Playing with pain. All athletes at some point in their careers play with pain. Sometimes some rest and medicine is all they need to overcome the pain, but in other cases surgery is needed. For Washington College junior women’s lacrosse 
player Brooke Paulshock, the latter was needed to overcome the pain.
Paulshock had surgery on both legs during different times during the summer of 2010 to take care of a condition known as compartment syndrome.
Washington College Assistant Athletic Trainer Candy Baker explained the type of compartment syndrome that Paulshock suffered from and it was Exertioanal. That is one of the two major types of this syndrome, the other being acute. Acute is caused by a direct blow to the body. The injury primarily occurs in the shin/lower leg area.
“Common among athletes is exertional compartment syndrome which occurs when there is an increase in tissue pressure that obstructs the neurovascular network in the leg,” says Baker. “The condition typically causes exercise-induced pain, swelling and, in severe cases, disability in the leg. It is most common among athletes who participate in sports with repetitive movements such as running, biking and swimming. Treatment for the condition includes rest, ice and the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. However, in severe cases where symptoms persist, a fasciotomy, which is a surgical procedure that cuts muscle fascia to allow the muscle to expand, may be performed to relive the built-up tissue pressure in the leg.”
Head women’s lacrosse coach Julika Blankenship says Brooke has been an inspiration for her teammates.
“Brooke has shown to her teammates that she can push through the pain and will do whatever it takes to play,” says Blankenship. “Brooke has helped her teammates to see that you need to take advantage of every opportunity that you get to play because that can be taken away from you at any time.”
For Paulshock, compartment syndrome was not the beginning of her injury problems here at Washington College; a stress fracture in her right tibia curtailed her first season.
“I started getting in shape during winter break, such as running (and weight training)” said the junior. “My calves hurt when I ran, but I just thought my legs were just sore from not running for a while. I dealt with the pain during preseason (the month of February). I went to (head athletic trainer) Thad (Moore) and he said it was just shin splints.
The lower leg problems continued during the 2009 season. Paulshock described the pain in her lower legs as “like somebody was giving me an Indian burn in the inside of my leg. I would get bruises on the boneline of my right leg on my tibia. I dealt with this until I could not anymore. I finished my last timed mile and stopped due to a stress fracture.”
Paulshock stopped playing when an x-ray confirmed that her right tibia was centimeters away from snapping in half.
She missed the final seven games in 2009 due to the stress fracture after starting the first nine contests. The injury also cost her fall ball season for her sophomore season.
After she was cleared to play and started training for the 2010 season, the pain returned.
“During fall break (2009), I felt that something was not right in my legs and it had to be more than just shin splints. I went to four doctors and got tested for stress fractures, had vascular testing and finally it came down to doing the compartment testing. It took about a year for the doctors to understand what was wrong with me and what causes my stress fractures.”
Paulshock said that the test for the syndrome, which she had done in November 2009, took about an hour. They put 24 needles in both legs to test the compartment pressures in each leg before running and after running. She found out about three to four months later that she did have compartment syndrome. After her test, the doctor determined that surgery was needed for both legs, but they would not operate on both legs at the same time so she needed two separate surgeries. The first surgery was in May 2010 for her right leg and the second one was in August 2010 for her left one.
She said the first surgery (in May) took two hours and they cut five compartments open. The second surgery (occurred on August 12) took one hour and 45 minutes. “They went in through both sides of my legs, about two inches long, and cut the sheath that protects my muscle (about 12 inches). They made four slices on my left leg and five on my right. The sheath would not expand with my calf so once the doctor (Dr. Wilkens) slices the sheath, my calf muscle popped and finally could relax after all the pressure was built up.”
When it comes to rehabilitation Paulshock says, there is not one specific type. “There is no exact rehab but simply to wait. It is hard because you feel fine to run but the inside slices of your leg might not be healed and if you overwork yourself after surgery, then the surgery can be worthless and not pull through. After surgery they told me once you can walk without pain, do so because my calf muscle needs to build back its strength. I am allowed to bike and do the elliptical three weeks after surgery. I am allowed to run two months after surgery. The worst thing is you have to sit and wait to heal.”
Paulshock said that recovery time is usually three to four months, but varies by individual. She can start jogging on October 12.
For more: http://washingtoncollegesports.com/sports/wlax/2010-11/releases/20101011s11pgj
LAXBUZZ 
UC Berkeley’s recent elimination of popular sports programs highlighted endemic problems in the university’s management. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s eight-year fiscal track record is dismal indeed. He would like to blame the politicians in Sacramento, since they stopped giving him every dollar he has asked for, and the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means.
A competent chancellor would have been on top of identifying inefficiencies in the system and then crafting a plan to fix them. Compentent oversight by the Board of Regents and the legislature would have required him to provide data on problems and on what steps he was taking to solve them. Instead, every year Birgeneau would request a budget increase, the regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, and the problems just piled up….until there was no money left.
It’s not that Birgeneau was unaware that there were, in fact, waste and inefficiencies in the system. Faculty and staff have raised issues with senior management, but when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau engaged some expensive ($3 million) consultants, Bain & Company, to tell him what he should have been able to find out from the bright, engaged people in his own organization.
From time to time, a whistleblower would bring some glaring problem to light, but the chancellor’s response was to dig in and defend rather than listen and act. Since UC has been exempted from most whistleblower lawsuits, there are ultimately no negative consequences for maintaining inefficiencies.
In short, there is plenty of blame to go around. But you never want a serious crisis to go to waste. An opportunity now exists for the UC president, Board of Regents, and California legislators to jolt UC Berkeley back to life, applying some simple check-and-balance management principles. Increasing the budget is not enough; transforming senior management is necessary. The faculty, students, staff, academic senate, Cal. alumni, and taxpayers await the transformation.