Compartment Syndrome

Was yesterday diagnosed with Compartment Syndrome,have been told to rest and ice massage the muscle.

For the physios among you,is there anything else I can do to help it recover or is the above the best treatment?

Thanks in advance,

Jen

Can anybody help?

hi Jen

not a physio, but I know that compartment syndrome can be a complex thing to get rid of. Have you not been recommended any stretches/exercises in addition to rest and massage?

How did they diagnose it - did you get the pressure test thingy done?

As far as icing goes - I can recommend ice baths/standing in ice bucket or bin, rather, or in addition to localised icing.

I think you will probably need immediate rest, but I noticed on another post you've not to run until the day of FLM?

Hi Cheeko,yeah been advised to let my leg settle completely before attempting to run,it's quite swollen.

All the mileage is behind me so not too concerned about missing a few runs,done all the long stuff.

My physio diagnosed it because she could see the swelling in the muscle and by massaging it. She's a fantastic physio and she knows her stuff so i'm following her advice.

No stretching at the moment as it is very swollen and hurts when I try and stretch it.

hi jen, the reason I asked how it was diagnosed is that I had a very swollen anterior muscle a couple of months ago - it was very, very puffy and I was told not to do anything with it until the puffiness settled. It sounds very similar to yours and I rested a week in total from running and after that could walk on it without pain and then run without pain - I'm glad to say that it hasn't come back (just have a million other niggles and problems instead of it now!)

I was told that compartment syndrome was something very specific which would return and was actually better diagnosed with some sort of pressure test that measures how much pressure the muscle is putting on the surrounding compartment (or something like that). However, I think that's if it's something that keeps returning, rather than an 'acute attack' like I had.

I found that anti-inflammatories helped as well, don't know if you are taking any or not.

Good luck, hope it settles down.

Hi cheeko,thanks for the advice there.

I'm not taking any anti-inflammatories,not a great fan of them,so am just going to keep ice massaging.

I've had this problem for about two months but have kept running on it thinking it would "go away" but,as I said,was only diagnosed with it yesterday.

Tried to train on Sunday after a week of rest but agonising pain again and it's really swollen.
Which is why i've decided to wait until the day to make sure that it's definately ok.

Just going to have to see what happens I suppose.

Thanks again.