HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

OA in my ankle?

Support Forums
>
Osteoarthritis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/12/2009 5:07 AM (GMT 0)
Hi,

I hope somebody can help me. I fractured my ankle (fibula) in January 09. Was in a cast and crutches for 10 weeks. Used a brace after that for another 8 weeks. X-rays every few months would say slight continued healing. I am unemployed so had to stop going to the Dr. but he said it looked like I was healing fine. It is now September and I have not been pain free since the fracture. My ankle gets very stiff if I sit for a time, when I get up in the morning. I cannot bend my foot up, like walking up a hill. I have a lot of pain in the joint and it swells every day and it also pops and cracks. The symptoms of Osteoarthritis sound exactly like what I am experiencing. Can I have it this bad already? 8 months since the fracture?
Thanks for your help!

SPower

forgot to mention, I am 49, female, not overweight, very healthy except for my ankle.

Post Edited (spower) : 9/11/2009 11:14:31 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/13/2009 2:23 PM (GMT 0)
Anybody??? :-(
Posted 9/13/2009 2:57 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry, it gets slow around here. I don't have OA in my ankle, but in my back from a car accident 15 years ago. Except for the place, it sounds like me.
Have you tried a free clinic to get checked? Some none profit hospitals will work with you on X-rays.

Good luck.

Joy
Posted 9/13/2009 3:22 PM (GMT 0)
It's entirely possible to get traumatic arthritis in a joint that's been injured. However, your fracture wasn't in the joint itself, but in the bone above it.

I agree that you really do need to have your ankle checked, because even as we get older I would expect a fracture to be healed in the 18 weeks you were treated. I had a fracture of both my tibia and fibula just above the ankle a few years ago (I was older than 49 at the time). Because I have chronic serious joint pain, I misinterpreted the pain as arthritis and didn't go to the doctor for a couple of months. By that time the fractures were nearly healed. By the time she got me to surgery two weeks later, they were completely healed and she had to re-break the bones in order to straighten them.

So really, you should have been essentially healed at ten weeks and if you weren't there may be some factor other than arthritis at work here.

Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.
Posted 9/15/2009 1:02 AM (GMT 0)
When I fell on the ice last winter, I was fine for a few weeks and then hurt with the most dramatic pain I've ever experienced in my life - it turned out I'd developed bursitis in the healing. So....it's possible you developed some OA there, but maybe some other system was affected in the injury, that didn't manifest until later? Or a compensatory pain, maybe you favored it somehow and something else went out of whack?
Sorry, I really don't know, just trying to brainstorm with you!
Best of luck to you and keep us posted!
Posted 9/15/2009 1:27 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for replying....I just don't know what to think at this point. The symptoms I have are just like those of OA but also sounds logical that that may not be what it is. My last x-rays were in July and the Dr. said all looks fine. I asked why I am having so much pain, he said some times some people just take longer to heal. My ankle is very stiff when I get up in the morning and by the end of a busy day I am almost crippled. Pain and swelling at or near where the fracture was and pain that goes along the outside of my foot around to my heel. I did go for a second opinion, he looked at the x-rays and said the same thing as the first Dr.
Since I am unemployed I may just tough it out a little longer and see how it goes. If no improvement, I guess I will try another Dr.
Posted 9/15/2009 12:45 PM (GMT 0)
What can you do to relieve the pain? A particular position, rest, gentle stretching....? It sure doesn't sound right. But, gosh, the whole unemployment and medical care thing! That makes it so hard - I feel for you. Does your local hospital have a clinic where you might be seen?
Posted 9/15/2009 11:32 PM (GMT 0)

spower,

I am so sorry to read of the long healing process you have been going through and yet you still have pain.

Since there is such a wide range of injuries, there is also a wide range of how people heal after their injury. X-rays are the most common way to evaluate an injured ankle. Sometimes, a computed tomography (CT, or CAT) scan is done to further evaluate ankle injuries. For some ankle fractures, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be done to evaluate the ankle ligaments.

Although most people return to normal daily activities, except for sports, within 3 to 4 months, studies have shown that people can still be recovering up to 2 years after their ankle fractures.

I had surgery for osteo on my great toe and it took a good year for me to be able to wear anything but a tennis shoe and the pain walking on it was still there but continued to recede until it no longer bothers me.

If you continue to feel so much pain you may want to seek a second opinion.  Take care and know we are here for you.

Kitt


Posted 9/16/2009 2:46 PM (GMT 0)
The only pain relief I have is basically not using it. But if I stretch it will pop and that hurts. I am not one to take pills, the pain has to be really bad for me to take something. Not sure of any clinics around here where I may be able to go, and besides they kind of scare me, you get what you pay for?
I had heard it could take up to a year to heal, had not heard 2 years, but I guess at my age.....anyway, that is why I figured I would give it some more time. January will be a year and maybe by then I will have a job (fingers crossed). In the meantime if I am going to be out all day on my feet I usually wear a brace, it gives it a little more support.
Posted 9/16/2009 3:44 PM (GMT 0)
Have you tried icing the area to see if that helps with the pain? I need TKR's in both knees and every night I have to ice both and that has been a great pain easer. Hope that helps.
Posted 9/18/2009 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah tried ice but that makes it hurt more. I am going to tuff this out a while longer to see of there is any improvement and if not I will try another Dr.
Posted 9/18/2009 7:33 PM (GMT 0)
I think a second opinion might be called for in your case. Good luck and keep us posted.

Hugs
Gail*Nanners*
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply