Apparently, my feet roll in just slightly. Not a problem in normal shoes on normal ground… There’s solid support right under your arch, so the pressure isn’t all put on the arch. Now put a thin bar down the middle of your foot (like… a skate truck) and suddenly the support isn’t there. Now add to that the motion of pushing outward – putting MORE pressure on the arch area, and it’s just putting too much strain on my poor little muscles. We did a little foam foot mold, and he said my arches actually look very normal. I’m trusting this doctor since he’s actually a Podiatrist. [Not a Pediatrician... ]

Not MY actual foot... Haha!

So, next week I go back to pick up my new supports! He’s making them out of cork because he said it’s a more solid support. It’s heavier than some other materials, but we both kind of figured that wasn’t an issue when you’ve already got the weight of skates. Seriously, this guy was awesome. He kept asking lots of questions about roller derby, and asked what our team colors were. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at until he admitted he was asking in hopes he could get my supports in those colors! “For good karma.” What a cool guy! I gave him a schedule since he said he wanted to come watch sometime, and I think next week I’ll take some advertising/sponsorship info. He told me I’ll have to take it easy when I get my supports and start slow, but I already know I’ll be able to do that. I’m in no hurry, just excited to be able to skate at all again!

About 2 weeks ago I went to the specialist, and he examined my X-Rays, felt my pulse in my feet/ankles, and did the same “does it hurt when I push here…here…” stuff. Then he asked if my feet or legs ever tingle when they cramp up. Nope. Do they get discolored? Turn blue/purple-ish? No way!

Apparently, those are also signs of Compartment Syndrome, and without those components, he was not convinced that I have CS. Which is good since that requires surgery most cases, but also not good since that just ruled out the one thing I had come to see him about! What’s wrong with my legs then??! He did say that he wasn’t totally happy with my circulation in my feet… I have a very healthy blood pressure, but my pulse wasn’t very strong in my ankle area. The only way to chase that rabbit though is through an MRI, which would help understand what’s going on, but would mainly just be expensive without necessarily getting closer to an answer.

He then asked about my stride, how my feet hit the ground, do they roll this way or that… Which really is a hard question to answer. My feet hit the ground the way they have for just over 24 years now, so even if it is very abnormal, it seems pretty normal to me. So, I kicked off my shoes and walked back and forth across the cold tile while he watched my feet. I really became very aware of every step I took, until finally he said that my arches are very low. He said he’d recommend insoles for my skates. I told him that’s something I implemented several months ago. He started to explain that Dr. Scholl’s may not be enough and I should try some from a running store, when I told him that’s exactly what I did. It’s frustrating sometimes being told by doctors to try the things I’ve been trying already, but I needed him to understand that I’ve been dealing with this for a while now, and there has to be something different I haven’t tried already!

So, he said from here I have basically 3 options:

• Have an MRI done to see what is going on with my circulation
• Get custom shoe supports made
• See a physical therapist to relearn how to use my leg muscles to stop straining the ones I’m obviously relying too heavily on right now

It took some pro’s and con’s weighing, but I finally decided to go with the custom shoe supports. It seems this one will help no matter what. Even if I do find later that I have circulation issues, my arch will still need the support. Also, if this direction doesn’t completely, immediately heal me, I can then go to PT to work on using the right muscles along with my insoles. If push comes to shove later on, then I’ll look into something more in depth/expensive with the MRI.

So, that’s it. I’m finally updating today because today is the day I go to get the molds of my feet made for the arch supports. I also picked up a $30 Groupon to Red Coyote a couple weeks ago, so once I get my supports in, I think I’ll take those with me and go get some new running shoes. Hopefully they’ll also be able to pick out some good shoes for me based on my stride, step, etc.

A friend joked that I need to get some Sketchers Shape Up, but if anyone ever sees me wearing those, please just shoot me on the spot.

Obviously, time and rest and taking it slow haven’t been helping. For several weeks now, friends have been pushing me to see a doctor about possibly getting Cortisone shots or muscle relaxants to help with my shin splints. I’ve been putting it off because I knew it probably wouldn’t be a quick and cheap answer, but this week I finally called and made an appointment with my general practitioner to talk about my leg issues again in depth more this time.

So Friday I went in, and as soon as I said why I was there, his face kind of went into this “we’ve talked about this before” look. I had to push to show him that I took his original advice, but surely there’s something more going on. I told him about how I’ve taken it slow. I’ve left practices early. I’ve taken a 3 week break on my own, and now I just took a 6 week break with our whole team, and every time I start back it’s exactly the same. I can skate for 10 minutes, and my legs start cramping. If 6 months ago I could skate for 10 minutes, and now I was at 30 minutes, that’s something, but I’m getting nowhere here.

He listened, then felt along my legs asking if it hurt when he did this or that. Can I push against his hands with my feet up, down, sideways. I told him nothing hurts right now, and my leg muscles feel like they work fine, but when I start skating or jogging or anything like that, my legs will get super tight to the point that I can’t tap my toe. That’s when he started using big words and pulled out this guy:

He said from what I’d told him, it sounded like Chronic Compartment Syndrome. He wanted to take a couple X-Rays before referring me to an Orthopedic Specialist who works with a lot of sports injury cases. So, we went over to the X-Ray tech (I really like this doctor’s office with a full X-Ray lab, bloodwork lab, etc. on site) to take some glamour shots of my legs. Haha, the lab tech lady was nice and we talked about roller derby while she worked out how to get the different angles she needed. Lucky for me, my legs are short enough to fit on 1 screen turned sideways, so it was only 4 shots and we were done. The doctor took a look at them and gave me some good news: My legs aren’t broken. Haha! He was looking for stress fractures or anything of that kind, but since my legs looked fine on his end, he went ahead and referred me to the specialist.

Since then, I’ve been doing a LOT of reading online about Compartment Syndrome. Basically, the group of muscles in the Anterior Compartment are too big for the casing (fascia), and with exercise, the blood and air flow through that group of muscles is cut off, which causes the cramping. Chronic CS is seen mostly in athletes, and it’s due to the muscle growing faster than the fascia can keep up. After reading so much about it, I think this sounds like exactly the same problem I’m having. After rest, the muscle relaxes and pain goes away. During exercise, the muscle is very consistent in how long it takes to cramp. Unfortunately, it seems most websites report surgery being the most effective treatment with other non-surgical treatments not being very helpful.

For now, I have an appointment set the Wednesday after Christmas, and I’m kind of looking forward to hearing what they have to say. A lot of people have said they’re sorry I got bad news about my legs, and I totally appreciate it, but at the same time it’s some kind of relief being able to put a name on what’s going on. It’s like having terrible headaches for months and finding out it’s cancer. That sucks hardcore, but at least now you can take steps to fixing it.

My doctor did give me a copy of my X-Rays to take to the specialist, which I of course made a copy of… so I’ll leave you with a boring X-Ray of my not broken leg.