Ankle Injury. What can I do?

[seemenow]

i slipped on the stairs 3 months ago. The next day I woke up to a swollen ankle, and thought I’d sprained my ankle. So I bound it up and carried on. I know that sprained ankles can take a while to get better, so i didn’t worry too much about it not getting better.
It is now more than 3 months and my ankle still aches (it was never a really painful injury), but I can’t put my foot in some positions without it being uncomfortable. Can I go to a doctor after all of this time? Will they be able to do anything?

Of course you can, but you will likely be referred for an X-ray.

It does take a while to heal if you've damaged the cartridge or ligaments, those take longer than a break.

I had a bad sprain slipping down the bottom step, I actually did both but the right was ok in about 6-8 weeks as expected but the left didn't settle, that was June 2017 and I'm still recovering as it took about 6 months to get a referral to a physio to see what was going on then after a few months of physio and not much improvement a scan showed the damaged tissue had thickened in an attempt to protect itself limiting movements in some directions.

So if 3m on its not resolved naturally please see your gp and push for a referral, the longer it's left the more it will stiffen and take longer to reverse.

I feel rather foolish because I didn’t go to a doctor straight away. When it happened, it just wasn’t massively painful, and I thought it would heal. Now that it hasn’t, I feel that a doctor would think that I should have come much earlier

Don't feel foolish, they will usually say give it 6-8wks anyway for a sprain before investigating further.
I went back initially in that time but the gp I saw said to give it a little more time and a I had to go back and push to get a referral to see a physio.
It's been enough time so make sure you get them to do something now and not use the wait and see approach.

Definitely look at getting it checked. I saw in osteopath recently and mentioned falling downstairs and going over on my ankle in March (when bringing something else up). I know it still hurt in certain positions but hadn't thought any more of it. He looked at my ankle and shin and there's definite pain/weakness still there. He's shown me some strengthening exercises.

Definitely go to see your doctor. I did the same many years ago, and left it, now having real problems with my ankle even though i've seen a few physios. The damage is so bad, all they can do is fuse the joint now (no thanks), if only i hadnt left it...