Some Answers for Stacey

Oh boy has this been a long haul for this girl! She was told in Cedar Rapids a year and a half ago that she had a hernia on her shin. At that time we found out that she can do any of her normal activities as long as she can stand the pain. The hernia wouldn't get worse, it would just always be there.

Well, a year ago now she was having a terrible time with the pain as she went through basketball season and into track. It was during track season that we went in to the orthopedic doctor at PCI here in town. He told her that there was a substantial amount of stress on the bone and it looked like shin splints x 100. He put her in a boot for two weeks.  Boo...out of track for two weeks.

Finally we got referred to the University of Iowa Sports Medicine team and Dr. Peterson. If you remember back last fall, he injected steroids all around the hernia which is the treatment for hernias that hurt. Pain should go away in a couple days we were told. No such luck, in fact there was new and different pain to deal with.

So, back to Dr. Peterson who explained what exertive compartmental syndrome is and that we want to test for that. So, that happened last Thursday. Not fun...

Here is Dr. Hall marking where the needles will be inserted.
(Stacey was holding in a lot of anxiety)

Dr. Hall is getting the huge needle ready to poke into the
two areas marked on Stacy's calf (thankfully since there
is no pain in the back of her calf, he only tested the front
two compartments of her leg).

There goes the needle. Dr. Hall is getting a reading. At resting
it is already high. After the first reading, They took Stacey to
the treadmill where she was told to run until she couldn't stand
the pain and then it was back to the exam room to reinsert the
needles and see what is happening in those front two compartments.

All done...Whew, not quite as bad as she thought!

All in all I think the nurse scared her when she went through and explained the process of the test. Then it took the doctor a little longer to get into the room so she had to ponder what it would be like for a little extra time. She reported that it hurt a lot but not as bad as she imagined. Oh, and it hurt way worse after she ran.

Stacey has been studying and researching compartmental syndrome and as she was putting together her whole story she is amazed to remember back a year and a half ago an injury she got that could have started the whole thing. It usually develops after an injury, some cases include a hernia as a symptom. It all is making sense.

We are still waiting for the doctor's office to call and find out what Dr. Peterson recommends. Dr. Hall had told us before we left that her numbers were definitely in the high range.