Hello there. Thanks in advance for reviewing the question. It's kind of a lengthy story, but I'll keep it as short as possible. In August of 2007, I was standing at a table. When I turned to walk away I felt an extremely sharp pain (probably the worst pain I've ever felt) in the back of my ankle where my Achilles tendon is. I could barely walk. I did not have health insurance at the time so I was unable to see a doctor for this. While I was at home, I would keep the leg elevated and stay off of it, but I had to go to school everyday so I did have to use the ankle probably far too often (I just had to limp on it). It took 2 to 3 months for the pain to subside. After that period, I was left with a lot of ankle popping. My ankle never popped before and now it pops excessively. Sometimes as many as 5 pops with one movement of the ankle - loud audible pops. The popping itself isn't painful. I did eventually go to the doctor for the popping. He took some X-rays, and said all my bones look very healthy, so the popping isn't due to anything bone related. He did say I have mild peroneal tendon subluxation so that was probably where the popping was coming from. He said the groove for the tendon is shallow. He really didn't have a straight answer for me about the injury and felt it unnecessary to have an MRI done. He just recommended I get some orthodics and be careful when doing certain activities. I'm not very happy with this response though. I have no confidence in my ankle. Some days, my ankle just feels sore for no reason at all. I often get what I call "mini" ankle sprains. For example, I'll be running around the house with my dog, and I'll get a sudden sharp pain that feels like an ankle sprain, so I sit down and the pain goes away about a minute later and the ankle is fine after that. The ankle feels very unstable, mostly when I make sudden movements, not so much just walking forward but if I turn or something is when it happens most often.
So here are my questions: If I have peroneal tendon subluxation because of a shallow groove - why did it just start after 26 years? Also, can that tendon cause all of that popping? It doesn't feel like it's the culprit for the popping if I place my finger on it. I feel the popping in other places mostly. I feel most of the popping coming from the top part of the ankle, where the foot and ankle meet, towards the inside of the ankle. It feels like something is popping sort of deep inside that area - that's a tough one to describe without showing the area. Secondly, when this injury happened, I was working out heavily that summer. I was doing a lot of heavy weight lifting. Based on the symptoms I had, it seems like I ruptured the tendon from having too tight of calf muscles (I didn't stretch often enough). If this is the case, is there anything that can be done about the ankle problems I'm currently having, or am I stuck with this because I didn't go to the doctor fast enough?
Thanks again for reviewing the question, I really appreciate it! This is something I really worry about because I love a lot of physical activities, such as hiking. I would hate to not be able to do those again. I haven't been very active since this injury happened, but I'm ready to become more active again so I wanted to see what I could find out about the ankle. Perhaps my ankle is messed up because I have been so inactive since the injury? Maybe it just needs some strengthening?