The mystery of the debilitated ankle, solved!

Shortly before I moved to Australia I suffered an unusual injury to my ankle. It wasn't sport related, or any other significant form of activity, it was while sitting in a chair. The symptoms were quite severe as I'd wake up in the morning and the ankle would be a bit sore and painful if I tried to flex it. The pain would be coming from the lateral (outside) side of the ankle, below the protruding bone. By the end of the day it would be quite noticeable and impacting on walking. The next morning the ankle would be unusable and I'd be unable to walk. After about 4 days it would slowly return to normal. There was no swelling normally associated with a strain, sprain, or arthritis.

The unusual thing was that after moving to Australia, the same issue would occur roughly every year or so. It made going to work difficult to impossible. Pain would radiate up the leg as a persistent, dull ache, and the slightest impact sent shooting pain up the leg. The last time it had happened I had gone downstairs one night to get some water and stopped off at the bathroom half asleep. The aching pain while I was standing actually caused me to black out and I woke up a couple seconds later sprawled out on the floor. (Fortunately uninjured.) When the ache had started I tried staying off the foot, resting it up, icing it. None of that seemed to help, it was still about 4~5 days before I could walk again.

The last one was about 6 months ago, then yesterday the ankle struck again! The previous night I had been sitting on the floor playing Play-Dough with the little one. I had come into work the first day with a bit of discomfort but knew by the next day I wouldn't be walking. I was talking to a co-worker that struggles with a trick-knee and he recommended going into physio as the problem can stem from somewhere above the ankle. This got me thinking a bit and doing some more research where I found that icing an injury is good for immediate treatment, especially when there is swelling. For chronic injuries, heat is a better treatment. With this injury I noticed that my leg, especially calf was quite stiff and sore. I had though this was a reaction to overcompensating for the ankle, with the leg working harder when I couldn't flex the ankle. I thought perhaps the ankle pain was in response to a problem with the leg. So I filled up a hot water bottle and rested my calf on it for about an hour. My foot felt cold but when I flexed it there was considerably more mobility. By the end of the day it was feeling better than it had in the morning. I put it up on the water bottle for about half an hour before falling asleep, and when I woke up this morning the issue was almost completely gone!

Now it all makes sense. The issue was with the Sural nerve that runs along the outside of the ankle and up the outside of the calf. The damage/pinch wasn't occurring at the ankle, it was in the leg due to pressure encountered when sitting cross-legged on the floor or in a chair. My earlier attempts to elevate and ice my foot were likely putting more pressure on the nerve in the leg resulting in the conditions worsening. At least now I know what causes the issue and can avoid that in the future, or at least know how to effectively treat it should it happen again.