<p>I just looked at westcoastmom post and I totally agree.
If they won’t be able to find anything, take her to a podiatrist or speciality shoe store that will analyze her walk pattern.</p>
<p>You might also want to talk to a physiatrist (specialist in physical medicine). I hadn’t heard of this specialty until a friend went to a physiatrist for chronic back pain. There are several physiatrists on staff at our local large medical clinic. They are supposed to be good at musculoskeletal injuries.</p>
<p>I took my son to a physiatrist this fall when he was having some off and on back pain. He had had a strange hip fracture a couple of years ago from kicking a ball, and he has been to sports medicine orthopedists several times since then about various complaints. I thought it was time to try something different when the back pain started up again recently. It was fascinating to watch the physiatrist work. He seemed to have a vivid mental image of what was going on inside, as he checked the mobility of all the joints and probed all the muscles to see if they felt right. The problem was obvious (to him) - one hip joint was completely locked, and the pelvis was tilted so that one side was over an inch higher than the other, though my son’s legs are the same length. So he’s been doing everything lopsided, including his year-round sport - my husband says this explains why he looks so funny in some of the drills :-). It is astonishing to me that none of the other doctors had noticed. Anyway, the physiatrist gave my son two stretches to do 7 times a day for 15 seconds each time, and a month later the joint was unlocked and the pelvis was almost level. Another month of stretches should do it.</p>
<p>So… physiatry is one more specialty to consider, if the ankle/foot problem continues.</p>
<p>I also second a podiatrist. My D was a pre-professional ballet dancer putting in many hours a week on pointe. She got the most effective diagnoses and care treatment plans from a sports podiatrist, who specialized in athletes.</p>
<p>Unfortunately D’s had lots of experience with stress fractures, ankle sprains, tendonitis, etc. She also visited orthopedists and internal medicine doctors. No experience with a physiatrist though–that sounds promising too.</p>
<p>Please keep us posted on how she’s doing.</p>
<p>My mom had an experience with gout in her elbow. She strained it and the tendons/muscle were messed up and released uric acid. It’s a form of arthritis, but she hasn’t had any problems since it happened probably 4-6 years ago. The redness, swelling, and especially the “warm to the touch” symptoms were exactly what she had and what caused her to go to the doctor. Her symptoms included a swelling of the elbow and what looked like a bouncy ball forming under the skin. It was red, swollen, and warm (which us kids found cool, naturally). They gave her some antibiotics and steroids for a couple of weeks and it cleared up eventually. The only other option was to drain it, but it went away, and I doubt they’d drain an ankle.</p>
<p>[Gout</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout]Gout”>Gout - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I just went to a podiatrist at the UW earlier this week.
I have been having a lot of foot pain- ( ive also had major surgery on one foot)
the xrays showed I had major heel spurs and some arthritis, but I also felt like I wasn’t allowed to go to the clinic there, because it wasn’t interesting enough.
lol
He did say I could get custom orthotics which I am considering- I already use Superfeet.</p>