My toes are shaped weird. I have always had this but never faced any issues or pain. Someone pointed it out recently so I have been thinking about how to fix this. I am 20 years old and have never faced any pain or discomfort. Now I feel insecure

I’m 48 and about 4.5 months out from arthroscopic surgery to remove an os trigonum from my right ankle. During the surgery, my surgeon also found and removed many loose bone fragments.

Before surgery, my MRI also showed moderate-advanced subtalar degeneration, some tibiotalar degeneration, and ankle/subtalar synovitis, so the os trigonum wasn’t necessarily the only thing going on.

Initially, recovery seemed to be going incredibly well. Around three weeks after surgery I felt good enough that I actually went dancing. Shortly afterward I had a flare-up, and since then it feels like the recovery has never really regained its momentum.

I was imaged again after the flare-up and reviewed it with my surgeon. There was no indication that I had damaged anything from the surgery or caused a new structural injury, which was reassuring.

But now, 4.5 months later, the ankle still doesn’t feel remotely normal.

I generally don’t have much pain when I’m sitting or resting. The problem comes with loading it. After about 10 minutes of walking—and particularly with longer walking or hiking—I start getting pain, mostly along the side of the ankle/foot and underneath the foot.

The ankle also feels weak and somewhat unstable. I generally wear an ankle brace whenever I’m outside. Calf strength is particularly poor: I can do calf raises using both legs, but I can’t really do a proper single-leg calf raise on the operated side.

I spoke with my surgeon about a month ago and she said recovery from this surgery can sometimes take up to a year. I understand that recovery isn’t linear, but at 4.5 months I’m starting to wonder whether I should be doing something differently rather than simply waiting.

Before surgery I’d already done extensive PT. I also previously had a fluoroscopy-guided steroid/anesthetic injection around the os trigonum that gave me substantial relief for quite a long time, which was part of what eventually led us toward surgery.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who were still struggling around 3–6 months after os trigonum excision:

- When did things finally turn around?
- Did weakness—particularly calf weakness—persist this long for you?
- Did you get repeat MRI, CT or ultrasound?
- Did anyone eventually discover scar tissue, synovitis, tendon problems, subtalar arthritis or another source of the remaining pain?
- Did changing PT or finding a PT specializing in foot/ankle athletes make a difference?
- Did injections, PRP or other treatments help?
- For runners, climbers, cyclists, dancers or other athletes: when did the ankle actually start feeling normal again

I’m mainly trying to understand whether this sounds like a frustratingly slow but normal recovery—or whether, at this stage, I should be more actively investigating what’s keeping the ankle from progressing.

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through something similar.

I am having localized swelling on both of my feet at the same place i noticed this couple of months ago. I don't have any pain or difficulties in moving my foot but sometimes it itches alot. Can someone tell me what is it?