Painful running leads to painful knives

One day while sniveling to an orthopedic surgeon about how my calves would begin to tighten up progressing rapidly to excruciating pain and numbness after about five minutes of rugby or 1/2 mile of running I learned about Chronic Compartment Syndrome. He hooked me up with a local vascular surgeon who is an internationally recognized expert on this malady.

When I arrived in his office he took my history, asked questions; the usual thing. Then he brought out a little pressure meter with a big needle. He stuck the pointy end of the needle into the muscle on the front of the calf on each side and read off the internal pressures to the nurse assisting him. After a bit of discussion we set up a surgical date to repair the problem since the pressures were way out of line.

The day of surgery arrived and eventually I entered the oblivion that midazolam and fentanyl bring on. I awoke with sore calves and bandages from toes to knees. The surgeon had created a slit about four inches long running up and down on my calves then removed an oval piece of the fascia (inflexible connective tissue covering muscles) about that size. He then pried up the skin above and below that hole and gave the fascia a slit about 1-2 inches as well. Pretty straightforward. Another hole was created above the incision and a long drain tube was inserted into each wound running its entire length. The drain was connected to a little bulb to help pull out the inevitable post-op bleeding. I got a bottle of Vicodin, some dressing supplies, some care instructions, and an appointment to return to the clinic in a few days. Pretty old hat since I've been a nurse about twelve years now.

This is pretty uncomplicated surgery but its bugbear is bleeding. The surgeon told my family that the calves looked terrible; lots of inflammation, adhesions, etc. and that I had really needed this surgery years ago. Sure enough, my wounds just kept bleeding and hematomas (think big chunk of clotted blood) developed inside the wounds. The hematomas would eventually become scar tissue which would leave me worse off than before. I had to go back to the operating room for a little tune-up surgery. (to be continued)