Strictly speaking, not really a strength and conditioning topic but felt it would be of interest to some of you given the incidence of rhabdo amongst athletes, especially Crossfitters (I'm not a crossfitter). I'm upgrading my phone soon, and was going through some old photos on my old phone and came across these, which I'd forgotten I'd taken.
This injury happened to me during a Saturday afternoon rugby game almost two years ago. I'm not 100% sure of what exactly happened except that I felt quite a bit of pain and growing stiffness in my left thigh after making a tackle - what I think happened is that the ball carrier's knee struck me in the thigh. Alternatively I may have been stepped on in the ensuing ruck, but I don't think that's as likely as that usually leaves a distinctive cleat mark bruise pattern afterwards. I stayed in and played the complete game, which was coincidentally one of my better games. Within minutes of the game ending (and I stopped moving), I felt my thigh tightening up to the point where I couldn't bend it. I didn't think much of it, other than it was just a bad charlie horse / deadleg. I got showered and dressed and went to the post-game drink-up at the pub, where I was awarded tackle of the match and man of the match, so I was quite pleased - but my leg was becoming progressively more painful as the evening went on. At about the 3 or 4 hour mark post-game, it started to go numb, and I began to feel nauseous and lightheaded - at this point I realized something was wrong and that I should probably go get it checked out.
So I went to the ER, where luckily I only had to wait for about an hour or so before I was seen by the triage nurse. She began taking my history and I started to explain about the knock to my thigh - at which point she interrupted me and said something to the effect of "sir, this is the emergency room - I'm sure you could have waited until Monday to see your GP about this", at which point I dropped my trousers to show her. Upon seeing how swollen my entire thigh was, she suddenly became more concerned and within 30 minutes I was being assessed by an orthopedic surgeon. He immediately had a nurse draw blood, then measured the circumference of my thighs - my left thigh was 16cm larger than the right by this point. He then sent me for x-rays, saying that such swelling is usually only ever seen with femoral fractures. The x-rays came back negative for fractures, but my creatnine kinase (indicator of muscle trauma) was roughly 15000. They admitted me to the orthopedic unit for overnight monitoring, hooking me up to IV fluids (to protect my kidneys from renal-toxic compounds released by cellular muscle injury) and hydromorphone for the pain. In addition they cut a small, half-inch incision into my thigh and inserted a roughly 6 inch long pressure monitor catheter into my thigh, through which they could monitor the pressure build-up between the fascial planes. I don't recall the exact numbers, but if the pressure reached a certain number I would be taken into surgery to have a fasciotomy performed - they would essentially make a long incision through the fascial planes from the top of my thigh down to my knee in an effort to relieve pressure. Luckily the highest I got was about 80% of the pressure cutoff, so I didn't need surgery. By the following day my CK level reading maxxed out on their machine so they continued to push fluids and monitor pressure; within a few days the levels began to subside and I was discharged. I spent the next 3-4 weeks on crutches as I waited for the swelling to go down, completely unable to bend my knee. The first week home I went for bloodwork every two days to monitor my CK, after a week of slow but continuous decline they let me go to twice weekly monitoring. It was almost a month before my CK levels returned to normal. Luckily enough, no long term damage for me - kidney function is normal and after a few months of rest and rehab my leg was back to normal.
In the emergency room.
Pressure monitor after being admitted.
Bruising
Bruising
I'm sure I took more photos about a week later when my leg had turned a lovely purple / black color from the bruising, but can't for the life of me find them. Will post them if I come across them.
This injury happened to me during a Saturday afternoon rugby game almost two years ago. I'm not 100% sure of what exactly happened except that I felt quite a bit of pain and growing stiffness in my left thigh after making a tackle - what I think happened is that the ball carrier's knee struck me in the thigh. Alternatively I may have been stepped on in the ensuing ruck, but I don't think that's as likely as that usually leaves a distinctive cleat mark bruise pattern afterwards. I stayed in and played the complete game, which was coincidentally one of my better games. Within minutes of the game ending (and I stopped moving), I felt my thigh tightening up to the point where I couldn't bend it. I didn't think much of it, other than it was just a bad charlie horse / deadleg. I got showered and dressed and went to the post-game drink-up at the pub, where I was awarded tackle of the match and man of the match, so I was quite pleased - but my leg was becoming progressively more painful as the evening went on. At about the 3 or 4 hour mark post-game, it started to go numb, and I began to feel nauseous and lightheaded - at this point I realized something was wrong and that I should probably go get it checked out.
So I went to the ER, where luckily I only had to wait for about an hour or so before I was seen by the triage nurse. She began taking my history and I started to explain about the knock to my thigh - at which point she interrupted me and said something to the effect of "sir, this is the emergency room - I'm sure you could have waited until Monday to see your GP about this", at which point I dropped my trousers to show her. Upon seeing how swollen my entire thigh was, she suddenly became more concerned and within 30 minutes I was being assessed by an orthopedic surgeon. He immediately had a nurse draw blood, then measured the circumference of my thighs - my left thigh was 16cm larger than the right by this point. He then sent me for x-rays, saying that such swelling is usually only ever seen with femoral fractures. The x-rays came back negative for fractures, but my creatnine kinase (indicator of muscle trauma) was roughly 15000. They admitted me to the orthopedic unit for overnight monitoring, hooking me up to IV fluids (to protect my kidneys from renal-toxic compounds released by cellular muscle injury) and hydromorphone for the pain. In addition they cut a small, half-inch incision into my thigh and inserted a roughly 6 inch long pressure monitor catheter into my thigh, through which they could monitor the pressure build-up between the fascial planes. I don't recall the exact numbers, but if the pressure reached a certain number I would be taken into surgery to have a fasciotomy performed - they would essentially make a long incision through the fascial planes from the top of my thigh down to my knee in an effort to relieve pressure. Luckily the highest I got was about 80% of the pressure cutoff, so I didn't need surgery. By the following day my CK level reading maxxed out on their machine so they continued to push fluids and monitor pressure; within a few days the levels began to subside and I was discharged. I spent the next 3-4 weeks on crutches as I waited for the swelling to go down, completely unable to bend my knee. The first week home I went for bloodwork every two days to monitor my CK, after a week of slow but continuous decline they let me go to twice weekly monitoring. It was almost a month before my CK levels returned to normal. Luckily enough, no long term damage for me - kidney function is normal and after a few months of rest and rehab my leg was back to normal.
In the emergency room.
Pressure monitor after being admitted.
Bruising
Bruising
I'm sure I took more photos about a week later when my leg had turned a lovely purple / black color from the bruising, but can't for the life of me find them. Will post them if I come across them.
Last edited:
