Medial ankle pain

Hi,

I recently began running on the treadmill doing about 3 miles each time 5 days a week. The last time I ran, my ankles hurt and I attributed it to my old sneakers not having enough support. I stopped running on the treadmill and used the elliptical and bike instead. I bought a new pair of sneakers and had extra support put in them. Needless to say, the pain has been so bad for the past two weeks that I have not been to the gym and have tried to lay off the exercise until they feel better.
I thought I might have a tendonitis, so I had been taking 800 mgs of ibuprofen 3 times a day and icing my left ankle 3 to 4 times a day. There is no improvement of my left ankle and the right feels fine unless I am going down stairs. The pain in the left ankle hurts even resting and hurts at night. Walking hurts in the medial aspect of the ankle and just in front when walking. I can stand on my toes no problem. I still have swelling just below the medial portion of the ankle and the pain is directly over the bone when I touch it...it feels like a bad bruise.
I went for an xray 10 days after it started hurting and it was negative other than showing the tissue swelling below the medial portion of the ankle. My doctor is treating this as a sprain and said I should be better in 1 to 2 weeks and I am still walking on it. He did not advise me one way or another to stay off it and to keep taking motrin and icing it.
Well, two weeks since the pain started and I am now thinking I could have a stress fracture of the fibula. I know it is rare. I do turn this foot in when running and the pain is directly over the ankle bone. It aches at night and it feels warm.
Should I go back to the doctor or give it another two weeks to heal? I must say that it is definitely not getting any better.

Thanks,
Amy

Hi Amy,
I suppose there is always the chance of a stress fracture and many times it will not show up initially on xray.
My "guess" is that the sprain you have is actually a severe tendonitis and although you may not be exercising, the simple act of walking may be aggravating this.
Assuming this to be the case I would suggest a round of physical therapy to speed up the recovery process. Sometimes just waiting for a foot to heal can take forever.
A second xray might not be a bad idea either.
Marc Mitnick DPM