Occasional limp?

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I'm not sure this question hasn't basically been answered already, but I couldn't find anything with this specific information. So:
Is it possible to only have a limp occasionally after an injury? Like, if you've strained your leg, you're really tired, or the weather is just that bad then you'll limp but until then you walk with no sign of ever having been injured?
And, if you do, is it then better to listen to your body and limp around for a bit or force it into a proper walk?

Oh, and hi everyone! :D I'm new here.
 

Cathy C

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Yes. Absolutely. Often it's caused by changes in the weather, making the area swell and become painful for a day. Sometimes it's because of nerves reconnecting around the wound/injury. I still have an occasional limp from nerve weirdness where I had surgery in my calf nearly 20 years ago. Perfectly plausible. I just live with the limp until it fades. It does fade. :)
 

Bufty

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I agree. It's just like a temporary pain anywhere else - arm- neck - shoulder.
 

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People who have occasional bouts with gout say it's like walking on glass.
 

Ketzel

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An injury to a joint that doesn't seem too bad at first can trigger osteo-arthritis in the long run. At least initially, osteo-arthritic pain comes and goes in the joints, including the spine, hips, knees and ankles, and it is definitely exacerbated by cold damp weather. In the early stages, you're urged to keep moving the affected joint as normally as you can, to encourage natural lubrication and to protect your range of motion for as long as possible. In the later stages, the pain can become constant and extreme which makes it hard to move without assistive devices or help from other people.
 
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angeluscado

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My mom broke her ankle in 1996, bad enough that she needed a plate and a pin to keep the bones together while they healed. Long story short, changes in the weather cause her some discomfort and sometimes she still limps.

I have plantar fasciitis. Most of the time it's not too bad and I can walk normally, but every once in a while, usually when I wear crappy shoes or I'm on my feet for several hours, I'm hurting and I'm limping. It's nowhere near as bad as it used to be - there were days I was in so much pain I had to hold on to things so that I wouldn't fall over.
 

Neegh

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I have arthritis so sometimes I limp, and sometimes I don't.
 

harmonyisarine

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I have an occasional limp in both knees, but I try to avoid limping as much as possible since the interruption in gait is likely to cause the other leg to have trouble. I've been told by doctors to use a cane rather than an unassisted limp. This is for a joint issue that is causing early onset osteoarthritis, though I'm not quite to full blown arthritis yet.
 

blacbird

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Absolutely. I have knee problems, courtesy of athletic endeavors in younger days, and they variably express themselves from day to day. Some days I limp a bit. Some days going up steps is much more difficult than on other days. And it ain't an old wives' tale: changes in weather absolutely do provoke pain in joints.

caw
 

L M Ashton

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I was going to mention plantar fasciitis, too. I've had it really bad in the past, but now that I wear only Crocs (yes, I know, people hate Crocs. I don't care.), I don't get it at all.

Arthritis, yes, absolutely. Also, unstable joints. I have a genetic connective tissue disorder that, among other things, means that my joints are unstable. As in, they're hypermobile, dislocating and subluxating (partially dislocating) frequently. On a bad day, ten steps can mean fifteen or fifty dislocations in the hips, knees, ankles, and toes. On a good day, it might mean only the right knee and hip. It could mean that I dislocate my knee in a medium-bad way (yes, there are good ways for me to dislocate joints - they hurt much less!) every now and then. So I tend to have limps that vary not just from day to day, but even from minute to minute. My joints tend to be stiffest when I haven't moved them for a while, so I tend to have more pronounced limps just after standing up from a sitting position, for example. Or after getting off/on a bus/train or going up stairs. Or after any change in walking pattern.

So, yeah, weird limping patterns.
 

Orianna2000

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Another possibility for occasional limping is bursitis. It's similar to arthritis, but it's inflammation of the bursa (fluid sac). I get it every so often in my hip joint. It feels like a hot poker stabbing my hip when I try to walk or move around. Sitting can be painful, especially on long road trips, where you can't shift position easily.

Funny thing is, it used to be regular, every couple of months, but now I only get a flareup maybe once a year. Once it flares up, it tends to recur, off and on for a few weeks. Then it goes away again.
 

Myrealana

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I tore my ACL when I was 15. I worked out on it just fine until my senior year of high school, when it got so bad, it would sometime slip out of joint just walking up stairs. By that time, I had torn out about 60% of the cartilage in that knee, too. I had to have it replaced.

It was the 1980s, and replacement surgery was not nearly as advanced as it is now. My knee has never been 100% since.

It hurts sometimes, and I limp. Occasionally, it's so bad, I have to go all Doctor House with a cane and pain meds.

When there's a drastic change in the weather, I get what I call "Voodoo doll pains." That's when it feels like someone is jamming a needle through the top of my knee all the way down and out the bottom of my foot. Sometimes, it's a narrow needle, and sometimes, it's like a piece of rebar is going through my leg and it hurts so badly, I nearly pass out.
 

heza

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I broke my ankle several years ago. Most of the time, it's fine, but it'll get stiff on me in a variety of circumstances: wearing new shoes, sitting awkwardly for a while, standing for a long time, after a lot of exercise and inadequate stretching, when a cold front moves in. Sometimes, I'll limp because muscle tightness makes moving a little painful. Sometimes, muscle tightness or a bit of a lock in the joint will impinge on a nerve and cause a shooting pain when I put weight on it.
 

Euphoric Mania

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Just to add my two cents:

My back is sometimes very dodgy, and will cause me to limp (mm, shooting pains down my leg/aching spasming hip and lower back; fun stuff.) Lately though I've been fine (like now; I'm actually having trouble getting folks to believe I can actually do things now that I feel better...) so I will be fine, and have no limp at all.

Sit on the wrong sofa/chair for too long though, and it's game over.

Plantar fasciitis is another good example of a temporary limp. It's worse in the morning when I get up, after a hard day on my feet the day before, so I will limp around until I've stretched it out and warmed it up enough to function without pain. Then I'm fine, at least until i sit down and rest again (it's always worse after a rest).
 
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Becky Black

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I've had temporary limps from bad leg cramps before (though got them sorted out.) And I limped for a month after having a trapped sciatic nerve. Just after this new year I had some kind of weird thing with my ankle. I didn't turn it or anything, it just went strange and I limped and had to wear an ankle brace for a couple of weeks. So none of those were actual leg injuries, but they all made me limp temporarily.
 

Nivarion

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I have an occasional limp. It normally only acts up in cold weather, or if I've been standing in one spot and reaching for things for a couple of hours.

It hurts to walk when it acts up, and I can't bend my leg right so I have an odd gait and am a lot slower.

I got it in 2010 on my twentieth birthday. I was riding my bike when I met an unaware driver. In an RV home. He was speeding. After he hit me I got bounced through several lanes of traffic, and I twisted and strained the ligaments of the right knee when my foot went through the frame of the bike on a nasty bounce, and it's never been quite the same since.

Interestingly, my elbow which had several hair line fractures recovered without even being put in a cast, (wasn't caught till it was almost healed.) and never hurts me.
 

Smiling Ted

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One can develop an occasional limp from a herniated disc (aka "slipped" disc) in your back. One of the cartilage discs that separate the vertebrae can bulge outward and compress a nerve, often the sciatic nerve leading to the leg. Once the pain has subsided, the victim may be left with some weakness in the leg, leading to a limp. The weakness can be treated by strengthening the abdominal muscles.