Ankle arthritis story

collen

HI, thought I'd say hello and give a short summary of my story. I had a pretty bad injury to my ankle in Dec '21 while rock climbing. Spent months in a cast (thank god no external cage), boot, then rehabilitating my ankle to walk and it seemed to have healed well by last summer. Over the course of some weeks at the start of autumn, I had increasing joint stiffness and pain, and in October my surgeon found end stage arthritis by x-ray. I had been warned that with my type of injury and because my foot was in early stages of necrosis by the time I got to A&E, that I would be very likely to develop post-traumatic arthritis or AVN anytime from a year post injury to 15+ years after. At the time, I'd just imagined that I would have longer (had a bit of denial about the gravity of my injury) and was not fully prepared for arthritis to develop so quickly. My GP had also thought I was being a bit dumb and stated that arthritis is only a problem 45+ years old when I raised it back in October. Anyway.. I've been slowly acclimatising, I think would be a good word for it, and learning more about conservative treatment of arthritis. Seems ankle fusion surgery will be a good bet at some point but I'm not ready to go through another surgery just yet and plan to hold off on it at least 'till I finish uni.

Phew.. that was a lot to write.

If you read this maybe you also live with ankle arthritis or will have experienced something similar (I know most ankle arthritis is caused by an injury of some kind). Get in touch it would be nice to speak to someone who knows what it's like.

noddingtonpete

Hello @collen and welcome to the Community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that will be your experience as well.

I understand that you have arthritis in your ankle and looking for others experiences with this. You are in the right place and I am sure that others will connect with you to share their support and experiences. I found this article on our website which might be of interest to you.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/osteoarthritis-oa-of-the-foot-and-ankle/

As regards surgery you might have a look at

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/surgery/foot-and-ankle-surgery/

and the following article has some exercises for ankle surgery https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/your-experiences/hints-and-tips/surgery-hints-and-tips/.

Please keep posting and let us know how you are getting on and I am sure others will connect with you as well.

With very best wishes

Peter (moderator)

dansmam

I had surgery on my feet as a 12yo and was told back then (30yrs ago) that I would be susceptible to getting arthritis as my ankle bones were the wrong shape. At the time I thought it probably wouldn't happen until I was in my 70s and put it out of my mind.

However in recent years I've experienced swollen ankles and last summer started experiencing sudden searing pains in my right ankle that lasted seconds but we're very painful.

Also on two occasions my foot went into spasm and I couldn't put my foot down for 5-10mins until it passed.

I had x-rays back in 2021 but never found out the results, the doctor didn't contact me and with working I didn't have the chance to call up and ask.

Anyway I've just been told I have moderate arthritis in my knee and asked about the X-rays from 2021 and was td I also had arthritis in my ankle. At the moment it's just a dull ache and my feet can feel like they've walked miles despite maybe being on my feet 10mins.

I too am slowly acclimatising to what this means and learning to deal with the pain.