Ankle pain after acl reconstruction

[Stormy371]

I had my second acl reconstruction a little over a month and a half ago.  My inner leg has stayed numb since the surgery, my outer leg flucuates depending on the amount of swelling in my knee.  My ankle bone has been painfully sensitive to anything rubbing against it for weeks; however this past week at times, that area also hurts when i try to walk or just doing nothing.  Is this a normal part of the healing process?  Is there anything I can do to make this area less sensitive?

[bethy1970]

Have you found any suggestions or advice regarding your ankle pain? My daughter is in the exact same boat, with pain peaking at a 9/10 when up for more than 5 minutes. The doctor somewhat dismissed the pain at her 2 week checkup. Her knee doesn't give her any grief at all, but now she is afraid to get up and about as she gets "stranded" by the pain, too afraid to move once it starts.

bethy

[Stormy371]

The doctor pretty much just gave me some stronger pain medication for those times the pain was so bad I couldn't sleep at first.  When I questioned him about RSD, something I read about online which I had several symptoms of, he admitted that my pain is being caused by some nerve damage that occured because of the surgery.  My physical therapist agreed and mentioned the worse thing I could do was try to baby it by staying off of it altogether or going back to using my crutches as long as I wasn't experiencing pain in my knee.  I also started experiencing muscle spasms and stiffness in my lower leg which they believe are all connected.  They can't give me a time frame for how long the pain will last but it has gone away some as time goes by.  Unfortunately they told me at this point I need to try to just deal with the pain, continue my leg exercises and try to rub different textured items on my ankle to try to desensitive the area.  Hopefully your daughter's pain will go away as she heals.

Dee  

[acutal]

I had the same problem post surgery.  I went to an osteopath for some manipulation.  he told me that I was irritating the peronial nerve.  I needed to do a lot of toes raises and stretching out of my ankle and then it went away.  My Pt and my surgeon just dismissed me complaints.