Shooting pain at back of outer ankle

Hi all,

I am a little desperate (major understatement) and very much depressed about solving my ongoing pain in my left ankle. I would be appreciative of your thoughts, suggestions or maybe just to know that I am not alone with these types of problems. Apologies in advance for my rambling narrative.

Early last year (16th January 2012) I damaged my left ankle while playing football in a sports hall. I was running to the left while kicking the football with my right foot (Nb. I scored!). Unfortunately my left foot, which at this point was bearing all of my weight (FYI 5 foot 10 inches, 12 stone, 26 years old), landed on the side of a mat which resulted in me twisting the outer side of my left ankle. I must state that I felt a popping sensation but did not actually hear as such nor did anyone else in the vicinity.

I was taken to a NHS hospital to check if any bones had been broken. After an x-ray I was told that nothing had been broken and with the correct use of rest, ice, compression and elevation that everything would heal properly. There was a lot bruising around the back and the front of my ankle which I thought natural for this type of injury.

I took the decision to see a private physiotherapist to get me back to sports quicker. All was going well and after 3/4 appointments I felt nearly 100% again. Unfortunately I had booked a holiday on the 3rd of February to Dublin, Ireland for a weekend with my mates. I conferred with my physio whether or not I could go as heavy drinking would be involved. She told me that if I wore a normal ankle brace all weekend and did not run at any time that I should be fine. In retrospect maybe I should have taken the decision to not go myself. Alas I did not.

After my first night out (Saturday the 3rd) in Dublin I awoke the next day to find that I had re-damaged my ankle. I tried to walk on it the bare minimum to get out and about but by 6pm I was getting a shooting pain. This originates on the outside of my left foot behind the ankle bone and shoots up to about half way up my calf. Therefore I retired to my room to rest. I hobbled to Dublin airport bus on the Monday and using trains via Gatwick airport I arrived home in Cardiff.

Upon returning home I decided that it was simply a recurrence of the previous injury and so used RICE again. I waited 2/3 weeks for the swelling to subside and returned to my physio. Unfortunately no progression was made this time. Also the shooting pain in my leg seem to be occurring nearly every day. Eventually it dawned on my that the pain directly correlated to the amount of walking that I did during the day. For example if I did very little walking then I would get no pain in the evening/late at night, however if I did a lot of walking then I would get a very severe shooting pain. Ever since I have done as little walking as possible but this has meant I have a very poor social life as I have also refrained from driving and all physical exercise.

Therefore I decided to use private medical health care.

The doctor (who doubles as a surgeon) I saw with BUPA/Spire (and still am) was/is very helpful and bounced me back to the NHS to get a MRI. This came back with no noted problems. I was issued with a small ankle brace to help the healing process. After wearing said item for about a month no progression was made so I was issued with a boot to wear for the same period. This seemed to work but a few weeks after taking said boot off the shooting pain returned.

I was sent to see a in house BUPA/Spire physio. Some progression was made, with no shooting pains, however it should be noted that I was not walking a lot. I was told by physio as part of my rehab to go on a treadmill for 2 minutes. Unfortunately an hour after doing so I experienced a pain which I would describe as being like someone pushing a knife/needle into the front of my ankle. Therefore the doctor decided to preform a ankle arthroscopy. Said surgery was preformed on the 15th October 2012 which resulted in a lot of cartilage and scar tissue being removed. However after returning to physio the pain at the back of my ankle continued. In one such example the pain was so severe that it felt like some had gripped all of the arteries,veins, ligaments etc. behind my outer ankle and tried to pull them all out at the same time. The sensation was like pulling a plant and all its roots out of the ground.

Because I was also complaining about pain in my left calf in addition to the continuing shooting pain a second MRI was done. Again this came up blank.
The doctor then decided that it would be a good idea to preform a secondary procedure to solve what they now thought was compartment syndrome in my left calf which had supposedly been brought on by my ankle injury. This was done on the 7th January 2013 and was also hoped would rectify my ongoing shooting pains in my ankle.

Yesterday (21st January 2013) I had my stitches taken out. When I mentioned to my surgeon that I was still getting pain at the back of my ankle only days after starting walking around my house he injected the relevant area with cortisone and was then told that if the pain persisted that there was nothing else that he could do.

I am still getting pain in the same area, but to a lesser degree, with very little walking. However I am almost certain that once the cortisone eventually wears off that the pain will reoccur but at the same severity as before. As such I am going to get a second opinion but I'm not that hopeful that another doctor will be able to shed any new light on the situation.

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This post has already been helpful as I plan to give this transcript to the new doctor I am going to get a second opinion from. Thank you for reading and good luck if you have any upcoming surgery and/or appointments. Hopefully you will have more luck than I.