Ankle Injuries

[riner69er]

I posted before about a long recovery from a borken fibula and dislocated ankle. I am now 8 months out of surgery, and I am about 90%. I have been going to PT, and that is helping a lot. My ankle feels strng, and I have regained most of my ROM.

I did play a little soccer this past weekend, and my ankle was quite sore afterwards, especially when I pointed my toes. the pain has slowly gotten better, but I am now more stiff than I was prior to this past weekend. It's a little disheartening to think that this far out of surgery I cannot do the activities that I used to do.

So all this got me thinking - What if ther is any connective tissue damage?? As part of repairing a broken fibula and dislocated ankle, does the doctor typically examine each ligament for damage? I am pretty sure my doctor just told me that the ligaments would heal on their own. Is this correct??

Also, when I had my injury, I was told that this was the same exact injury that Kellen Winslow Jr. (football player for the Cleveland Browns) had. I researched his recovery a little, and what happened with him was he had the initial surgery to repair the broken bone, had plates and screws put in. Then 2 months after the surgery, they did an examination and found that the ligaments had become wider than normal. So they had to do a second surgery to repair the damaged ligaments.

Now, I am positive I didnt get a post-op exam that got into the kind of detail of - how wide my ligaments were. In fact, in a post-op appointment I asked my docotor about any ligament damage, and he sort of acted like that was the first time he ever thought about that. He grabbed my ankle and manipulated it, and said my ankle seemed very solid, so he didnt think there was any damage.

So....why does Kellen Winslow get differnt treatment than I do?? I know he is a multi-million dollar investment, but I mean it's not like his doctors know some secret meathods that they only tell special doctors, right?? Did my doctor mess up?? Shoul dI have ever had anything like an MRI?

My feeling is that my ankle should have been repaired to as close to pre-injury conditions as possible. Bones, ligaments, tendons, and everything else in there. zthat's the best way to get me back to as close to 100% as possible, right?