My right ankle - a tale of horror

Since I was a kid I had this problem with my right ankle.

I would run a few steps and it would get sprained. Every. Time.

PE teachers, of course, didn't believe me, and would force me to run anyway. Until I just refused and would not change my mind. Doctors thought I was just trying to get out of PE and wouldn't even look at it. I had one who wanted me to hop on this board he had sitting atop of dowel rod--he wanted me to roll the rod back and forth by shifting my weight on the board. I couldn't. Doc said I was lazy. (For the record, there are professional athletes who couldn't do that. Doc was just an asshole.)

I finally got to the point where I didn't have to worry about it any more--I have no need to run, so except for the occassion misstep it didn't happen.

I took up bodybuilding for a while and also running--I was running--running, not jogging--three miles at a clip. No problems. My legs became enormously powerful, I have to say--I was squatting with an awful lot of weight. I actually enjoyed working legs at the gym.

It wasn't my ankle that eventually gave way and make me stop with the weightlifting. It was my left wrist. And that is a whole 'nother story, though I had a similar issue--convincing a damned doctor that I was indeed experiencing the searing agony in my hand that I claimed and wasn't just fishing around to get on worker's comp Anyways, after surgery on the wrist, and having the arm in a cast for a couple months, my interest in weight lifting diminished.

So, a little while after that I was playing tennis with a friend and moved to cut to my left and I felt something in my right ankle give way. The pain was illuminating, defining. That was over ten years ago and I can still feel something there, where it tore--I'm guessing a ligament that had always been weak finally gave way. But after a day or so the pain diminished and I could walk with only a barely noticeable limp.

Fast forward to today, when I'm going down the stairs here and feel a sudden tear, this time in the calf area, on my right leg. Sheesh. What now?

Anyways, I'll mention it to my doc when I go back to him--got an appointment coming up--but I strongly suspect I'll get the same reaction from him I've always gotten--he won't believe me.

Days like this make me wish I'd stuck with my childhood dream of becoming a rock star. I'd either be dead or have my own reality show by now.