I am a 25 year old female who has been familiar and fighting with compartment syndrome since 2001. That is when I first started to notice a pain in my lower legs; through the next 12 months I was taken out of exercise, going through physical therapy, and transferred from doctor to doctor until I was finally referred to my surgeon. In the Fall of 2002, a year after it all began, I was finally diagnosed with anterior compartment syndrome. I had surgery to release this a few weeks later.
In the Winter of 2010 after a day of skiing, both calves 'locked-up' for a few days. After this I started watching my exercise and pain more and decided to see the surgeon again. In April of 2010I had lateral compartment release.
By the Summer of 2011 I started to notice some of the same symptoms coming back again, and there were more/different symptoms this time too. Whenever I would kneel or squat or my legs were bent more that 90 degrees, my feet and lower legs would start to fall asleep, and as I would stand up I felt a rush of blood flowing down. After meeting with my surgeon again, more testing, and an MRA/MRI it was confirmed that I had popliteal entrapment syndrome in both legs. In September 2011 I had surgery to release both legs. And let me inform you that this was the worst surgery of them all, and I was warned that it would be so. This is a much more in depth procedure, so for the first time ever I stayed in the hospital. After 2 days in the hospital they took the JP drains out of my legs and allowed me to return to my parent’s house. After a second surgery to drain a collection of blood that had accumulated in my left leg from the knee to the ankle, 4” at the widest part, I was sent home again. Only this time I came back to the clinic a few days later with a blood clot in my left leg that stretched from the upper calf through the lower part of my thigh. The intensity of the first surgery, along with the second surgery and the blood cot pushed my recovery time further and further back. Finally in December of 2011 I was ‘normal’ again.
If it only lasted. In January of 2012 I began noticing more symptoms again. This time there is tightness, feet falling asleep, and an unbearable tightness around my ankles. I visited with my surgeon on February 16th of 2012 to find the pressure in the lower anterior compartment to be 48. Normal readings are under 15. I have scheduled surgery for March 9th 2012. Pre-op is scheduled the day before and that is where this journey will truly begin.
