Long story short - DD (15) has had pain in her ankle for 18 months now. It hurts constantly to some degree but gets much worse when she tries to walk on it. She can normally only manage about 5 minutes of walking before it becomes too painful to carry on. However, it gets worse the more she walks on it as the day goes on. She is just about surviving (I use the word deliberately) at school but by the end of the day she is physically and mentally exhausted. Her mental health has also been affected - she says she often wants to cry and is struggling to cope at school as all her energy is going into simply keeping going. She said today she doesn't know how she can keep going any more 
She's been seen by paediatric consultants but, partly as a result of Covid, there has been a lot of emphasis on resting and taking paracetomol, neither of which has helped. She's also under a physiotherapist who acknowledges that physio is only stopping her foot getting worse and not actually helping it get better. She's had an MRI scan so we know what's wrong with the foot and Google suggests that she will need surgery. (I am i no way suggesting that this is definitely the case).
She's currently waiting on a referral to a specialist but won't be seen until July (Covid backlog). I've rung every private hospital vaguely locally with an ankle consultant but none of them are seeing children for the foreseeable future. I've tried the dual approaches of being very logical about why DD needs to be seen earlier by the NHS consultant and, crying down the phone to his secretary. Secretary says nothing she can do (Covid backlog).
I genuinely do not know how DD can keep getting up each day and struggling through school. But the alternative is to take her out and she loses the one small piece of normality she has.
Has anyone gone through similar? Is there anything I can do for her?