Calf compartment syndrome

Hey @Shoxx - I'm sorry to be welcoming you back to the forum after all this time. I just reread some of your history from 2017/2018 and also the male pelvic pain success story you posted in 2018. It appears that you had previous success with TMS symptoms before you joined the forum 2017, AND you mentioned pretty severe OCD which I imagine you've been dealing with most of your life. If you haven't revisited your threads and discussions from back then, they are really good - it might give you a boost to be reminded of what it took back then, and of the excellent support you received, and the excellent support you gave to others!

So now you've got this new, and rather unusual, issue. The only thing I knew about compartment syndrome is the acute version, which is a serious emergency following a traumatic blow (I knew someone around my age, 60+ who was slammed in the leg by a large running dog, and it was really bad). So I looked it up and learned that there is also this chronic version of compartment syndrome, and apparently it can occur without any physical trauma. Doesn't that sound like TMS? Ironically, compartment syndrome is all about muscle tension, and let's remember that muscle tension is EXACTLY what "TMS" refers to! Tension Myositis (eg: muscles) Syndrome!

You are such an experienced TMSer, that your TMS brain had to come up with something new and unusual to try to scare the shit out of you.

Now, because of your experience, maybe you had already figured this out, but I feel like we tend to forget this, and rumor has it that Dr. Sarno himself, in later years, suggested that maybe TMS should refer to "The Mindbody Syndrome", because there are so many different manifestations of TMS - but let's face it - tense muscles alone cause plenty of problems (I'm a fan of deep breathing to relax my diaphragm and gut muscles, for example, which significantly improves my gut complaints when I am consistent).

If the surgery does not have a good success rate, that's a good reason to stay away from it. One of the best "Avoid Surgery" advocates we have right now is Dr. David Hanscom, MD. He's a former back surgeon in Seattle who gave up his surgery practice to concentrate on spreading the word about treating the mind instead of the back. He has many success stories of patients who did his pre-surgery mindbody program and cancelled their surgeries. The program, as well as his book and his web site are all called Back In Control, and I expect that it's quite relevant to chronic compartment syndrome.

I also want to say the following: you've been doing this work, with success, for quite a number of years - and like many other experienced TMSers, the 2020s have brought back your TMS with a vengeance. I can't even count how many "old timers" have returned to the forum recently, after years of successful recovery. I've been hanging out here somewhat regularly since 2011, but much more so in the last few years - because 2020 kicked my butt for sure, and it has felt like an uphill battle ever since, as world dysfunction gets worse every week. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be a parent in these times - I think it would be incredibly frightening, in fact. It's something to consider, because I think it's too easy for our brains to repress this. It is some real existential shit that we have absolutely no control over. And for what it's worth, for anyone who had a difficult childhood, today's out-of-control world dysfunction is probably a perfect recreation of a dysfunctional or even traumatic childhood. Perfect repression material.

Good luck, @Shoxx

~Jan