Hey everyone,

I am PISSED. Just as I was getting my hopes up I could run again, my injury flared up and I am back at square one. TWO YEARS of a torn ankle ligament. Acupuncture, elelctro-acupuncture, constant brace-wearing, custom orthotics, physiotherapy...NOTHING has worked. They tell me to run small distances to strengthen it and I collapse in pain after 15 minutes...not worth it. Not working. SO FRUSTRATING!

I FEEL LIKE I AM SCREAMING MY PAIN FROM THE ARCTIC AND NOBODY IS LISTENING. There are NO health care services here and I just feel so freaking hopeless and PISSED that 3FC won't let me swear. THIS IS RUINING MY LIVELIHOOD.

I am now looking into surgery. I don't want to limp for the rest of my life. But as a teacher in the Arctic, how the **** do I get leave to have surgery, which the closest place to do it would be Edmonton, Alberta (3 flights away). And, even if I have it, there is only physio here once every SIX MONTHS.

WTF am I going to do. SO HOPELESS. So devastated. So f*cking tired of this sh*t.

Awww NorthernChick. I have been wondering where you were.

I'm so sorry to hear about your ankle still bothering you and what it entails for surgery (3 flights?! I'll never complain about my 2 hour drive to my doctor again...).

I can't imagine what you are going through physically or emotionally with your pain and discomfort. I hope you find a solution soon. Until then swear away to us, we are happy to listen.

Hugs

No advice, just hugs

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the love.

I am taking an intermission from my sobfest with my mom in Toronto to write this. I am glad that she is supporting the idea. I as worried people would say "surgery? pfft...girl, it's just a limp" (lol reminds me of the old ikea commercial...)

I am trying to get the appointment process started while up here, as I'll be in the big city of Toronto July 8th-August 16th. I have been dicked around by too many sport medicine doctors and I am going to get results this summer. I am going to demand the MRI, find out exactly what is wrong, and get this fixed.

I am just so apprehensive because I had a serious dental pain for 7 months before someone did anything about it. I kid you not...I went to the dentist SEVENTEEN times from July 2012 to December 2012. I had 6 cavities on the same tooth and 2 root canals, because each dentist thought the previous one had 'missed something'. I was treated here in Tulita, in Yellowknife and in Edmonton and it wasn't until I got home to Toronto that they finally pulled it, after figuring out it was cracked.

Clearly, my health care experience with the North doesn't have a good track record. I'm so scared they won't treat me, or they won't take me because I won't be in Toronto for all the post-op stuff, or that I'll be told I can never run again and that the surgery won't work.

Sometimes living in the north is a fun novelty. Today, it sucks some serious balls.

Hi NorthernChick. I certainly feel for you and am immensely sympathetic. I, too, have ankle issues but they are different from yours. When I was 19 (am now 44) I was in a pretty horrific car accident that jacked up my right ankle. The dashboard was knocked loose and fell on it, crushing it severely. My surgeon had to untwist it and then deal with all the bone breakage. You know those classic pictures of Frankenstein's monster with the bolt going through his neck? Yeah, that's how my ankle is being held together along with surgical twine and a bunch of pins. Good times!

At the time of my accident I was really big; probably close to 200 lbs so you can imagine what trying to walk again was like for me. But I did recover, however I do not have full range of motion of my ankle. I'm also a human barometer My ankle swells and sometimes doesn't feel so great. And I do limp at times. For me, it's just something I deal with because at the end of the day I think about how fortunate I am to be alive let alone walk. A limp, meh

Flash forward 20 years to when I began to take my health seriously and decide to lose weight. Being so heavy (actually, I was 220 by that time) I knew I needed almost non-weight bearing exercise. I used the elliptical and walked my *ss off! One day when I was out on a walk (I had lost a significant amount of weight by this time) I took off running. Don't ask me what wild hair got the best of me, but I did. I was 167 pounds. Up to that point I convinced myself that I would never run again. Boy, was I wrong. I ended up running 3.0 miles that day. Today, I still run usually 3-4 times a week. My bucket list goal is to run a 1/2 marathon but I don't know if my Frankenankle can take it. But I have run several 5Ks and a few 10Ks.

There's no real 'moral of the story' here, only that I'm working with a pretty beat up and compromised ankle. I'm trying to avoid stating that if 'I can do it so can you' because I have no idea if you can and I certainly don't want to sound flippant. But a torn ligament should be an injury that any orthopedic surgeon worth his or her salt and degree should be able to work with you on. I applaud you for getting angry and being so proactive about your ankle and health. I think finding the right surgeon and doctor is crucial and if you decide to do surgery your aftercare and rehab will be crucial as well.

Take this suggestion for what it's worth, but hockey is HUGE up in your part of the world. Any chance you could peruse hockey team web sites to see if any of them retain doctors and surgeons for the team(s)? Similarly, what about university and colleges with well-regarded sports programs? They typically have some of the most well regarded health professionals on staff and they often are affiliated with clinics and/or hospitals. Might be worth a try.

Keep us posted and good luck!

