@barbjo Thanks for your information. I am having trouble with ligaments and tendons hurting. How long did it take until your ligaments were recovered and not hurting anymore? Years?

Some of this is extreme fatigue when I have walked too much with my current limited strength. I take care of horses outside and have to walk on uneven ground or even through mud sometimes, and that just kills my ankle when I have to work to stabilize it. I have been wearing an ankle brace and using custom orthotics inside of a work boot with toe protection. I got a medical boot too after the cast was removed, but I couldn't stand to wear it because of the weight of it hanging on my injured ankle caused so much pain. Recently, when my ankle was bad, I did put it on a couple times to immobilize my ankle so I could walk around feeding horses. My fracture was 2 years ago.

Just recently, my physical therapist showed me how to mobilize my ankle because the joint gets stiff and the talus can come forward and get stuck. Then I get a pinch and sharp pain in front and my ankle gives out under me from the pain. I lost some cartilage in my injury, so my joint space is a bit smaller. I can be just fine walking on firm level ground, and then all of a sudden, I can't walk. I do stop and circle my foot around trying to realign the joint. I also do better if I manipulate my foot around first thing each day. My last surgery to remove hardware was 8 months ago, so I may still be recovering from that. I had muscle atrophy because I could not bear weight for so long and my leg is still smaller than it's neighbor. I don't know how much injury there was to my tendons and ligaments and the surgeon said it would heal itself, but it was a fracture, a dislocation, and a sprain all at once in what they call a bimalleolar fracture. Basically that means you break both of the "knobs" off each side of your ankle and I had some puzzle pieces on the front of the tibia. It was compound with the fibula breaking through the skin. I could feel a nerve throbbing right after it happened and I straightened my ankle just enough to take that pressure off, but not fully straight. That may have saved me from some further nerve damage because it was close to 3 hours after the injury that I was going into surgery. It is a very long recovery, and maybe full maximum recovery won't be for 5 years? I just don't know, but I'm doing the best I can. If I do too many exercises to try to rebuild strength, I just bring on the fatigue and pain, then I can't walk, then I hobble around holding my foot like it is in a cast to try to prevent moving the joint.

I'm glad you joined Connect too. I really enjoy it.