Anyone else had ankle arthroscopy?

I sprained my ankle in January, and I must have done a serious job about it, because I've had problems with my foot ever since. Yesterday, I had an ankle arthroscopy where the doctor removed scar tissue in the ligaments. I'm doing well, but I was wondering if anyone else had had an ankle arthroscopy, and could tell me about how they went about with rehab? I've gotten lots of instructions from my doctor, and he's been good at answering questions, but I'd like to hear from others who've been thru it themselves.

Here are the mistakes I made the first time.

First off, I went to the wrong doctor. Previously I had had my shoulders scoped at the Hospital for Special Surgery, which was great, and for some inexplicable reason I went elsewhere for knee. Idiot!

Afte the procedure I went home and it took FIVE days for them to tell me what they actually did during the procedure. Turned out I did have some scar tissue on my ACL ligament, which was partially torn, and he removed part of my meniscus. It really pissed me off that he doctor was so unavailable - sounds like your doctor is great tho, so you've already avoided my first mistake.

Second mistake - went to a bad physical therapist. he didn't take me seriously as an athlete because I was overweight, and he was very hands-off when I'd show up. He gave me a routine to do and I got very little supervision. Are you going for physical therapy? Make sure you go to one who really knows what he or she is doing and gives you lots of attention.

Third mistake - I should have worked harder to lose weight to take stress off my knees. It wasn't until six months later that I seriously started to lose weight. I've lost 70 pounds since the first scope, but those first six months when I was trying to get back to playing softball probably didn't help me heal as well as I could have. So the better overall health you're in, probably the better your ankle will do.

This time I'm going to a great doctor - apparently it's my meniscus again, it's flaking off and causing inflammtion. Doctor is going to do repair work, instead of just cutting it away, so my rehab will be more intense, but I really like and trust my physical therapist this go around.

If you like your doctor and physical therapist, take care of your overall health, and follow their instructions, you should do well. Good luck.

I should have had the surgery sooner, except there was a misunderstanding about time frames, so I didn't get the referral to the orthopedic examination my GP wanted for me this summer. However, it only took 3 weeks from when I saw my GP again until I had the surgery yesterday. I did get a referral to a physical therapist 3 weeks after I injured my ankle, and I went to him regularly until August. However, we really couldn't understand why I kept having setbacks, but the MRI revealed scar tissue and brain marrow edema, the former of which I hope has been resolved with the arthroscopy. I've gotten a new referral, so I'll call him up and see if he's free to take me on as a patient again - I got the surgery description and a copy of my x-rays and MRIs to aid him in giving me the correct exercises.

As for weight loss - I know that I need to lose weight. I've put on lots of pounds since January, as my favorite way of staying fit was to walk, and I couldn't do that after I injured my ankle. I am starting aquatic aerobics as soon as I get my stitches out, and I will do other exercises as soon as I can.

I'm glad you're getting your knee repaired. It's very important to get good doctors and other health care workers, but so many of us aren't aware we're getting bad care, or even if we do feel something is off, we don't feel we have the expertise and authority to challenge it.

I want to play for as long as i can.

What the heck is brain marrow edema?

I'm just motivated by the thought of walking without pain. Never knowing which step would be painful was a serious demotivator when it came to my walks. I always think better when I'm walking, and it helps me clear my mind and recharge my batteries to walk on crisp Fall evenings. I really miss it.

I meant bone marrow edema LOL I guess I can blame it on the pain killers - I've never taken anything stronger than OTC pain killers (paracetamol, ibuprofen) before, so the codeine must be the cause! As it is, bone marrow edema is basically swelling of the bone marrow, in my case the bone that connects the leg and foot, the talus bone. There's little they can do about it, but over 90% get better within a year.