I need some advice on a possible case of Chronic Ankle Instability and treatement.
Some background info, about five years ago, I experienced this awful ankle sprain. I think it was somewhere between a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 ankle sprain, the reason why I'm not sure is that I never went to a doctor for this, my parents thought it was just another normal sprain that kids get while growing up. I'm only making a theory recalling how black and blue my whole ankle was. I was limping for quite a while and I didn't get treatment until about 3-4 hours after the initial trip. I was growing through some rough times back then and my mother seemed annoyed/disappointed that I got such a bad injury. I ended up not taking care of it properly. As soon as the bruising faded away, I started joining my class again for physical education, and well because I wasn't healed, I tripped and sprained my ankle again.
Since then, I've tripped and sprained my ankles time and time again. At first it was just one, but maybe it's because my other foot got tired the other one began to sprain. It began to affect how I walk (I tend to slide my feet and keep them close to the ground than picking them up when walking, shuffling my feet?) and I would just keep tripping. I concluded one day that this might be Chronic Ankle Instability because it just seemed to make sense, but I can't make that conclusion because a doctor never diagnosed me with it.
I never had a chance to go to a real doctor and consult them about this because my parents kept taking me to a Chinese Medical Practioners, who would apply herbal solutions and compresses to my ankles. My parents be
Most recently, my parents got this 'very reliable' Chinese doctor (who has apparently cured my mother's back problems) who would massage my ankles to push the tendons into the right place(?) or something like that. However, instead of my ankles, he was trying to fix my knees because that's where he said the problem lies (even though my knees have never hurt before). He would painfully massage my whole leg and massage it really hard to 'push the tendons', so hard that sometimes I really can't stand the pain. He would massage my ankles too (which I have both recently sprained again). Although I can say that he's helping me learn to walk properly (by picking up my feet when I walk), my ankle started to throb again. He says my weight has to do with why I sprain a lot (I'm 68kg, female) and tells my parents that I should exercise, so my parents are having me workout by swimming (even though my sprained ankle hasn't fully recovered, because it's for my recovery).
I've never gone to a doctor or gotten a diagnosis, so if anyone with experience with ankle problems could offer any insight into whether this treatment would work. So far, my ankles have been aching and parts of my legs would age too when I walk sometimes. Kicking while swimming makes my ankle hurt more, but when I try to tell my parents and the doctor, he would say 'it's supposed to hurt'.
Advice would much be appreciated.