Well, if you look closely, you'll see the joint doesn't exactly fit in the socket, and there's a bit of bone on bone.
Living with pain is something I'm used to and can deal with for awhile longer as the other two options may be more problematic. Fusing would eliminate the pain, but I would lose the ability to basically move my ankle, and that would already add to the host of problems that I've already got with muscle atrophy in my calf and butt, due to walking in a kinda a sideways duck walk with my right leg so I don't have to bend my ankle, and throwing off the whole back, etc. I'd rather live in pain. As for replacement....dunno. They didn't even have ankle replacements not that long ago, so I'm just not sure about them. Add in risk, downtime from work, expense, etc., I'm willing to do some research, but that wouldn't be a decision I'd make quickly, and don't know if I could even pull off. Well see.