On October 3rd, we arrived at the hospital for my ultrasound. The
technician began the ultrasound on my legs, starting with my right leg.
Here is where things get rocky. I felt like I was in the room for the
longest time, and the ultrasound did take about an hour and she had only
ultra-sounded my right leg.
She kept leaving the room and making faces
at the screen – that is when I knew something wasn’t right. After the
ultrasound I was directed to admitting to prepare for surgery. By this
time is was about 8:20am, surgery was at 9:30am. I was successfully
admitted and was sitting in the waiting room when we got the call. My
mom was talking to my ortho surgeon’s assistant and when she hung up she
said “They found something on your ultrasound, your surgery is
cancelled, we have to go meet your surgeon in the clinic.” I was bummed
to say the least. I had waited for this surgery. But turns out I did
have a vascular problem.
We got down to the clinic and met with my surgeon. He described to us
what they found on the ultrasound. In his own words, he said that my
calf muscle is compressing my popliteal artery which causes my blood
supply to be cut off when I run. I do not have compartment syndrome, but
rather a vascular problem in my calves.
I am so thankful that he did the ultrasound and found this out before
he went through with the surgery; which, would not have fixed my pain.
Although this vascular problem will also require surgery, it will be a
surgery that will actually allow me to be pain free. Now I am headed
onto a new journey. He referred me to a Vascular Surgeon, who I will
meet with next week and start a new batch of testing to determine the
exact diagnosis. While this new journey means a delay in recovery, I
understand that patience and a positive attitude go a long way. I am NOW
on the road to recovery, and weeks away from a correct diagnosis.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome
And so the journey began…
I met with an Orthopedic Surgeon in the middle of September. Prior to this consult meeting I had x-rays of my tibia and fibia to make sure I didn’t have any stress fractures. Once I met with my ortho surgeon, he told me that all was clear on the x-rays. We discussed Compartment Syndrome because I knew a couple of people who were diagnosed with this and had very similar symptoms to me. He agreed that my pain does in fact sound like Compartment Syndrome, but he wanted to rule out any other possibilities so he sent me for an MRI about an hour after the appointment.
I got the results of the MRI a couple of days later and again that was clear. So the next step to the diagnosis of Compartment Syndrome would be the pressure test. I had the pressure test done about a week or so after my first appointment. Everything was moving so quickly, but it was exciting because I was finally on the road to a diagnosis.
For the pressure test, my ortho surgeon inserted a needle into each of the 4 compartments in my legs to get an intial pressure. I then had to run around until the pain came back in my legs, but continue to run until it was unbearable. The greater the pain, the better for test purposes. I ran for about 20 minutes but started having pain 7 or 8 minutes into my run. I returned to the clinic and he again inserted the needle to test the pressure. He mentioned that if the pressure number went up by 5, he would consider that Compartment Syndrome. My back two compartments went from 15 to 25, and 16 to 28. I had Bilateral Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome.
The treatment for this: surgery. Surgery was scheduled for October 3rd. I was beyond excited to finally have a diagnosis and now a surgery that would “cure” me of my pain. The thought of pain free running in a month or so made me smile. After surgery was scheduled, my ortho surgeon contacted me and said that he wanted to have me go for an ultrasound of my legs the morning of surgery just to make sure I didn’t have a vascular problem in my legs. The ultrasound was scheduled for 7am and surgery was scheduled for 9:30am.
I met with an Orthopedic Surgeon in the middle of September. Prior to this consult meeting I had x-rays of my tibia and fibia to make sure I didn’t have any stress fractures. Once I met with my ortho surgeon, he told me that all was clear on the x-rays. We discussed Compartment Syndrome because I knew a couple of people who were diagnosed with this and had very similar symptoms to me. He agreed that my pain does in fact sound like Compartment Syndrome, but he wanted to rule out any other possibilities so he sent me for an MRI about an hour after the appointment.
I got the results of the MRI a couple of days later and again that was clear. So the next step to the diagnosis of Compartment Syndrome would be the pressure test. I had the pressure test done about a week or so after my first appointment. Everything was moving so quickly, but it was exciting because I was finally on the road to a diagnosis.
For the pressure test, my ortho surgeon inserted a needle into each of the 4 compartments in my legs to get an intial pressure. I then had to run around until the pain came back in my legs, but continue to run until it was unbearable. The greater the pain, the better for test purposes. I ran for about 20 minutes but started having pain 7 or 8 minutes into my run. I returned to the clinic and he again inserted the needle to test the pressure. He mentioned that if the pressure number went up by 5, he would consider that Compartment Syndrome. My back two compartments went from 15 to 25, and 16 to 28. I had Bilateral Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome.
