Long term swollen ankle

[brettlegault]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone on here can help because as of now no doctor in Winnipeg has been able to. The inside of my right ankle has been swollen since the Manitoba marathon last June, I thought I had just tweaked it during the run but after a month of not running it hadn't gone down very much so I went to the doc, he sent me to a sport doc who did x-rays and nothing showed up so he sent me to a foot doc who said I should get orthotics. I started going for physio on it in January and ordered the Orthotics - I've since used up all my physio for the year, been running with orthotics and seen the sports doc two more times but the ankle is still swollen.

Has anyone else experienced this? It is so frustrating.

Thanks,

Brett

p.s. I've been doing the stretches (given by my physiotherapist) daily for four months now and it hasn't changed anything.

[eme]

Hi!

Welcome to RM.

Fellow Winnipegger here. Can't say that I have had your issue but I know that it is hard to find really good, knowledgeable sports medicine people in Winnipeg.

Are you in pain from the swelling or is it just "there"? If there is no pain, maybe try compression socks to help with the swelling?

If you are looking for other options - For sports med docs, Legacy sports medicine is excellent. For physio, I highly recommend Jeff Prise at Hunter Physiotherapy (he does ART as well). Would massage therapy be an option to help flush out the swelling?

[ultraslacker]

was there an injury involved, or just swelling post-marathon?

[Jwolf]

was there an injury involved, or just swelling post-marathon?

Swelling that lasts a month is sign of an injury.

It seems that the injury was never properly diagnosed.

I'm sorry you've spent so much time on therapy without results- I agree with eme- time to find a better therapist. Your current physio should have changed the course of treatment within a couple weeks when there was no sign of improvement. 4 months is way too long!

I hope you find someone who can help you.

[brettlegault]

Thanks for the responses.

It was just post run - no injury occurred during the run.

[ultraslacker]

was there an injury involved, or just swelling post-marathon?

Swelling that lasts a month is sign of an injury.

Sure, but I guess what I was getting at was whether there was any indication of injury at the time, like pain, etc (as eme asked). It wouldn't be abnormal to have some swelling at the end of a marathon, and if it doesn't hurt we wouldn't worry about it in the short term.

On the other hand, my right ankle has been permanently puffy ever since my double sprain nearly two years ago, but I run fine without pain. That's why I was wondering whether there was an injury associated.

[ultraslacker]

ps: welcome to RM!

[brettlegault]

Thank you for the welcome!

So your ankle has been puffy for two years? Is there ever any pain? Mine isn't painful while I run, it just aches sometimes, I'm more worried about the fact that it has been puffy for so long.

[ultraslacker]

It'll be two years in August, yeah. I had sprained it pretty badly, and then just when it was healing (about 5 weeks later) I re-sprained it. It has been slightly puffy ever since. I run on it and it's fine now. Clicks once in awhile and it's still puffy, but it doesn't hurt and mobility is fine so I don't worry about it.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't get yours treated; if you can get it fixed then obviously it's better to fix it than to leave it. But if it's not painful and mobility isn't inhibited, then is it worthwhile to keep going from practitioner to practitioner for years? In your case you said it aches sometimes, so it probably is better to keep trying, maybe check out some of the local recommendations that eme suggested.