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Ankle pain - real or phantom?

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Posted 9/16/2010 9:25 PM (GMT 0)
I have ankle pain that comes and goes, usually my left ankle.  The pain might stay a couple of hours or a few days.  Its an achy, hollow, cold feeling - it hurts whether I'm sitting or walking, but more when I'm walking.  It feels like it might give out when I'm walking down steps.

I am wondering if this is a real physcial pain, like from inflamation or something, or is it a phantom pain and Lyme/co-infection is playing tricks with my mind?  I want to start walking on my treadmil and doing light aerobics, and I will if I won't hurt myself doing it.

Posted 9/17/2010 7:53 AM (GMT 0)
I can't tell you whether your pain is "real" or not - I think that's something you and your doctor would need to decide after ruling out anything physiological. If you're dealing with Lyme disease, it's likely to be inflammation... Have you ever tried High EPA Fish Oil tablets? Or even something like Advil, just to see if it helps at all?

I have heard (and confirm through personal experience) that Lyme tends to effect different joints at different times - it may attack your larger joints for a while (e.g. hips) and then migrate to smaller joints for a while (like your ankles, knees, and wrists) and other times effect even smaller joints like fingers and toes...
Posted 9/17/2010 1:26 PM (GMT 0)
Its hard to describe but I get something similar to that in my knee. Or I guess it is right below my right knee- its almost like an wet or icy spot, but its inside my skin/joint. Its about eh size of a quarter and only last for a little while.
It comes and goes..... where (when ??) it stops , nobody knows :D
Posted 9/17/2010 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
I find the whole pain issue rather interesting, as someone mentioned earlier, pain with lyme tends to pop up here, there and everywhere at different times.

I do get this from time to time, but I tend to have constant pain in one particular area being my back, it never ever goes, i've had it for 6 months now, and occasionally it goes down my arm, under arm, ribs and breast, usually accompanied by burning pain.

I'm wondering if anyone else has pain in one particular spot constantly? I'm a little confused because all my symptoms scream Lyme, however due to the consistent pain in one spot, I sometimes wonder if it is really Lyme.
Posted 9/20/2010 1:31 AM (GMT 0)
My opinion----all the pain is REAL----lyme/coinfections can cause all kinds of pain and it can move around and come or go, or be constant. Anything goes with this terrible disease.
Posted 9/20/2010 7:47 AM (GMT 0)
I agree, it may sometimes be random, but it is definitely real!!!!!! No question about it. And if one more doctor tells me its all in my head, I shall scream!

When will they realize that yes we all have some anxiety, who wouldn't have with all these horrific symptoms, but anxiety does not cause the pain and suffering that we are experiencing!
Posted 9/20/2010 8:15 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, I get transitory pain but I also have constant pain in my left ankle, not in the joint, but either in the muscle or skin - I can't tell. It burns and stings and aches and swells.

Before my diagnosis, on the advice of one of the litany of physicians I saw about my symptoms, I began visiting a mental health care practitioner and talked about the potential of anxiety causing my pain. Ultimately both the counselor and I came to the conclusion that my pain was not anxiety driven. Somewhere in that process I had the thought that if it had been caused by anxiety, what unthinkable depth of subconscious self-loathing I must have to inspire this saturation and intensity of pain.

I agree with the others; the pain is real.

Rose
Posted 9/20/2010 8:50 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for all your responses.  I do know that the pain is real to me and that I'm not making it up.   The ankle pain is gone for right now, thankfully.

Since it feels like I sprained my ankle - like you said, the pain is in the muscle, not the joint - I wondered if it would be safe to start exercising on my treadmill.  I don't believe my ankle is "sprained", it just feels like it but I also don't want to aggrevate the pain to hurt more. 

So I think I will begin to exercise and try to press through the pain if the pain returns, since I am probably not doing more damage.  We'll see what happens. 

Today a headache stopped me from starting to exercise.  I have got to start tomorrow!  I mean it!!!!  No more excuses!

Posted 9/20/2010 10:44 PM (GMT 0)
I would heavily suggest that you 'push through the pain' very carefully. Respect what your body is trying to tell you, because at least for me, the pain will most definitely be a lot worse the next day if I try to push through it!! Just be careful & do only a small amount at a time if there is pain.

I go through pain cycles. They come around once or twice a year & include high levels of pain. Funny, my GP is always surprised by the amount of pain I'm in every year!! LOL. You would think he would 'get it' at some point!!!
Posted 9/21/2010 5:04 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Trav.  I will be careful. 