The treatment for this: surgery. Surgery was scheduled for October 3rd. I was beyond excited to finally have a diagnosis and now a surgery that would “cure” me of my pain. The thought of pain free running in a month or so made me smile. After surgery was scheduled, my ortho surgeon contacted me and said that he wanted to have me go for an ultrasound of my legs the morning of surgery just to make sure I didn’t have a vascular problem in my legs. The ultrasound was scheduled for 7am and surgery was scheduled for 9:30am.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
History
The pain started about 3 years ago when I was a sophomore in
high school. Whenever I started to run I would get an aching, burning,
and cramping feeling in my calves. I am soccer player and track runner
so the pain was obviously interfering with both sports. I didn’t really
think much of the pain when it started, except it then became
consistent. I was told that I was more than likely dehydrated and needed
to drink more water. I also needed to make sure I was stretching out my
calves, and to start eating bananas. I believed that this must be the
solution, so that is what I started to do. However, no matter how many
glasses of water I drank or how many bananas I ate, the cramping was
still there.
I played and ran through the pain, stopping in the middle of a soccer game to stretch out my calves, then continuing on with the play. I remember mentioning every time I went to the doctors about this persistent pain in my legs, but again they believed it was dehydration. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2009, which can cause some malnutrition, so for some time doctors thought it might even be that I was still a little malnourished and in time my calves would get better. At this point, it never crossed my mind that there could be something actually wrong with my calves.
Beginning of my senior year in high school, the pain had been at its worse so I finally went and saw a physical therapist. He diagnosed me with Bilateral Achilles Tendonitis. I had never really had pain in my achilles so was a bit confused with this diagnosis. I started physical therapy for the tendonitis 2 days a week. I literally was bored sitting there doing the exercises for my achilles to strengthen them. It was soccer season of my senior year and I knew I didn’t want to sit out, but I also knew this “injury” was going to keep me out. However, I played through the pain. I eventually stopped physical therapy because it was doing absolutely nothing. Towards the end of my soccer season the pain had gotten so bad that I was only able to play a couple minutes at a time. I tried taping my legs, but that didn’t do anything. My only option was to literally suffer through until the “final whistle.” I vividly remember my last game of the season, and collapsing after the game because my legs were in so much pain. It was then that I knew I didn’t have Achilles Tendonitis, it was something else.
Track season was about to start up, but my legs were so painful that I actually took all of my Indoor Track season off. I rested from November to March thinking that all of that rest would help heal my legs; but it didn’t. As soon as I started to train again, the pain returned. Needless to say, I was frustrated. I finished off senior year and was now starting my training for my upcoming collegiate soccer season. I was training hard, but the pain was still there. As the summer went on and my training increased, so did the pain. I was at the point of not being able to run for more than 10 minutes. I finished my fitness test, but started to have tingling and numbness in my legs afterwards. I knew that I was going to have to miss my first collegiate season of soccer.
I now was on the journey to recovery, and was determined as ever to figure out the real reason behind this excruciating, and debilitating pain. Pain that has forced me to give up two activities I grew up loving: soccer and running. It is not an easy journey, and it is not over yet.
I played and ran through the pain, stopping in the middle of a soccer game to stretch out my calves, then continuing on with the play. I remember mentioning every time I went to the doctors about this persistent pain in my legs, but again they believed it was dehydration. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2009, which can cause some malnutrition, so for some time doctors thought it might even be that I was still a little malnourished and in time my calves would get better. At this point, it never crossed my mind that there could be something actually wrong with my calves.
Beginning of my senior year in high school, the pain had been at its worse so I finally went and saw a physical therapist. He diagnosed me with Bilateral Achilles Tendonitis. I had never really had pain in my achilles so was a bit confused with this diagnosis. I started physical therapy for the tendonitis 2 days a week. I literally was bored sitting there doing the exercises for my achilles to strengthen them. It was soccer season of my senior year and I knew I didn’t want to sit out, but I also knew this “injury” was going to keep me out. However, I played through the pain. I eventually stopped physical therapy because it was doing absolutely nothing. Towards the end of my soccer season the pain had gotten so bad that I was only able to play a couple minutes at a time. I tried taping my legs, but that didn’t do anything. My only option was to literally suffer through until the “final whistle.” I vividly remember my last game of the season, and collapsing after the game because my legs were in so much pain. It was then that I knew I didn’t have Achilles Tendonitis, it was something else.
Track season was about to start up, but my legs were so painful that I actually took all of my Indoor Track season off. I rested from November to March thinking that all of that rest would help heal my legs; but it didn’t. As soon as I started to train again, the pain returned. Needless to say, I was frustrated. I finished off senior year and was now starting my training for my upcoming collegiate soccer season. I was training hard, but the pain was still there. As the summer went on and my training increased, so did the pain. I was at the point of not being able to run for more than 10 minutes. I finished my fitness test, but started to have tingling and numbness in my legs afterwards. I knew that I was going to have to miss my first collegiate season of soccer.
I now was on the journey to recovery, and was determined as ever to figure out the real reason behind this excruciating, and debilitating pain. Pain that has forced me to give up two activities I grew up loving: soccer and running. It is not an easy journey, and it is not over yet.
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