Fractured ankle still hurts after 7 weeks

[cakedup]

DS (11) fractured his ankle 7 weeks ago, had the cast/crutches/walking boot. For the last couple of days he has been going to school completely unaided (i.e. no walking boot) as instructed but complains that his ankle has been hurting.

Does anyone know if this is normal? I've put it down to the muscles working again after being dormant for so long. He is also limping a bit but then he is a bit of a drama wuss sensitive in general.

Yep - mine hurt for weeks - I would say 12 weeks later it was still tweaking and I got up to too quickly onto a bar stool and wrenched it a bit and it hurt more for two days after.

2 years on, it still twinges in the cold!

Thanks for that Polarbearflavour, I thought as much. It seems it is hurting more now than when he was wearing the walking boot - so he wants to put it back on - but I think he just needs to build up his muscles.

The fracture clinic said he should be ok for PE in a month! I think that's too soon.

Completely normal. Mine hurt for a good six weeks after I got out of the walking boot, despite me having been in no pain for most of the time that I was wearing it. It also swelled massively for about a month and was huge after I'd spent a few hours walking on it. I frequently had to take my shoes off in the office to relieve the pressure!
It did improve with time and patience although I know that this will be of little comfort to an 11 year old.
I found that wearing my high-top Converse helped a lot. I used to lace the left one really tightly around my ankle in the morning to supporting then just loosen the lace during the day as it got bigger. I also wore DH's socks for a few weeks as they were bigger and easier to get off at the end of the day.
With regard to PE, he could well be OK as long as the teacher is prepared to let him stop if it gets too painful. My physio told me that using the ankle as much as I could manage was the best thing to aid recovery. Eighteen months on it is now fine day-to-day although still not quite as strong as it used to be (I still wobble if I stand just on that foot and I can't stand on just that foot and go up on tip-toe without making a very conscious effort to push up with all my strength) but I have no problems that affect my everyday life.

Sorry HotelRedFace just noticed a bunch of threads I didn't realise had posts added that I hadn't seen!

Still very helpful to read your post and reassuring because he was doing so well in his walking boot, so coming out of it was like taking a step (excuse pun) backwards. DS is getting better but every now and again something will set him back, for example his foot felt so good one day he joined in the Bikeability thing at school and got on a bike, his foot got worse for two days after that.

Good to hear your physio confirming that it's good to walk on it because I do get a bit over protective with him. He should be able to go back to PE after the xmas break although that still feels too soon for me! I'm wondering if an ankle strap would be a good idea for PE days.

My gosh though, 18 months on and it's still not as good as it was! Hopefully DS will fully recover being a kid and all. I sprained my ankle when I was a teen, and I never kept it elevated or rested it properly in the early stages and it still goes a bit stiff and clicky in the cold weather now.