Figured this would be a good place to post my story of sorts. Thought about making a new thread for surgery related stuff but I think this goes pretty well with "real life"
Sorry for the longish post.
I have a condition called Chronic Compartment Syndrome. When I got to college and had to start walking around campus a lot, I noticed that even after walking for only a few minutes, my entire legs and feet, but especially calves, felt like they were on fire - which gave me excruciating pain and made it quite difficult to do just normal things like walking to class. So after my Freshman Year I went to see a sport's medicine doctor at John's Hopkins. After underdoing an MRI and a few other tests to rule out other conditions, we did a Pressure test on my legs. At rest, the pressure is supposed to be under 4. It was 8, so that was a bit unusual. Usually compartment syndrome is at least 10. Then I ran on the treadmill and came back and had the pressure tested again. It was 25. So it was over 6 times the maximum amount that should normally be had.
So we decided to schedule the surgery for that December (3 days before Christmas). The surgery is described as "barbaric." where the surgeons cut through soft tissue to allow the muscles to expand properly, lowering the pressure. The surgery was fine and I recovered well, eventually doing some physical therapy. It helped quite a bit with my pain. I tend to feel just a bit of tightness and pressure in the legs when I walk now. Moreso if I try running.
Although my legs were better, my feet were not. My surgeon, who is a doctor for the Baltimore Orioles, had never heard of compartment syndrome in the feet; only the legs. So he referred me to the Foot and Ankle Reconstructive Specialists at Mercy in Baltimore. After doing the same pressure testing on both of my feet (which is done with the biggest needle I, or my mother, had ever seen - causing my legs to bleed quite badly) it was found I also had abnormally high pressure in my feet. We scheduled to have the surgery in June, after my Sophomore Year.
The surgery again went well, and the recovery was about the same as the first. I had to use crutches and could hardly walk for a few weeks: attempting to walk caused intense pain. I remember the nurse trying to get me out of my hospital bed and into the wheelchair. When my feet touched the ground for the first time, I almost passed out from the pain. Some of the surgery had to be done on the bottom of my feet.
Unfortunately my feet have not gotten as well as my legs did after the surgery, although it is still fairly early in the recovery process. Walking around campus is not too bad anymore, thank god. I transferred from Villanova University to UMBC, a school very close to home. It has a smaller campus and my parents can help me if I ever need it.
For those wondering, Chronic Compartment Syndrome happens to athletes in repetitive sports such as Swimming, Tennis, Running, Biking, etc. (I swam for over 10 years before college). It is quite rare in the legs, and almost unheard of in the feet (my surgeon at Mercy had only ever seen it once before).
