My Diagnosis

It was a week or so before I could get in to see the doctor. During the appointment, I described my symptoms, and he watched my gait to check for problems. He observed that I heavily over-pronated, but aside from that, he was almost immediately able to determine that I was suffering from Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome (CECS) in all four quadrants of both of my lower legs (calves) simply based on the description of my symptoms. He explained the condition to me and that the only definitive method to diagnose it was to perform compression tests on my legs before and after exercise. He also explained that the tests are invasive and somewhat painful and that I did not need them if I wanted to attempt to ease my symptoms using conservative treatment options.

My conservative options included using off-the-shelf orthodics (i.e. Superfeet), having custom orthodics made and physical therapy. Beyond that, surgery to release the compartments, or fasciotomy was the most successful, long-term treatment. He added that the conservative options rarely help, but suggested I try them first, which I was more than happy to do since I wasn't particularly interested in having surgery. So the next step was to begin the conservative treatments.