Desperate

Hello and welcome from me too.

I'm sorry you're in so much pain. I have RA, which led to OA, and I remember (though I try not to :roll: ) how awful it was when my ankles were really bad. I had two young sons to look after at the time too. I do empathise. Ankle pain is horrible as it's impossible to avoid unless one leads a very sedentary life which will then cause other problems.

My own ankles eventually fused themselves and are virtually pain-free now. However, I don't recommend leaving nature to take its course if it can be avoided. I was lucky in that I was prescribed surgical shoes for various reasons and they helped to ensure that my ankles fused at a good angle.

Steroid injections into joints are limited precisely because, although they can seem magical, they can also cause damage. And, the more we have, the less they seem to work.

I think ankle replacements are usually reserved for the elderly, partly because they have a limited lifespan (about ten years) and partly because younger people put greater demands on them thus limiting their lifespan even further. There are 28(?) bones in the foot so it's nowhere near as simple a replacement as a hip or knee.

I can, however, thoroughly recommend fusion. It works for me, even as a DIY job

If you'd like more answers you might like to re-post on the Living With Arthritis forum. More people will see your thread there though we don't have a lot of 'ankle people'. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hi Davak40,
I am sorry to hear that you are going through this. I know that having to make a decision about the best way forward is agony in itself. I understand the resistance to a fusion too. I know it feels like the last resort on the block. I know this because I watched my 24yr old son agonise through this when he was left with bone on bone arthritis following an accident at 22 yrs old. Like you, he had a couple of rounds of injections into the joint. The relief was pretty temporary though and he swears that it accelerated the deterioration. But who really knows when something is progressive anyway. My son looked at every avenue to avoid fusion including some pretty horrendous treatments with poor success rates such as distractions. He didn't want a fusion because he was scared of what it would mean for his future. But he didn't have any life in the now. You say you are too young for a fusion, another view is that you are too young not to be living your life and getting on with it pain free. You are too young to be living in daily pain. It has now been 16 months since my lad had his fusion and he now says that he had wishes he had just got on with it sooner. He is not going to be running anymore marathons but to see him walk you can hardly tell. But it is a huge decision and everyone needs to go through their own process. My heart goes out to you.