"I suffered a bad ankle injury some years ago which caused cartilage leakage in the joint. Eventually the cartilage disappeared and bone-on-bone friction in the joint gave me such pain that I was limited to walking only a few hundred meters. When I could no longer walk around a shopping mall I decided to do something about it. The medical doctor was surprised I could walk at all and suggested a)surgery to fuse the joint, but this would restrict mobility or b)a replacement joint with 6 months convalescence. Neither was appealing so I looked for other solutions. I visited an Orthotics specialist and he built a special in-sole for the shoe to help with fallen arches and to balance the joint. He also supplied the Ossur Exoform Ankle Brace to stabilise the ankle joint as the the tendons had become stretched through injuries over the years. That was almost 2 years ago. From the moment I started wearing the orthotics and ankle brace the pain became minimal and today I still have hardly any pain from the injured ankle provided I stick to walking on an even surface."