you are trying to turn them out. After this you need some resistance training doing that action. I use theraband which you can get from a physio clinic.

Hope that helps

damaged ligaments and muscles that stabilise the ankle have a lot of proprioceptive (balance) receptors. damage the ligament you can affect your balance which then leaves you at risk of further injury.

to get a proper rehab for your ankle you need to do
for a pain relief:-
1)get a parafene wax bottle from a local chemist shop or a physiotherapy equipmemnt supplier. you need to apply the wax on your ankle. you can also do the same in a clinic.
2)4 to five sessions of iterferrential therapy id required whioch can be availed in a physio clinic or by a home physiotherapist.


Once pain is subsided to some extent you need to do the following:

1) some balance exercises - standing on one leg. You should be able to do this without putting your foot down for at least 30 secs.
2) The second thing is to strngthen the muscles. The basic exercise would be cross you feet (bad one on top) and then push your feet into each other as if you are trying to turn them out.
3) some resistance training doing that action. I use theraband which you can get from a physio clinic.

i hope this will help you.