Crawling Back to Base Camp After Collapsing From Acute Exertional Compartment Syndrome In Both Legs

Before I even know what exertional compartment syndrome was, it had struck me down and I was forced to the ground, barely able to crawl back to base camp.

After the mid-summer rain storm, I had to hustle to rescue and store as much rain water as I could before it evaporated, in the process I apparently blew out major blood vessels in both legs which caused them to fill up with blood from profuse internal bleeding. This then caused a whole list of debilitating side effects beyond the issues in my legs. I couldn't walk or stand for two months, I could barely move my legs at all, they were cramped into a semi-flexed position, and I could barely move my upper body, and couldn't move any part of my body with out agonizing pain. There wasn't much improvement for the first month, but after a resupply of super foods, my recovery accelerated and by the end of the second month I was starting to slowly get back on my feet again. After 3 months I was luckily back to 100%.

These pictures show the dragging pattern marks I made in the sand as I abruptly lost most of the use of both legs. Luckily I was able to function at least to that level otherwise the rising sun would have definitely put me in a lethal situation.