I feel for you Anon! Thanks for the cheers!
I wonder. If they had told me how much pain I would go through, would I do it all over again? LOL! Oh, probably.

LOL! You know it!

Thanks Jeff for the inspiration on that!
This rehab stuff is so tough.
The first surgery I had was just to set the bone fragments. I wasn't able to do much of any rehab at first, and it seems like that bone spur set up really quick which then made it basically impossible to do rehab.
The second surgery was "supposed" to get rid of that bone spur, but the guy did such a lame job that I could barely tell a difference between the before and after x-rays of the bone spur. He used a scope. I didn't know what that was. Well, the incision spots were about the size of a pencil. The rehab that I thought I could do I could not do because that huge bone spur was still there. I felt worse and was very discouraged because though I had tried to do all of the rehab exercises it was absolutely impossible to do them.
This surgery, the third one, this surgeon made two incisions. The incision on the outer front of the ankle was about 5 inches long and on the inner front of the ankle the incision was about 4 inches long. That tells me that he had to do some major work to get that bone spur out. NOW! I have hope that I can do the rehab exercises and get this thing back on the mend.
But like you said, doing everything they say to do to rehab the ankle is the way to go. I've finally settled on the thought that since I have been in pain literally everyday since in between the second and the third surgeries I might as well as continue in it for the good while doing these rehab exercises.
And, just for the kicker to be thorough, I am being extra tough on myself to make sure that I am in pain. Like this last surgeon told me. If I don't hurt, then I am not making progress. So, here I sit, in agony often hoping it will all pay off and I will be 100% like you! Thanks for the thoughts of hope Jeff. Giving me a timeline of how long it might takes helps ease my mind of whether or not I am doing a good job of it!
In the following topic are some images of where my ankle was and where I hoped this third surgeon went with the surgery: http://www.cricketscreations.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=432

if you saw the X-Rays of my little sister when she jumped off a bridge some years back, that would make you feel a lot better She was extremely lucky to be alive, she smashed both here ankles and compressed 4 vertebra, shee still has metal plates in her back and one of her ankles > 10 years later, she still has to carry a letter around explaining why the security screens go off everytime she walks through them. I saw her back after the surgery, she had an incision frombetween her shoulder blades all the way down to her waist, all held together with metal staples, she looked like they had fitted a zip down her back.

I feel like a wimp compared to your sister Huw! I am picturing what that looks like and gasping for consciousness on how that would feel. I hope she is feeling ok now.