I am a 19 year old lacrosse player at LOYOLA COLLEGE in Baltimore, MD. In the beginning of the spring, after a month of being mis-diagnosed by our team's trainers, I was finally told that I had compartments syndrome in the front two comartments of both my legs. I had surgery right away,and it has been over 5 weeks since then. I have been aqua jogging and strecthing my calves. But the trainers at our school really don't know very much about my condition. They say it is rare and they have never delt with it before. i ask questions like:"is there a good chance it could come back? will I ever be able to run long distances agian? Will I be able to run normally again? how long untill i can run or lift weights? NO one seems to know how to help me-could you offer any new infromation or answer my questions? It would also be great if i heard about people who successfully recovered from it. So far all I have heard are negaitive accounts about people never being able to run or compete after gettting it.
Suzanne - I have no doubt that you will recover and be able to run again - but only if you give your legs a chance to heal, and also, if you take care to come back on a gradient. This means functional rehab (feet on the ground, tri-planar activities), walking before you jog, and jogging before you run. Run straight before you cut, and be able to run in circles and figure 8's before you cut hard. How long? Well, allow a year to recover fully, and perhaps a year and a half - if you get better sooner, so be it, but keep your expectations WAY out there. You can lift weights immediately, but only in a pain free fashion. - Make sure you do not hurt after you are done! Just be patient - work hard, and look forward to a successful recovery.
