Conditions + Treatments
Ankle Injury
Foot Injury/Condition
My name is Kara Jones and I am from Cullman, AL. I am a sophomore at West Point High School and play varsity softball.
Due to an accessory navicular bone in both feet, which is an extra bone attached to the navicular bone, I had two previous surgeries on my ankles - my right ankle in 2018 and my left ankle in 2021. I rolled them both playing softball and they never got better. I had to get them removed. Both surgeries were performed by a surgeon not affiliated with Andrews Sports Medicine.
In August of 2022, I was at a church event. Some friends and I were playing football, and I rolled my left ankle.
I felt a pop and it immediately started hurting. I knew I probably injured it again. I was treated by a local doctor, who recommended wearing a boot and doing some physical therapy. I also got a steroid injection in December of 2022 to help with the pain, but there was no relief. I continued to play softball and do my regular activities.
During my 2023 softball season, I pitched around 100 innings. I was overworking my ankle with the combination of pitching and the previous injury from the church event. Every time I was done pitching, I would basically go to the dugout and cry because of the pain in my left ankle. I pitched anyway because I didn’t want to give up on my team and the sport I love.
We were playing against Hayden High School, and I was pitching. I got through most of the game, but the pain was so bad I couldn’t keep going. My athletic trainer, Donna Chamblee, helped me and suggested I go see a foot & ankle specialist. I knew it was bad because I had to use crutches just to get to the car after the game. We decided to go to Andrews Sports Medicine. We had heard great things about the doctors there.
I saw Dr. Norman Waldrop on March 7, 2023. My hitting coach, Jeff Horton highly recommended him to us. His daughter had previous surgery with him and told us he was the best. Dr. Waldrop viewed my old MRI I had gotten from my previous surgeries. He couldn’t quite tell what I had done and examined my left ankle for himself. I came back on April 25, 2023, and he gave me a PRP injection to see if it helped with the pain I was experiencing. That helped some, but at this point Dr. Waldrop said I would most likely need surgery.
My experience with Dr. Waldrop was great! He is so personable and explained everything to me. I told him I was ready to get back on the field and that I had goals to play softball in college. He reassured me of everything and said he would make that happen for me.
Dr. Waldrop performed a modified Kidner procedure on my left ankle on May 8, 2023. While he was performing my surgery, he found that I had torn some ligaments as well, which he repaired.
The recovery process was very hard. I continued going to pitching lessons because I didn’t want to lose my groove. It was both mentally and physically hard on me. At this point, I had 3 foot surgeries and this put me behind all my teammates. I knew I needed to work hard in physical therapy to regain my strength and get back to the level of my teammates. I still played as much as I could, and my physical therapist said I was doing great.
I went back to see Dr. Waldrop for a follow up and he said this is the quickest he has seen someone with my type of injury heal. At the visit, I gave him a photo of me playing softball and wrote him a letter thanking him for doing my surgery. You could tell it meant something to him to get this from me. Post surgery, I went back to playing softball and pitched a perfect game! I was so happy with how far I came from surgery.
I am good as new and able to continue pitching for my high school softball team. I have had no issues and no pain since the surgery. I can’t thank Andrews Sports Medicine and Dr. Waldrop enough for helping me achieve Victory Over Injury and get back on the softball field!
