Hi, my ankle was injured about 6 weeks ago and experienced some lateral instability and increase range of motion, but strangly, no pain or swelling typical of injured ligaments or tendons. But this weekend I've started to feel an arthritis-like ache whenever I stop walking any distance or simply stand on the ankle for a while. I'm really concerned about this new pain and am not sure what to do next. Here's the full background:
About 6 weeks ago I was dancing pretty hard on my ankles and a day later I started to notice instability in my ankle. There wasn't a single move that I remember hurting the ankle, but lots of repeated hard moves twisting the ankles in and out. Here's the weird thing, there was no swelling or pain at all that usually come with a typical sprain. My ankle just clicked a bit more and felt like it rocked side to side more than normal when I walked. I am also able to point my foot down further than before, and the talus bone seems to protrude out more when I point my foot down.
I got an X-ray and MRI and both found nothing. I've been doing PT for 3 weeks and my ankle is feeling quite strong and I thought I was on my way to recovery.
However, this last weekend I was starting to dance a little again, and also was on my feet for many hours catching up on errands around town that I had put off since the injury. Halfway through the weekend, I started to get an arthritis-like aching in my ankle joint. While walking there is little pain, but once I stop and stand still or sit the aching gets really bad. Additionally, I get waves of this pain throughout the day just sitting at my desk. It's at a point where walking one block feels like I've been standing on my foot all day, it feels achy and fatigued.
This new pain has me very concerned. Two doctors found nothing on my initial MRI and thought I had just stretched out a ligament and I should just keep walking on it like normal. But the fact that there was no initial swelling or pain, coupled with this deep aching feeling makes me think it might be a cartilage/osteochondral injury, but the MRI was negative. Is it possible that cartilage has come loose after multiple docs found no problems at all on an MRI taken 2 weeks after the accident? Should I insist on getting a second MRI now that it's been 6 weeks and I've been walking on it and am experiencing new pain? Or maybe a CT or investigative arthroscopy? Finally, should I continue walking and doing activities on it or go for total immobilization now considering the new pain symptoms?