Thank you. As for when they occurred, I can remember on grade school being taken to the doctor once and him simply saying I had weak ankles. Frankly, nothing else was said or done, it was just accepted that was the way it was. I don't remember a lot from that time other than that, except my right ankle had been hurt so much that I actually developed a limp, even when it didn't hurt and I remember my father yelling at me to walk right. The next thing I remember was being a teenager and walking down the front step of my house and one of my ankles turning. I thought I had broken it, but had to wait for two hours groaning in pain while my mother put on her makeup before she would take me to the doctor. From then it just seemed like every year or so, one of the ankles would turn on me and I'd end up on crutches. To try to shorten this, I'll just say one of the flashbacks was from '99 when I had jumped out of bed, trying to get to the bathroom quickly, got my foot caught in the sheets and my right ankle turned. I ended up with one bone in my lower right leg shattered and a spiral fracture of the other bone. Along with my ankle broken. Now I have a lot of metal n my leg.

I had just accepted this and did not pursue it until a couple of weeks ago. I had sprained another ankle and was not real upset because it was not that bad and it had happened around people so I could be helped. I told my new therapist this and she asked what the doctor had said about my ankles and explained I had never been to be except when I was young. She suggested that there might be exercises that I could do to strengthen the.

I got home that night and called for an appointment with my podiatrist. Basically, he said there is too much damage to the ligaments in my left ankle and would require surgery to fix. Told me to walk with some type of support. When I asked about the right one (which has always been much worse) he told me that the problem was in the bones and the way my feet are. It would not just require a smile surgery but would require bone grafts and another pin in my ankle to fix. Said physical therapy would not help. I as pretty upset, though I'm not sure why as all he did was explain what I'd already thought...couldn't afford the surgery. And that's when I found out I had fractured my left ankle at sometime in the past. I'm going for a second opinion, but I'm not sure they'll have a different opinion.

Thanks for listening, sorry that it's so long.