Ok - so, namelike, I really suck sometimes. lol. I am replying 8 months later. You may be off the board by now.
But, the goal is that life gets better - your ankle gets better, too - and you stay off of the message boards...mostly... which has been pretty much the case for me.
but - to answer the question (8 months later), the recovery from surgery was up and down. Right after the surgery I was VERY impatient to get back to running, and that probably didn't help things. for a while after the surgery I felt WORSE than before. Of course, any time you cut into a joint and disrupt everything, you can expect pain and inflammation. I should have known that and expected that, but instead I let my mind take me in a negative place to "this will never heal, the surgery failed, blah, blah."
We learn in pain management education that there are two parts to pain: the physiological firing of neurons and the brain's interpretation of those signals. The meaning you attribute to pain can definitely make the pain better or worse. Now, if I have a slight ache (on a rainy day) I don't obsess over it; and, it goes away quickly. But, right after surgery, I was so worried that I interpreted any slight ache as total surgical failure, worsening of the defect, necrosis of the bone, etc, etc.
So, in November I will be 5 years out from surgery. After my last post I never got to do the 5K I had hoped for
...because I found out I was pregnant
... and was pretty brutally attacked by fatigue and nausea
....and then, when I started back to running, the ankle was GREAT
...but my pelvic girdle felt like it was being torn apart....common pregnancy issue
So, the goal of running a 5k has been postponed by a full year. But, I'm still hopeful that it might come to fruition this December. Half-marathons are probably out of the picture for me now, and I don't forsee myself ever getting back to running 50+ miles a week.
But, otherwise life is good, and the ankle doesn't limit me at all. I would say the injury is 90% healed, which is great, and considering the extent of my defect and my other associated problems, I think 90% is pretty amazing, honestly.