Ankle injury

[irenar5]

Hello everyone, I am just wondering if anyone had an ankle injury (overuse, not acute) with figure skating and what were your symptoms?
I have an injury that is stumping my sports med doc, so perhaps fellow skaters can help??

I am having some swelling in the FRONT of the lateral ankle bone, no pain with pushing anywere.  No pain with any of the ankle tests.  It does not hurt when I skate, but it does hurt afterwards when I walk on it and walk down the stairs.  Also it hurts a lot when I do a very deep squat with the heel on the ground.  The pain is deep in the ankle bend.   
I am very frustrated because there is really nothing I do with skating that provokes it on the ice.(otherwise I would avoid it, obviously!)  Sometimes it hurts when I am in my skate, just standing, but not while I am skating. 

Anything  similar that you experienced? 

[irenar5]

The ankle pain is on my non-landing leg

[AgnesNitt]

The first thing I thought of was nerve compression syndrome. I had stuff like that in my wrist, I have no idea what nerve it would be in the foot and ankle.

[AgnesNitt]

And here it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsal_tunnel_syndrome
"Ankle pain is also present in patients who have high level entrapments. Inflammation or swelling can occur within this tunnel for a number of reasons. The flexor retinaculum has a limited ability to stretch, so increased pressure will eventually cause compression on the nerve within the tunnel. As pressure increases on the nerves, the blood flow decreases.[1] Nerves respond with altered sensations like tingling and numbness. Fluid collects in the foot when standing and walking and this makes the condition worse. As small muscles lose their nerve supply they can create a cramping feeling."

Although detecting this apparently is dead easy, I doubt this is something your doctor overlooked.

[sampaguita]

I get ankle pain when I practice crossovers off-ice. The deep knee bends are bad for the ankles when the ankle is unsupported, and especially when all your weight is on one foot. My injury was not as bad as yours, though, so I don't know if there are any other complicating factors. Perhaps there was a time when your boots weren't laced to give enough support? Sorry, that's all I can say from my experience.

[irenar5]

Thanks for the input.   I have an MRI scheduled next week, hopefully there will be an answer....    The frustrating part is I did not have an acute injury, it all of a sudden showed up. 
I sort of have a working theory of anterior impingement due to boot?  So, if anyone ever had any boot issues in the front-side ankle area, please share!

[Cush]

I'm currently having pain in that area, but I'm working under the assumption that it's lace bite. Started hurting after several days back-to-back practicing crossovers. I don't have a doctor's diagnosis or anything like that. Sorta feels like the beginnings sensations of shin splints I got some years ago from playing too much netball...except that it's not up in the shins this time, it's down where the ankle bends.

[Query]

If you think it could be abrasion, you might try wrapping a little sports wrap around your ankle at the right height. If that works, you can look for more permanent solutions.

Though I'm not clear why abrasion related pain would only show up on a deep bend.

Have you tried slightly less and slightly more tight lacing? I wonder if there could be some sort of friction issue internal to the foot that is affected by having pressure on it?

This device was recommended by someone on this forum to fix lace bite - http://lacevice.com
Someone I know just cut up a plastic cup, and put a piece under the laces instead.

If you can't find something simple like that, it's hard to imagine fixing it without a doctor's help - which you are getting.

What we need is a way to skate without boots and the problems they cause!

[irenar5]

Definitely not lace bite or abrasion, more like a deep seated pain the in the bend with a very deep squat and occasional twinge with walking ( I can't pinpoint the exact location).  The walking pain is getting better, swelling is still there and I have not tried any other usual pain precipitating movements.
There is a lot of information I have sifted through, but no diagnosis really fits, except anterior impingement (sort of). 

[sampaguita]

Have you tried consulting a chiropractor or acupuncturist? They might have some other insights on your injury that conventional medicine doesn't recognize.

[irenar5]

Just an update: turns out I have a bone bruise on my talus (the ankle bone that the leg bones rest on).  There may be a piece of cartilage loose in the joint as well.  MRI showed all kinds of things that are not really consistent with symptoms, though. 
  So, at this point I am in an air cast boot and seeing an orthopedic surgeon in January to see how things are looking in a couple of weeks.   Unbelievable!  All this as my brand new custom Harlicks arrived and are getting their soles waxed at the shop...

[AgnesNitt]

Bone bruises are tough. They take a long time to heal.

[Harleyboy]

So sorry to hear about the bone bruise. Please take good care of yourself and follow the Doctors advice. Let's get this healed and you back on the ice as soon as possible.

[Query]

How awful.

I guess you can't blame the injury on the boots, right? I hope the doctor has some good ideas on how to make sure it can't happen in the future, and that they aren't things like "don't skate" or "don't jump".

[irenar5]

Thank you...

The sports med doctor has been really great.  He is not really sure why the injury happened in the first place.  If it was a landing foot, I would not even question the injury... Most of these injuries are a sequela of ankle sprain, an abnormal lateral movement.  Skating boot is like a cast, no movement laterally at all.  Sports med doc thought that maybe the push off in jumps and just being on on foot a lot contributed to it.  Maybe the orthopedic surgeon will have some insight. 

Incidentally, when I was researching all this, I came across extensive posts from a skating  dad, whose son had the same injury (but more severe) also on a non-landing ankle. The family was concerned that he will not skate again.  He had 3 surgeries on it and eventually things healed.  That  figure skater is an ice dancer and  has just won sectionals and  taken a a 4th place in Junior Grand Prix!   

[Query]

I don't know if this helps, but if you look at the physics, the forces on take-off are about the same as on landing. So if you only worry about injuries on landing, and don't pay as much attention to things like alignment during the jump, you can injure your take off leg and attached body parts too.

It's self evident that when you immobilize one joint, the nearby bones and joints have to absorb more force and movement. So, by immobilizing your main ankle joints with a super-stiff boot, you would of course force motion to occur in your knees, and in the talus joint - especially if you had an alignment issue that could create sideways sliding motion.

The problem with my theory is that such motion would mostly be a repetitive motion problem. I.E., you would have to jump a lot for it to be a problem, with poor take-off alignment. If that doesn't apply, I (certainly not a doctor) have no ideas.

Anyway, I still think only the doctor knows enough to be able to take good guesses. I'm just pointing out the take-off body part chain takes a lot of stress too.