Ankle Ligament Instability Corrected for College Tennis Player

AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT:

All the three PTs here are the best PTs I've been to. They're incredibly encouraging, especially when you're down the dumps after that post-op, they one after surgery. that they've been really, really encouraging and kind of push you just enough to make sure that you're on the right track and you can be proud of yourself after you walk out of here every day.

My name is Alena. I had a right ankle injury that lasted about five months before I got diagnosed by Dr. Stone. It was a lateral gutter impingement, and I got a Brostrom repair.

I started having gradual foot pain, morning stiffness. It started catching and pinching when I'd play tennis. And then just every day I'd wake up. It hurt for a little while. I finally eventually told my mom two months later that it was bugging me, and so I went, got an x-ray. They told me that my foot was fractured and I was in a boot for a little while. I went down, came back here. I saw another podiatrist. They thought it was a deal with my foot when I kept pointing to my ankle. And so he was like, oh, let's do cortisone injections. That should be the problem. That will solve it. I still had the same issues. Morning stiffness hurt every day, and then my mom was like, okay, let's go back to stone. I've already had my knee done here, and we know it's a great place. We know it's taken care of. Came in within two seconds, he diagnosed the problem and I was going to get surgery, I believe, three days after that. So it was a fast turnaround, but I'm really thankful that I did it. Long recovery, but it's worth it. I don't have any more pain.

I'm working with them a lot on strengthening everything from my hips to my quads, hamstrings, all the way down back to the foot, even the little tendons under the foot. We're strengthening those to make sure that I have full stability in it. I'm focusing more on my hips to make sure that I'm not compensating and either aggravating it more or tearing something else.

I mean, I don't want to sound biased, I really don't, but all the three PTs here are the best PTs I've been to. They're incredibly encouraging, especially when you're down the dumps after that post-op, they one after surgery. It's a rough day, but they come in and they're, Hey, this actually looks great. This looks really good. Let's start mobilizing it just a little bit. And going from there, really getting the scar or the fluid out and reducing the swelling that they've been really, really encouraging and kind of push you just enough to make sure that you're on the right track and you can be proud of yourself after you walk out of here every day.

I definitely didn't realize how weak my hips were. And so that's a main focus of mine, and especially talking to Allison today, realizing, okay, when I'm running, it's going to come from my hips, making sure that those are activated so that my knees don't fall in. So it's all building on top of each other and it's a lot, but it's really fascinating to learn how everything's connected and how they all work together.

I believe I have about another month or so, maybe a little bit more, but I just ran for the first time since October, and it's now August. So it's been a while, but it's been worth it. I've definitely learned a lot about the human body, how to rest in rehab, and all about my ankle, which I had no clue about before.

It's kind of euphoric feeling. It's like I never liked running. I still am not a big running fan, but today, being able to run for the first time, I was like, wow, this is actually pretty, this is a lot of fun. I'm really happy with. I'm really happy running. And that will be the first and last time. I will probably say that.

I recommend the Stone Clinic to everyone that's really the truth. As many as I can for at least joint issues. And then I'll even send 'em over here for Torn, tend to see if they can recommend something or they have special p r P.