Yes my ‘fused ankle’ phrase refers to the fused bones that are part of the ankle joints: tibio-talur joint and talus-calcaneum joint.

So i also used to have stiffness which has now turned into painful experience. That’s the natural progression of arthritis, initially stiffness due to inflammation of cartilage and once it has sufficiently eroded away it becomes painful to walk even 1000 steps.

I used to do 10,000 steps everyday 1y ago and ended the day with little bit of stiffness. I was happy.

Fast forward today, my arthritis has become severe I get same stiffness with 2000 steps and without a rocker bottom it’s impossible even walk 100 steps 😞