I am a 2o yr old female, who acquired a vertical hairline fracture on my right tibia (pilon fracture) by falling off a bouldering wall at my university onto a torn crash pad. My foot went through the torn seam. This happened on the night of April 8th. I was in a splint for a few days before going in to see an ortho and get my hard cast. I was in the hard cast for about 3.5 weeks, until my second visit, where I got it removed and more x-rays done. My doc looked a the new xrays and told me he could barely see the fracture anymore and I was healing very quickly. He gave me an ankle brace to wear when I would leave the house but told me to stay off of it, by continuing the use of my crutches for about 2 more weeks before trying to full weight bear. I took his advice and waited a bit before walking. When I came in to my last appointment (May 31st)3 weeks later, I was walking without any pain but I did have a limp due to my ankles decreased ROM. The only pain id ever feel is if I were to stretch my ankle in angles it was not yet used to again. I told him this and he advised to remove the ankle brace when walking around so my ankle could get used to that movement again. He took more xrays and said my bone was about 85-90% healed. He even said that it would be safe to try lightly jogging if I felt ready. A few days later I tried jogging but stopped due to discomfort. I waited a couple more days before trying again but same thing so I decided to stop trying for a while and stuck to elliptical which felt absolutely fine.
I had gotten the okay to rock climb again as long as I was top roping (using a harness to catch my falls/lower me back down) and had been doing that without problems for a week or so. There was a time though that I had put my foot on a hold with a bit more force at an angle it wasn't used to. This caused a painful pinch in the area to the top left of the bony knob on inside of ankle. The pain was sharp but it didnt stick around long and faded after a couple of minutes. I havent tried jogging or climbing on it since that day. On June 6th, I noticed my ankle was a tiny bit swollen and sore. I figured it'd go away but its persisted to this day. The soreness is in the area I felt the pinch.
Is this soreness just a normal reaction to using it too much too quickly, and will go away soon? Or have I done some real damage to the soft tissue? My doc never said anything about me needing Physical therapy, but how would I know if thats something I really need?