I finally had my first appointment with my Vascular Surgeon on
October 31st. I was nervous to say the least, but confident that he had
some answers for me.
Not quite. I re-explained my symptoms to my doctor and his team, and
the room was awkwardly silent for what seemed like an eternity. Just by
looking at his face, I knew I had puzzled him… as I have done with just
about every possible doctor in my life time. He started to talk about
the six different types of Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome. I
followed along, because my mom and I had done some research on it. Five
of the types are anatomical, while the sixth type is not. Which form of
this syndrome I have? It’s a mystery!
On a more positive note, he ruled out that I did not have cysts
forming in my arteries! He continued to talk to my mom and his team
about different parts of my leg it could be affecting and I sat there…
now I was the puzzled one. Too many terms for me to keep up with, it was
like a foreign language. I just sat there and smiled until they were
finished.
This is what I got out of the conversation: I have decreased blood
flow in my legs, but I am not losing complete blood flow. I have
elevated pressures in my legs, but they aren’t as high as he would of
thought they would be. Simply put, I am on the cusp. I am “injured”, but
not “injured enough” that he can exactly spot out what is wrong. So my
legs and I remain a mystery.
He is going to be reviewing my MRI with a team of specialists and
hopefully they will come across something that points to what is going
on. As of now, the treatment looks like it will still be surgery, but he
is not going to just slice open my legs to see where the artery is in
relation to my muscle. He wants to know exactly what he is doing when he
goes in for surgery. Understandable and relieving!
So the wait continues, and the journey prolongs! I am finally back to
exercising though now that he knows I have not done arterial damage,
and will be training with my track team. Very light workouts, but it
feels good to be back running – I just can’t wait until I am running
without pain!
