{"id":239466,"date":"2025-12-19T11:55:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=239466"},"modified":"2026-02-04T12:56:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:56:40","slug":"lesser-known-remedy-for-ankle-arthritis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/12\/lesser-known-remedy-for-ankle-arthritis\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesser-Known Remedy for Ankle Arthritis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Healthcare<\/a>A somewhat uncommon procedure is proving to be an effective solution for problems associated with ankle arthritis.<\/p>\n

When pain becomes persistent and mobility becomes limited, an ankle fusion will address the pain. But some patients are candidates for an ankle replacement<\/a>, which comes with added benefits.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Lauren Geaney is a foot and ankle surgeon in the UConn Musculoskeletal Institute. (Tina Encarnacion\/ UConn Health photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt allows patients to maintain their range of motion, and gait is better with the ankle replacement,\u201d says Dr. Lauren Geaney<\/a>, UConn Health foot and ankle surgeon. \u201cBut a lot of people aren\u2019t aware total ankle replacement exists as a really great option to help pain and restore function in patients suffering from ankle arthritis.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this time last year, Joe Marinello, of Wethersfield, was struggling with pain in his right ankle that had progressed to the point where he had a bad limp and was using a cane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had pain most of the time when I moved, so my mobility was very limited, and I just didn’t do a lot of things,\u201d Marinello says. \u201cI took a lot of ibuprofen and whatever to deal with the pain, and a lot of the pressure of doing things, like shopping and doing other stuff, was put on my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

To me she walks on water, because she\u2019s got me walking with no pain. — Joe Marinello<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Marinello, 86, says the problem went back to a bad day on the baseball field in 1961, when he was playing third base for Marietta (Ohio) College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI slid into home and my bottom spike caught home plate, flipped me over,\u201d he says. \u201cI busted my ankle, and actually the foot was 90 degrees and the tibia bone was on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says a doctor at a bone clinic in Parkersburg, West Virgina, reset the bones in his foot without surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to set it at a certain angle so that everything stayed together,\u201d Marinello says. \u201cIt was a little crooked at first, but through therapy, the muscles straightened out. I broke it in May, and went into the service in September. And instead of me doing all the marching, I had to do the running, but then I went to the infirmary, and by February I was playing baseball for the squadron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being an athlete his whole life, it took until about 10 years ago for the decades of running to finally take their toll. He started seeing Geaney, who started him on cortisone shots. They would provide about three months of relief, but as the years went by, they lost their effectiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnkle arthritis is much less common than hip and knee arthritis, and ankle replacement is a newer procedure,\u201d Geaney says. \u201cThe technology and our knowledge of ankle replacements even in the last 10 years since I\u2019ve been in practice has grown exponentially. When I first started, I was doing about one a year, primarily because we didn\u2019t know as much about who did well. Now I\u2019m doing about one a month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"man<\/a>
Within days of replacing a walking boot with his shoe following his ankle replacement surgery six weeks earlier, Joe Marinello demonstrates he can walk down stairs the way he used to, free of hindrance from his ankle arthritis. (Photo provided by Joe Marinello)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Initially concerned about downtime and recovery, Marinello came around on the idea of ankle replacement surgery.<\/p>\n

For the first 11 days after the surgery on March 20, his foot was in a splint and he was under doctor\u2019s orders to not put any weight on it. He went back to get the stitches removed and graduated to a walking boot with limited weight bearing.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/a>
Two months after his total ankle replacement surgery, Joe Marinello shows a fish he caught upon his return to his fishing boat. He says he sent this photo to his surgeon, UConn Health\u2019s Dr. Lauren Geaney, to show he could manage stepping into and out of the boat. (Photo provided by Joe Marinello)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI could put it down, but I had to put pressure around my walker, I had to stay with the walker,\u201d Marinello says. \u201cThen on April 28, she looked at it, and said, \u2018Put your shoe on.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had no pain since she did the surgery. I had swelling from the surgery, but I had no pain. It was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he had an excellent outcome,\u201d Geaney says. \u201cThis is a great surgery to restore patients to low-impact activity like walking, hiking, biking, or swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is, after staying off the repaired foot for a few weeks, followed by rehabilitation. Geaney says it can take up to a year for full recovery.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/a>
Four months after his total ankle replacement, Joe Marinello walks up the stairs from the dock at his lake house in Stoddard, New Hampshire. \u201cIt was the first time I was able to get in and out of the water in maybe four or five years,\u201d he says. (Photo provided by Joe Marinello)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marinello\u2019s course of physical and occupational therapy lasted four months, at which point he reported, \u201cThe only thing she doesn\u2019t want me to do is run, and I haven\u2019t run in years, and she doesn\u2019t want me to climb a ladder. Other than that, I get my boat, I go fishing, I shop with my wife now, I help her, I carry stuff. I\u2019m living pretty much a normal life based on my age. But to this day, I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m walking with no pain. I\u2019m mobile. I walk straight. There\u2019s no limp and there\u2019s no pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he developed quite a fondness for his surgeon.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me she walks on water, because she\u2019s got me walking with no pain,\u201d Marinello says. \u201cI talk to her like I\u2019m talking to a friend. She\u2019s so personable and down to earth, it\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about foot and ankle surgery at UConn Health.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patient pain-free and mobile again after total ankle replacement by UConn Health\u2019s Dr. Lauren Geaney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":239469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,2672,2287,2674,1868,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-239466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-healthcare-reimagined","category-orthopedics","category-patient-success","category-meds","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 23:24:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239466"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240782,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239466\/revisions\/240782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/239469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239466"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=239466"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=239466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}