Damaged left ankle, lower left leg and right wrist, tendonitis pain

by Jonathan Meira
(UK)

History of health problem:

Problems first began when aged 15 due to skateboarding, I had been skateboarding for two years (from 13-15 years), the repetitive movement of jumping on board, had led to minor pain throughout the two years, however towards the end of the second year (2007) I was gaining height on my jumps, meaning more force and impact was being put on my ankles (particularly my left one); this caused a lot of "firey inflamed" pain on the outside, front of my left ankle and lower part of my left leg.

The inflamed pain lasted on and off for about a week, during the next two weeks the inflamed pain in these areas went and was replaced by a very sore achey pain. This achey pain lasted for 3 months; but became less intense over the 3 months.

In december I saw a private physiotherapist who couldn’t find anything fundamentally wrong, I was given a rubber band to stretch my foot forward and back with, I find this helped a little but my ankle still felt very weak and I could only walk short distances and not run at this point, as I result I quit skateboarding.

Since birth I have had exceedingly pronated feet, my parents who are podiatrists have supplied me with othotics from the age of 7.

I saw no one else for the rest of that year in hope that the injury would heal itself, during September of the following year (2008) I damaged my right wrist through over use by writing and playing guitar for too long, as well as inaccurate picking technique(I didn't realize I had poor technique at the time) and not warming up for long enough when playing.

The pain was a similar inflamed pain to the pain in my ankles and like my ankles the pain was only triggered when the body part was in use. I rested my wrists for several weeks before returning to guitar, however the pain came back and got gradually worse; because of this I then quit guitar.

I had found both cold, damp and rain was giving me inflamed pains in my left ankle and right wrist even when not in use.

The following year (2009) in May I saw a physiotherapist via the NHS I was given a rubber band and exercises for both my ankles and wrists which again helped a little but didn’t solve the problem, he believed my injuries to be due to RSI and possibly growing pains caused by my tendons growing and bones not being able to keep up.

The pain from the cold and damp continued to get worse, I had two blood tests, one urine test, X ray and MRI scan on my left ankle (I had some of the tests and scans in 2009 and some in 2010) , which all showed nothing, I then saw a rheumatologist (NHS) in 2010, he believed my injuries to be wear and tear on my tendons , and told me to take pain killers into my early 20s.

I then went to get a second opinion from a private rheumatologist, he believed the pain to be wear and tear on my tendons and believed my depression could be affecting my physical injuries , but didn’t know why the cold+damp was giving me pain; he referred me on to a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with severe depression and OCD.

In addition to this in the last few months (from September- December 2010) the pain has become much worse, particularly during damp, rainy and cold days, the pain is an inflamed pain in left ankle, left and right wrists, my right fore
arm, right elbow, really bad at times in my right thumb and sometimes my left thumb- but not as intense in the left thumb, and one rare occasions my right and left shoulders.

My right elbow and left ankle crack when rotated, knuckles crack in both hands crack, both wrists crack when rotated, neck cracks- but never had any pain in neck, neck is fine.

When I wake up in the morning my fingers in both hands and both wrists can sometimes be hot, stiff, clampy, I find since quitting guitar, I have lost a little bit of range in movement in my left fingers/hand.

I am, currently taking 500mg paracetomol tablets when the pain is bad, and Paracetomol and Co-codomol when the pain is really bad, have had some Neurofen in the past, and Glucosamine tablets. (when I first had my ankle pain in 2007, I found the glucosamine tablets helped take away the pain from my ankle, but this affect seem to have worn off.)

This has affected my education greatly as it has limited the number of hours of work I can do and prevented me from working with clay now- as I find this can give me a lot of pain.

Currently having acupuncture which is helping leg and ankle a lot, acupuncturists diagnosis is that I have twisted hips out of place, twisted shoulder girdle and muscles in back are tense/tight on one side , and done structural damage to lower left leg. have had treatment on lower left leg, hip, back and shoulder, but pain in right wrist is still there occasionally when drawing and writing.

Would you have any suggestions at all on how to reduce the sharp/sore achey pains in my right thumb and wrist.

Any help would be appreciated.

thank you
jonathan








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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com