TIFU by ignoring my messed up ankle for years

Now, for the catch. A few years ago, I did something foolish that caused me to twist my ankle—I can't even recall what it was. Since it ached so much and I was having trouble walking, I assumed I had merely sprained it. I just laid back and let it "heal" on its own because I was too poor and stubborn to visit a doctor. I felt like things sort of improved.
In the future, I start running in order to lose weight. Ankle begins to scream once more, but I figure, what pain is there, what gain? I persisted in pushing, believing I would somehow fortify it. It strangely seemed to work? I simply grew accustomed to it feeling a little stiff and strange, and the pain stopped bothering me significantly.
I thought it was all good, even though it would crack a lot when I moved certain ways. Just figured that's how it was gonna be.
Then, the other night, I'm goofing around with friends, not totally sober, and we're playing this dumb game where we're jumping and dodging stuff. I land funny, hear this nasty CRACK from my ankle, and brace for the worst. But... it actually felt better? Like, suddenly I could move it all around, no pain, no weird stiffness.
Turns out, my ankle was kinda out of whack this whole time, and that fall just knocked it back into place. I've been limping around for nothing.
TL;DR: Ignored my ankle thinking it was just sprained for years. Took a fall and accidentally fixed it. Now it's like nothing was ever wrong.