Diagnosis

I went to the specialist. Good thing I brought x-rays, because he wanted to take his own. The diagnosis is chronic lateral ankle instability. At least two of the three ligaments on my ankle are severely stretched. He says my choices are ankle braces for the rest of my life or surgery. And he recommends the surgery. He's now referred me to his friend who does the same thing as he does, but does surgery more often; we can get a surgical consult.

To tell the truth, and I didn't tell him this, I'm leaning towards not having surgery. Not only is the recovery two months, but more importantly, I don't think I'm comfortable with the idea of my tendons being moved around and reassigned. I'm sure it would work, however. I guess it's like glasses. Brian and I could have eye surgery, but it's fine, we're used to glasses, they work well, just live with it. An ankle brace would be just like glasses. I'm quite used to this ankle. It would be too weird for it to suddenly be straight and firm. It wouldn't feel like me.

The trick is that the ankle can't take much more. He says the bone shows a lot of stress, and looks like a bone would look after repeated sprains. He asked if they've been getting worse, and I hadn't realized it consciously, but they have. The past two hurt in my foot as well as my ankle, and the one this weekend forced a limp, which I didn't appreciate. I guess that's what finally motivated me to go to the doctor. He says it's just a matter of time until every sprain is replaced by a fracture. That it will keep happening for the rest of my life, and keep getting worse.

Well, we'll probably get the consult, and then I'll probably just buy a new ankle brace or two, for variety's sake. I'm quite tired of the one I have now. Also, he likes my orthotics I have, he says they're the best non-custom ones. But he says I need custom, so once I get the surgery, or once I decide not to get it, I need to go back and get custom orthotics made.

The good news is that all this is what causes my hips to get misaligned. Once I have better orthotics, and wear the brace a lot more, my hips won't hurt anymore. You know, I'll have to find a brace that I could wear to the beach, in the water, since walking on the sand and pushing through the waves always sprains my ankle. Adjustments.