Sports Injury Info

Painful Tendon after severe ankle fracture

by Jenny
(Hong Kong)

I fell 5 metres whist bouldering (rock climbing without rope) and broke my tib, fib, talus, plus complete dislocation of ankle joint, it was an open wound compound fracture. Long story short, it took many surgeries to get all the bones re-aligned properly and the ankle joint put back in properly. Am now in my 9th month of recovery, still on single crutch, and doing physio everyday.

I'm getting acute pain around the area where the posterior tibialis tendon is, from base of the medial side of my foot and up the inside of my leg, basically that's restricting my ability to achieve dorsiflexion, of course the joint hurts too when walking or doing physio, but I think the pain in and around the tendon is rather abnormal.

It could be that the nails put in the medial malleolous is close to the tendon but its very hard to tell. Is it normal to experience pain around the tendon during the recovery process?

Please help!

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Painful Tendon after severe ankle fracture

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Oct 23, 2008
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by: Bart - SII

You most likely have a significant amount of scar tissue built up all around the ankle - I know that they removed a lot with the last surgery, but adhesions and such could be restricting normal gliding of the tendon.

Also, since you don't have normal motion yet, the posterior tib is working harder to help stabilize the ankle, and is likely having some overuse issues.

Soft tissue massage around the areas that are painful and the course of the posterior tibialis may help to reduce any adhesions or healing by-products - and time and strengthening should also help.

Bart

p.s. Great Picture!
Nov 25, 2008
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starstarstarstarstar 		Any suggestions?
by: Jenny

Hi Bart

I am still preserving with physiotherapy 3 times a week, and doing my own exercises at home. I have problems with swelling, I take anti-inflamatories and when I can, put my foot in a bucket of cold water to cool it.
What is really frustrating is that my range of movement has not improved at all in the last 7 weeks - my physiotherapist measures the distance between my knee and toe and there is not even a 1 centimetre gain. I know I should be doing more exercises, controlling the swelling more, but I'm becoming very concerned that I might be stuck limping. Granted that time starts again from my reconstruction surgery in August, its been 3 and a half months since that. But you can imagine how fed up I am, having been on crutches/crutch for almost 10 months now. Remaining optimistic is easier said than done, can you give me any other advice?

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