But if I listened to my body too much it would tell  me every day not to exercise, and I know I need to exercise.  I am just naturally lazy.  Now if my ankle begins to hurt again, I may just do stretches and hand weights until it stops hurting.  But I really need to get into the routine of exercising whether I feel like it or not.

I walked slowly on my treadmill for 17 minutes today and felt good, but I stopped while I was good.  I may do more later today, but I don't want to do too much too quickly.

I have had herx reactions in the past when I have finally worked up to a good workout level where I would actually sweat (after about 3 - 4 weeks).  I would suddenly get the flu, and I'd stop exercising because I didn't feel well.  Then I would wouldn't get back into exercising for months, and then it would all start over again.  

This time, I am going to press through if I get the "flu".  But I'll do it carefully!   tongue

Posted 11/13/2010 3:53 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Missy Joy,

I have the exact (left) ankle pain you describe. I went so far as to have it x-rayed and the results were clean. No medical explanation for the pain I was having.

The pain comes and goes-- there is occasional clicking, poor flexion, Achilles tendon feels weird....etc. etc. Pain is mostly on left side of ankle like a sprain would feel. Some days there is no pain at all. Other days the pain will shoot up the side of my leg into my knee. And then it will be gone again.

I have had this for almost 7 months. Finally I put this together with other bizzarro symptoms and tennis elbow, stiff neck.....and went to LLDR.

I am on my first week of Doxy and await results of blood test.

How is your ankle now?
Posted 11/13/2010 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
What you described is exactly what I felt.  Interesting....   well, I've been off antibiotics for about 3 weeks now because my immune system wasn't/isn't strong enough to fight off the lyme.  I am having a little antibiotic holiday!  And my ankle pain has stopped altogether.  Very strange that I only have the pain while being treated.

Another thing is that while I was on antibiotics for 5 months, my neck and shoulder pains and spasms stopped completely, but a week after stopping the abxs, the pains and spasms have all come back with the migraines.  So I am almost looking forward to getting back on the abxs!  But then the ankle pain will probably begin again, with all the other weird symptoms and abx side effects. 

Lyme is never boring, that's for sure!

Posted 11/14/2010 3:34 AM (GMT 0)
I almost made myself crazy (if bartonella didn't) thinking I was imagining pain in different joints on different days.  Now I know better.  It will move around enough to think there couldn't possibly be a disease that would do that.  But lyme does.
Posted 11/14/2010 7:17 PM (GMT 0)
Was it just because I was thinking about ankle pain that it has now decided to hurt again?!!! Just when I think I figure out something that makes sense with Lyme, it changes and proves me wrong. :)
Posted 11/14/2010 9:08 PM (GMT 0)
Although it is possible for a person to have pain psychosomatically, I don't believe that anyone that has gotten over the 'scare' of having TBI's will bring on more pain in this manner. Lyme pain is not really explainable in the sense that one explanation fits each time a person gets pain, much less each person that has LD.

I have lived with this for a VERY long time.
when I was a Junior in high school, I ended up having surgery on my right knee, even though all of the tests said everything was just fine. My doc had been seeing me for over 4 years & I had started really showing LD symptoms back then (1980)- although no one knew anything about it, so fortunately he knew I wasn't making any of this up or exaggerating on how much pain I was in - it ruined my career of training horses at this point. Of course, once the surgery had been performed, my doc told me that that had been the healthiest knee he had ever operated on - he couldn't find a thing wrong!!

This pain is VERY real - even if there isn't any damage or something funky going on!!

BTW, that knee still flares up pretty bad from time to time, as well as all of the other lovely spots lyme has chosen to make hurt!! Today it's my hips & knees. :-( with a barely functioning brain. Time for a detox bath for me.
Posted 11/14/2010 9:31 PM (GMT 0)
I have the ankle pain on left side of left foot. It comes on suddenly and feels like I can't turn my foot though if I do move it - very slowly - it helps the pain to ease of a little. I have read often that 'pain' is the bodies way of telling us that particular part of the body needs moving - I have only read this from other 'lymies' - it maybe an explanation as to why many of us, it seems, feel uncomfortable 'staying still' - maybe keeping the blood flowing stops the lyme bacteria from settling - who knows!!

Since lyme I don't seem to be able to lay in one position in bed for long.
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