Hey Northern Chick,

I am sorry that you are going through all of this. I have issues with my ankles too, but they are different from yours. I have osteochondritis dissecans, which is a form of arthritis in both ankles. I was told by some doctors that surgery may be advantageous but then a specialist in NY put me in a walking boot for two months and that worked instead. After that I had physical therapy, which helped tremendously. Now I am having some minor flare-ups so I am going to see a podiatrist in a few weeks.

I think that curvynotlumpy has some good suggestions, especially about trying to find a doctor in your area who may work with others as a sports medicine doctor, maybe they can help. I highly suggest getting another opinion. I have received more than one opinion numerous times from a medical professional and it usually works in my favor.



Take care!

Oh h3ll no! Northern... I'm so sorry to hear this! No wonder you're p*ssed!!

Is there any way you can take sabbatical to go through the process in Toronto, and work there for the year? The flights would be astronomically expensive, and of course you won't want to put this off! Or any other options? I have zero clue how healthcare works outside the UK

What a frustrating position to be in, and I can't imagine how much pain you must be in! But I second that it's good you're angry enough about it to face it head on instead of just letting it slide. I wish you the best of luck, *hugs* and let us know how you get on.

Oh and if you want cardio, then speed skating is awesome. Ain't nothing moving in a pair of hockey boots!! But I love it, so I'm biased... In all seriousness though - I hope things start looking up for you very, VERY soon!

agh, that sucks. Do make sure you push for an MRI, I had a trampolining accident when I was younger and hurt my knee- was rushed to hospital only for them to do an xray and go 'it's fine, just get walking'. Two years of constant giving way and pain later, I went private and got an MRI. Turned out I had no cruciate ligament left to speak of and huge holes in my cartilage, despite numerous doctors and physios telling me that it was 'fine'. Finally got the surgery I needed two years late, things are better now, but not as perfect as they would have been had I have gotten what I needed sooner!

Maybe you could ask the doctors for a post-op physio plan that you could do, even if you're not in Toronto? My plan involved lots of things that I could easily do at home and I'm sure ankle rehab is probably very similar, lots of building up leg muscles and achieving a full range of movement? Maybe it's just the UK, but I stopped going to the classes after a while due to school and they didn't even bat an eyelid. It was like 'we've done the surgery, see ya' and they weren't fussed if you turned up afterwards!

Good luck, I hope you manage to get the help you need!

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for the awesome suggestions. I am definitely going to push for that MRI as soon as I am back in Toronto (5 weeks today!) As for looking for doctors in my area, I have to wait till Toronto as we just get one doctor for one day a month in our fly-in community.

And thank you to so many for sharing stories of how you can have injuries like this and recover! That gives me so much hope!

Shiv, as far as sabbatical goes, there are no teaching jobs in Toronto and I'd have to quit in order to move home. I am pretty confident I could use my banked sick days to have an extended Christmas break for the surgery though, since I doubt their would be room for me in any surgeon's office prior to then.

Man, yesterday was an angry day. I've gotta switch gears and be not only angry but productive. I don't want to have a pity party all day (...lol okay...I kind of do...)

thanks, guys

good for you for speaking up and advocating for yourself and getting this taken care of, no matter what it takes

when I was young, I fell on a trampoline and hurt my lower back....I've been paying for that my whole life because I didn't speak up and tell my parents that I had gotten really hurt....(i'm lucky I didn't break my back actually)

I hope things fall into place for you to get this taken care of soon

Two questions:

1. Do you wear and run in conventional shoes?
2. How often do you run?

I used to run 5 miles + per day and 10-15 milers on the weekends. Until I developed super painful post anterior tendonitis in both my ankles. I ran through pain for a year. Many days it hurt to even walk. I tried everything and no health professional had an answer other than: stop running. The problem was that my gait wasn't correct and my feet and ankles weren't strong. I was over-pronating because my arches were fallen. Because I wore conventional shoes and heels most of the time, the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in my feet had weakened and atrophied. This caused me to have a poor walking and running gate and I developed painful swelling in my ankles! Which lead to injury and pain.

I took a break from running for a year. And I discovered minimalist shoes. After hearing about all the health benefits of minimalist (aka "barefoot") walking and running, I decided to give it a try. Everything else had failed me (including modern medicine and every doctor I saw). So I figured I had nothing left to lose. I bought a pair of zero-drop minimalist shoe. And I took 6 months to transition into them slowly ...by just walking in them and doing foot exercises. I was able to strengthen my own feet, muscles, tendons, etc. And I changed my own gait so that my arches grew stronger and I no longer under-pronated!

I was cured of any tendon and ankle pain from then on. I was able to slowly return to running, mile by mile, while running in minimalist shoes. I haven't had any tendonitis or other injury since. And I actually am running in a Ragnar Relay in five days. So yeah, if you've tried everything else, consider giving minimalist shoes a try. It was my life-saving cure for my ankle/tendon pain!

That's cool to hear about the minimalist shoes, Aidanqm. I wear over-pronation saucony's with custom orthotics, but I am not currently running. I can't with the pain, and haven't really been able to run since 2011, where I was marathon training. I'll look into it!!

Ugghhh my doctor is making me restart the x ray and ultrasound process before considering an MRI...which means, at this rate, no surgery until next summer at the earliest. God damn health care! I am so appreciative that here in Canada, many services are paid for but I wish I had the option for a private MRI in this situation. I know there are worse things but I am just so down about this.