Major pain in calf - no diagnosis from hospital!

Hello, I wonder if you can impart some advice please, as so far nobody has been able to do anything other than rule out any vascular problem by way of blood tests, ultrasound, ECG and chest x-ray.

I am a 17 stone 6ft tall police officer. I accept I am overweight, but I am physically active. On duty two nights ago I was running up some stairs, in full uniform including stab vest and kit belt (total weight never measured but probabably a total of around 1.5 to 2 stones).

As I got to the second last step, on which I placed my left foot, I felt a sudden impact on the back of the left calf and then found myself on my knees on the landing, never making the final right-footed step. I thought something had fallen from my kit belt onto my leg, tripping me up, but nothing was missing and clearly nothing had hit me on the leg.

When I went to stand up, the left leg was vitually useless and has been ever since. I cannot fully straighten it, and walking has to be performed at a hobble. I can stand on tiptoes without fully straightening the left leg, and as long as I keep the leg bent at 90 degrees, I have full movement of the foot in all directions. But as soon as I start to straighten the leg, the pain begins, progressively worse as the leg becomes straighter, and I lose the full range of movement in the foot - moving the toes upwards is impossible due to the awful pain which it causes in the back of the knee above the calf.

The calf was measured at an inch bigger in diametre than the right one by the hospital doc yesterday, but this was on the medical assessment ward and all he was interested in was any vascular issues, which as stated he has ruled out.

My GP has no available apointments until next Tuesday, so I have a long weekend of worrying and not knowing where I am heading with this. I am booked unfit for duty for obvious reasons and am keen to get back to work asap - but have no idea what to do in terms of getting things right or avoiding aggravating it, or indeed what long term remedy needs putting in place.

Sorry for the info overload but I thought it best to give as full a picture as possible.

All the best. :cool:

You sure need to be assessed in detail as soon as possible to reach a diagnoses.

All the best

Asha

Hi there,

have you managed to see anyone and get a useful diagnosis yet?

It sounds very much to me like you have done a fairly decent tear / rupture of you gastrocnemius (one of you rcalf muscles)
The symptoms you describe fit, and the feeling of something falling and hitting it is something we hear often with calf or achilles injuries.

If you haven't seen a physio yet you should try and see one. Assuming it isn't completely ruptured you want to gradually start working towards regaining full movement, start massaging the leg to help reduce swelling, compression and elevation would also help.

:O a definitive cause of symptom onset, physcial symptom and signs and all they wanted to know is if u would get a blood clot?

Agree with the post above.