Update #4: The Leg

Jenny asked, I answer.

Many years ago, I had a tib-fib fracture on my left leg. There was surgery, lots of screws and plates, and then I went on with my merry little life. But lately it's been causing me a lot of pain. It's also limiting my ability to do certain movements/exercises. And this is the thing that gets me more than the rest, which is unpredictable seizing up. I was in a fitness class and was happily skipping up and down the gym when my left ankle REFUSED TO BEND and I nearly fell over. This has also happened when I've been standing in front of a classroom, walking down stairs, and you know, just when I'm sitting around doing nothing. 

I went to PT and it helped with the pain, but I was essentially told that there's not much to be done about my range of motion. There are literal plates that hinder the angle at which my left ankle can bend. So this means running is not a great idea for me for exercise and there are various yoga poses I will never be able to do or, at the very least, not do without extreme discomfort. Because I tend to overuse my good leg, there is a definite difference in muscle tone between my left and right lower legs, so I have to be really careful when I'm doing bilateral work on my lower body to not do less with my left leg. Honestly, I have mostly switched to unilateral work so I can focus specifically on the left side. The x-rays show some arthritis, as was predicted when I first broke it, but not as much as they would have anticipated. 

I saw the local orthopedist and he gave me two options: surgery to undo the hardware and another surgery to replace the hardware (which would give me modern hardware, but no more mobility) or surgery to fuse the ankle in place (which is a great option for older people at times, but is the exact opposite of what I wanted). I gave myself the third option of PT. 

This same orthopedist is the one that "helped" my husband with his broken collarbone and literally lied in his documentation about a physical exam that he did not actually do on my husband - and charged insurance for this non-existent exam. The PT that I worked with gave me the names of other foot/ankle doctors who deal with complicated leg injuries like mine more often than the local ortho. (She did this sneakily and clearly felt some guilt while doing it, but also said that my repair is much more extensive than the average patient and the local ortho doesn't usually see anything like it. I like that she tried to defend him, but I'm over him.)

ANYWAY. 

I want to avoid surgery if possible. So for now I'm focusing on unilateral work. When I do too much and my leg hurts, I ice it and try to avoid doing those exercises again. I'm carrying around more weight than I should be and that's NOT helping. One of my goals will be to lose some of that weight in 2026, but I will be close-mouthed about that process here on the blog because there's nothing more boring than people talking about how restricting calories is hard. Don't get me started on the boringness of discuss macronutrients.

If, at the end of 2026, the combo of PT exercises, careful unilateral work to build up strength in my bad leg, and losing weight doesn't help with the pain, I'll make some phone calls to those other doctors.

But for now this is the plan. 

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Do you have any old nagging injuries? Have you ever done PT?