Swollen Ankle

[Canuck girl]

Hello. My right ankle started swelling on Monday afternoon. In the course of this week, I have had two different doctors look at this and was told it was a mild infection, given celebrex for ten days and told to walk on it as little as possible and put my foot in cold water to help the swelling go down.
Now I am a bit scared by some friends (I know they are not doctors but then neither am I) because they said if it was an infection I should have been given some antibiotics, not an anti-inflamatory. And why did not one of the doctors have the foot x-rayed?
My question is: I have no pain, the swelling has not gotten worse but it has not gone down either and it has been 4 days now. Should I go see a third doctor??

Thank you for your time and concern

[Kevin Pho, MD]

If there is concern about an infection, an antibiotic should certainly be prescribed.  X-rays are not normally needed to make the diagnosis of a skin infection, unless it is so severe that you are worried about it spreading to the bone.  If there has not been an injury to the ankly (i.e. twisting, falling or spraining), then I would pursue the infection route.  Also, if there is a break in the skin (i.e. a cut or ulcer), then the risk of infection would increase.

The other reason one may do an X-ray would be to diagnose a fracture - which also can cause your symptoms.  

Followup with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Kevin, M.D.
Medical Weblog:
kevinmd_b

[estibaliz]

my father is 50yrs old and started with swelling on the right knee and it travelled to the foot, and ankle. He does have pain when he walks and limps, and does not recall hitting it or getting any bites. He refuses to go to the Doctor and it just concerns me that it might be something serious. His whole foot and ankle is swollen. He is not a diabetic. Please help me know what this could be all about?

[multiverse]

I have the same or similar: pain in the left knee only, very little if any visual swelling, but painful. And I have one cut on my leg and numerous bites by some bugs around my feet and ankles, probably bugs that live in the carpet or could be bugs in my garden? Could those bug bites infect my left knee? I can say that most bug bites are on my left foot. I've been having this for 2-3 days, had my knee lock sometimes and some pain in the past, but not as much as now and now it is stiff. I noticed that walking stops the pain and staying still espewcially lying down makes the pain go all over the leg with annoying "weakening" pain as if my leg had a diarrhoea.

I'm 42, male, 6'6" and ~230 lbs. no heart problems previously detected, tall, have some pot-belly but not much overweight, spend extensive hours by a computer for the last 10 years. Rarely excercise.
But I suspect could this be an infection of a kneecaused

P.S I'm sorry I can not help the above person, because I'm not a doctor, but I express my sympathy to them and I'd like to know Doctor's opinion. I think if knee swelling moves to an ankle and a foot that could be water accumulation from a heart problem (I hope not!) same as it happened to my mother who died before becoming 60. She used to complain that her feet are swelling a lot. I'd suggest stop eating salt and any fat foods, only eat vegetables, oats and take fish oil. Don't eat eggs or anything having cholesterol, trans-fats and saturated fats. But this is just my guess.

[nm1]

A related discussion, Ankle swelling was started.