I could use a little "free" medical advise here. Please only serious posts. About 5 months ago i suffered a terrible accident to my leg. I was helping a friend carry something down a steep hill when the grass gave way. I was carrying it with my right hand so my right foot went out in front of me and down the hill as did everything else but my left foot.


I tore my ACL, PCL, MCL, ripped apart the patella tendon, sent my knee cap up into my thigh, and broke the distal tibia (ankle). I had surgery to fix the knee and i do believe it is doing as good as can be expected. However, they never did a MRI on the ankle, and while the X-rays are now showing that the bones have gotten softer (due to not using them for 4+ months) I feel there is more wrong with it. There is excessive popping going on, when i move my foot from outside to inside it snaps and sometimes locks up. Also putting weight on it makes it snap and pop. All of it is coming from the outside and towards the back of the ankle. I do feel the general soreness expected from the "softer bones" but i feel what i believe is way more pain than it should be giving me.

Is the Doctor right? Is it just a matter of time? He expects me to be walking in 2 more weeks without the crutches and i don't see that happening. My knee is now getting stronger but the ankle is a disaster. I would really like to be able to walk again and missing deer season is killing me so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

DH, your down around Lufkin-Nacogdoches area aren't you? As a fellow rural east texan, I have not been impressed by the caliber of Docs I have seen since I moved to rural east-texas from Knoxville. If it were me and I was seriously worried about it, I'd consider making the drive to Houston to get a consult from a genuine orthopedic surgeon at one of the big hospitals.

Nobody on this forum is going to be able to help you, but you are only 2-3 hours from some of the best doctors in the world (Rice etc.). The thing is, don't go in bashing your current doc or even implying that you are dissatisfied with them, because nobody is going to want to help you if they think they are going to end up in a fracas with another Dr. Just say that you are wanting to take a dream trip next year and you really want to make sure that you will be ready in time so you want to see if there are any better options from a bigger hospital.

All you are looking for is an honest opinion. Oh yeah, eat your vegetables and drink plenty of milk.

oh wow nasty injury. I really hope you get that cleared up. best of luck to you.

you should absolutely go to a 'big city' doctor like Archaic says

if you see leaches on the shelf, keep driving.

knee injuries are the kind of thing that you should ABSOLUTELY ensure you get healing on the right track. your accident sounds really bad, so you should make sure you see a doctor who focuses on recovery. I'd think you would need to go to physio for that once you're good enough to start putting weight on it. But I'm not a doctor, I just play one on AT.

damn, this makes my foot/ankle look like nothing but whining......
Yeah get a better a doctor. Possibly an orthopedic surgeon at a University type hospital, but second opinions are definantly always the best idea. I almost wish I had done that before they did this complete ankle replacement in my foot :/

Seriously.. asking for medical advice on a video game? Ridiculous. Go and see a real doctor.

you need better friends

look, for the record - he may have a great doctor now for all I know. They do exist in smaller markets (my life was undoubtedly saved by one 30 years ago), and if you have one then the second opinion may well just verify what you are hearing now. If thats the case though, I bet you'll sleep a lot better knowing that your treatment is endorsed by another highly qualified Dr.

The DR who has been treating me and that did the sergery on my knee was supposed to be the best they had, and it was a Regional Medical Center, not just a small town DR. I do think the knee is getting better (the accident happened May 13th). The DR said i have Osteoarthritis in the foot and ankle, due to not being on it for so long while the knee was healing. That being the case he said by just putting weight back on it and working through the pain it would get better and heal. My problem is i fee there is way too much snapping, popping, and my foot "locking up" for it to not have something torn in there as my knee did.

The DR never did an MRI on the ankle, just on the knee. I was wondering if telling all that about the ankle was possible from just looking at X-rays? And ya, the "official" term for my knee at the hospital ER was Left Knee Derangement. I almost laughed when i saw that.


The other problem is to see another DR- most DR wont see you if you already have one. They don't want to step on each others toes. Thats why i asked here.

Second opinions are generally accepted practice. Medical advice offered here by any MD would open them up to liability, so I wouldn't expect any to post here.

Advice offered by anyone could impose certain liability issues whether they're a doctor or not. Please, go and see a real doctor and refrain from asking for forum diagnosis.