Well, I have a surgery date now, June 3rd, but still have not heard back from the OS on my questions and am not sure if he plans to do the limited fasciotomy or a full extended fasciotomy. I really hope that he responds back before I see him in the staging area before surgery. Once I received the call with the surgery date, I cancelled the appt. with Dr. Steve.

Kristin

**I really have not suddenly become all passive and blindly trusting in my OS. He just had a huge breakthrough in the past week. He is the first OS that i've seen that now understands that my 40+ year old stroke has nothing at all to do with any symptoms going on in my leg. He is actually seeing me as a normal patient first and knows that he should have come to all the same diagnosis for my symptoms himself. I actually got an apology for the last year and a half that I had to go through figuring things out on my own.

I have 4 weeks until my surgery. I gave him all my concerns about the limited fasciotomy vs the full fasciotomy, including the tire analogy. I asked him to not include any concern for surgical pain or trauma to me in his decision making on which surgery would make the CS stop for good. I made sure he knows that I am willing to go through any surgery that will stop this. I do believe he is still sorting out my case in his head and seeing things a lot more clearly now that he is not focusing on the stroke. If he has no contacted me in he ext few weeks I will get in touch again.

Thanks Snowy. I really hope I'm making the right decision.

I heard back from OS. He did say that he would make sure the evil anesthesiologist was not in charge for this surgery. That is a huge relief. I hope I don't even have to see her in the staging area. I do have an appt. scheduled with my cardiologist to get an EKG done 3 days prior to my pre-op appt, so I won't have any problems with the pre-op testing.

I won't get an answer on the extent of the fasciotomy until I wake up from surgery. He just said - we will take a look and release as needed. I'll have my husband write everything down when the OS talks to him. I always have a hard time waking up fully after surgery and my husband forgets all the details.

Kristin

5/10 - My son talked me into playing basketball against him - guilted me that I will be on crutches soon.  I knew it would hurt to play, but real pain came once I stop playing and fluid pockets filled. Most CS is in lower leg where OS plans to release. Lower leg above ankle is very tight and cramping, toes tingling. Just had an episode where it cramped from the lower lateral side up my lower leg and then my foot and toes clawed up spasming cramping for a few minutes. Not fun. Taking a percocet before bed so I will sleep through any more cramping. Only a few more weeks until surgery.

I just heard back at 11 tonight. I feel a lot better about the surgery. I am so glad that this came up now.

"It sounds like your symptoms are lateral as well- it should be explored we will free nerve from scar tissue and release"

5/15 - I told the Sports Med Doc that the CS symptoms have been really strong for the past few weeks, so I think that even if I drain the pockets to relieve pressure on the nerve and bone, the compartments still need to be surgically opened again.

 I took a percocet to sleep and this morning woke to toe cramping up again and pain deep in the back of my calf. I have today off from class and then have to sit at a desk all day Thursday and Friday again.

I'm tempted to get the pressures measured either Thursday or Friday night after sitting with leg down all day so I can have proof for OS that all compartments need opening just in case he starts to change his mind again on the lateral side.

**Sports Med Doc offered to test compartment pressures w/o me having to ask. He said he can test lower parts instead of usual upper section. I hate needles so much, but it probably is a good idea.

I just left the Sports Med Doc's office after having the compartment pressures measured. He first did an ultrasound of the medial side and lateral side to determine the location of the fluid pockets. There are fluid pockets that are visible on both sides up the scar lines and actually extend further up the lateral scar while the medial seems to stop more at the level of the last  fasciectomy internal incision. The compartment pressures were taken at rest only. The anterior started in the 50s and leveled out at 35; the lateral was 15; the deep posterior started in the 40s and leveled out at 37 and the superficial posterior was 12. Greater than 15 at rest is positive for compartment syndrome

I sent the OS the results and photos of where the pressures were taken on my leg so he could see at what level the compartments were showing elevated pressures. These pressures readings were taken well above where the OS had said he was going to stop the limited fasciotomy incisions.

Had a long day in at pre-op I got there at 10:30 and didn't get out until after 4:00. 

The blood test was awful. I don't do well with needles to begin with, but the nurse stabbed the needle in, claimed the vein must have collapsed because she didn't hit it and instead of removing the needle started searching internally for the vein while giving me a running commentary. I start sweating and starting to get faint so finally got her to remove the needle. She started saying she was going to stab my hand, but almost every IV in my hand hits a valve and I end up with a swollen blood pocket so I was opposed. A new nurse wandered in and got the sample easily from my arm.

The last step was meeting with an anesthesiologist. I was told I had to get two written statements before I could be approved for surgery. The first was to explain the EKG results and why it was normal for me (tremor). The second was a written statement by a doctor that i had had a stroke and possible reason why and why as a result had a tremor in my left side. I started to leave and then decided that I wasn't going anywhere until I had a sign-off. I wrote up what they needed for the EKG and wrote a paragraph explaining the circumstances of the stroke and the residual effects to my left side. My cardiologist's staff was great and cleaned up the paragraph and he wrote on the EKG report  in large letters that it was NORMAL for me and faxed it all back to pre-op and the nurse I was assigned to got the anesthesiologist to sign off and approve the surgery. I wish I didn't have to go through all that, but so glad that this time it happened in pre-op and not when I was gowned for surgery.

I can't wait to get this surgery behind me, but am dreading going through it again. No word from OS. Very painful cramping tonight with toes clawing down and big toe up. Every time it happens I'm afraid they might not release.

Woke throughout the night to severe pain in leg. Deep pain in lateral and back of calf and foot clawing.