Mystery Diagnosis

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!