Quick Updates on progress and recovery after compartment syndrome surgery

Hey all, the primary problem seems to be awesome. My shin/calf/entire lower legs feel great, and my back pain has completely subsided.  Only problem is, I still have this lingering left knee issue (possibly patellofemoral syndrome) that I have not been able to shake.  It has been making progress, and I hope to start running again within the next two weeks, to really be able to test out if the CS is completely gone.But besides for the left knee, my legs do feel great.

Ups and Downs - Running, Biking, and Some Pain in Between

Hey all, sorry I've been away for so long... The past 3 weeks have been quite scary, as my left leg has felt like the Compartment Syndrome was back and rearing its ugly head even stronger than before.  The right leg, however, has been doing swimmingly, and has felt great (Interesting, due to the fact that for the majority of my recovery, the right leg lagged behind the left - moral of the story: Recovery is a fucking roller coaster).  There would be a constant sort of burn/pain in my left outer shin/ankle, and going up steps would exacerbate it (although interestingly enough, jogging and biking kind of made it feel better?  Anyone have any idea what the that could be?)

The surgeons and physical therapists both claimed that it is simply too early to tell if what I am feeling is an indication of the compartment syndrome coming back and the fasciotomy being a failure.  I am currently about 10 weeks post-op, and they say I need another 2-3 to see where I'm at.   My physical therapist even claims it might be due to weak peroneals in my left leg.  Either way, I am happy to say that there has been a steady improvement over the last 4 days with regards to the left leg, and now the symptoms are just a sort of constant burning sensation over the left shin/ left foot area, but are not exacerbated by activity.  I sincerely hope it is just the pains of getting better, but we shall see. 

In terms of activity, I am alternating days of running about a mile and biking about 7 miles.  While running, my legs feel pretty good, although I've noticed that there is an imbalance strength wise between my right and left leg (right leg is much stronger), and thus I have been instructed to go to a chiropractor to make sure my alignment isn't out of whack and throwing off my form completely.  Appt. is on Wednesday, and hopefully I'll update everyone on what's going on.

Compartment Surgery Recovery - Elliptical Baby Steps

Got on the elliptical today and felt no pain - Granted, it was only for 5 minutes, as the physical therapists say it's important to take it slow and not aggravate things.  It was a baby step, but a significant one.  Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll ramp it up to 7, and hopefully in about a week I'll begin light jogging.

Numbness in Right Leg - Updated Good News

Also, just a quick update on the numbness I have felt in the lower inside area of my right shin, as detailed here - It has been gradually improving, and a large percentage of the numbness has dissipated. There is still a line of numbness, but it has been getting gradually smaller for the last couple of weeks, and has no effect on day to day activities.

Shin Splints? Back Pain? Frustration! Part II

During the aforementioned four weeks (the time between when the numbing, tingling, pain in my shins began to cut down my runs, and when I actually went to a doctor) I began to suffer from a gradually debilitating lower back pain. It started subtly, but it got to the point, that by the end of four weeks, I couldn't even reproduce the numbing/tingling sensation in the lateral shins because my lower back was not even permitting me to run the required amount to bring on the leg symptoms!

I frantically went to two orthopedists, who, after hearing my history, concluded that I was first having shin splints, and gave me the company line that due to extremely tight hamstrings, my back was acting up. Solution? Physical Therapy for the back, and rest from running (which I could not do anyways due to the back).

Physical Therapy helped, and I got my lower back to be once again compliant with running - and then to my surprise, the symptoms in my shins came back even worse than before, along with an ever-shifting lower back pain (sometimes more lateral, sometimes down in the upper buttocks, and sometimes even closer up to the mid-back) that was bothersome, but not nearly as painful as pre-physical therapy back pain.

It was then that I decided to seek a third opinion from a back specialist, whose diagnosis has informed all my treatment since then. When I gave her my history, she stopped me at what I described as shin splints - When I told her my exact symptoms, she replied, "that sounds much more like compartment syndrome" - and then she tried to put the pieces together - This is what she theorized: When I continued to run through the CS pain, I had to alter my gait due to the lack of function of my lower leg muscles, which consequently completely threw off my biomechanics, thus aggravating my back. As my back got aggravated, I began to compensate with other muscles, thus weakening my back/core further, which required physical therapy. She suggested I get an intracompartmental test, as that is basically the only way to test for exertional compartment syndrome (unless you live near a place that is experimenting with the MRI diagnostic procedure).

That is one thing I have not seen on any site with people detailing their CS symptoms - anyone else experience any sort of back pain in conjunction with the CS?

Next: intracompartmental test - kinda sucky