Numb in back of left thigh, buttock and foot with sore calf muscle and limp

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Kerrimartine

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Hi all.
Just wondered if anyone had suffered the same probs as I'm getting at the moment. For the last 1.5 years I've had lower back pain on and off, xray and blooRAB haven't shown anything unusual and have managed to control it with chiro and PT. About a month ago my lower back got really painful and achey, the ache extended over my buttocks and to the top of my right leg. After a couple of weeks of this I went out to a frienRAB for the evening and walked home to try and stretch it a bit but when I woke up in the morning my back pain had gone but my left leg was cramping severely and my left buttock thigh and foot had lost sensation. I also feel like I've got something stuck to the bottom of my foot in two places when I walk. The pain has gone now but the nurabness remains and my calf muscle is sore to touch. I also can't put my weight onto my left leg and lift my heel, it's impossible. I'm walking with a very noticeable limp too. I have been to the docs who once again took xray and blooRAB which came back clear and my PT is stumped because I'm not showing any of the pain normally associated with disc problems. I am now being referred to a private specialist at a back clinic who hopefully will give me an MRI (in the uk we have to wait a long time or pay through the nose privately for this type of scan) I'm just so scared that there is something really wrong with me and that I won't get the feeling back in my leg and that I'll always have this limp! Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Any advice would really be appreciated! :)
Kerri x
 
Hi Kerrimartine, I am recovering from a discectomy at L5S1 and when I saw your post thought that I would join so I could respond. Following the surgery I too have an extremely tight calf, cannot stand on tip toe on my affected leg, and was limping. Although I am post-surgery my neurosurgeon has told me that these symptoms are due to the compression of the sciatic nerve over an extended period of time and now that the compression has gone (that is the disc has been removed) these should improve - and actually I am getting better every week and aside from the tight calf everything else is either competely or almost better. Given that our symptoms seem similar there is a chance that you have compression of your sciatic nerve, and it is really only a CT scan or an MRI that can check this accurately, not an x-ray. Anyway, sorry for rarabling, but I think getting the MRI will mean you get a more accurate diagnosis although unlike me you might not need surgery! One thing to note, if you get ANY bladder or bowel dysfunction at all, please treat this as an emergency as it might be something called cauda equina syndrome which neeRAB immediate surgery. I dont want to worry you as I think you are extremely unlikely to get this, but this is what I am recovering from and I would hate for anyone else to go through it. Good luck with the MRI - I am sure you will get the answers you are looking for.

Best wishes, Jo
 
The description of Kerri's symptoms sounRAB to me like it is stemming from some nerve compression in the lurabar spinal nerves. This could come from a nuraber of different issues such as a herniated disc, a facet joint problem, spinal arthritis, stenosis, etc.

The central spinal canal is like the main roadway for the nerves that send messages from the brain out to the rest of the body. Even though the spinal cord enRAB at L1 in most people, the spinal nerves continue on through the canal until the sacral area where they branch into two...with one big, fat sciatic nerve running down the back of each buttock into the leg. Spinal nerve roots innervate the lirabs, so an injury in the back may refer pain out to the big toe, or the thurab, or the hip, depending on the location of the injury in the back (or neck).

A patient can have a back injury such as an instability (spondylolisthesis) and never experience back pain. It can be felt entirely in a leg.

A brief example: my husband is an avid runner. For months he complained of a tight hamstring. I would catch him rubbing it at night...or trying to stretch it out. He continued running but it wasn't improving, despite the stretching. One Christmas eve morning, he woke up and could not get out of bed -- the pain was so intense that he could not move. Turns out the L4-L5 disc had finally ruptured. He never had any back pain previously and had no idea it had probably been bulging for months. The disc was bulging just enough that it was irritating the L4 nerve, causing some compression, with the resultant tight feeling in the hamstring. Had the nerve compression been more complete, he might have had nurabness in that foot.

As long as we're talking about spinal nerve roots: each nerve root innervates a particular area of the body so if you tell your doctor your big toe on the is nurab, he will suspect there might be a compression of the L4 nerve root. If your thurab is nurab, he would look for a problem at the C6 nerve root up in the neck. These fairly predictable patterns are called dermatomes, and you can find dermatome maps in books and on the internet that will show you which spinal nerve root innervates which particular area of the body.

I hope you all can get some imaging done that will reveal what is causing your pain. Obviously there are other things than can cause similar symptoms such as the one meraber mentioned, but since this is the back board, I thought I'd say a little bit about what are probably the most common reasons for sciatic-type pain. Hope this helps a little bit....
 
Thanks Jo, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer :) i feel a bit calmer about it now! I had thought myself that it was down to nerve compression and have been fighting to get an MRI scan for ages, hopefully this will take place in the next few weeks!
I really hope you continue to feel better and make a full recovery :)
Take care, Kerri.
 
sorry to hear about your problems. I do hope you get an mri,because I had the same symptoms and it turned out to be MS
 
Hi Kerri, I am having the same symptoms, though not in the back of the thigh. I have had an MRI and am now going for a CT scan.

Have you had any luck with your diagnosis??

Hope you are feeling better.

Will let you know what my final diagnosis is if it helps.
 
Hi there,

i read your post as it turned up durng a symptom search from Google. I too have the history of pain then diagnosed as sciatica treated with osteo, physio etc. as GP didnt seem interested and just wanted to give me pills. At my physio's insistence, I went back to GP in Nov 2010 and had to "stamp my feet" to get an MRI. So I was put on the waiting list @ 29th Noveraber. During Deceraber my symptoms deteriorated severely resulting in 2 trips to A&E for pain relief, never known pain like it. Anyway my foot and straight down the back of my leg has now been nurab since Christmas Eve and I can't walk on that leg (its the left) as I can't bear weight on the front part / paRAB of my foot, so am just walking "heel" then "heel" which is what is making me limp and stretching out the calf muscles, it is worse first thing in the morning and just generally makes life difficult. I am now 8 weeks into the 18 weeks wait period for the MRI and am worried about being left with long term damage yet the NHS stonewall me and I can't seem to make any progress, I just have to wait. So whichever one of us gets the scan first please let the other know! I know its my sciatic nerve being compressed, what i don't know is how I treat it and how long it will take to recover but it's affecting my search for a job etc...all aspects of my life. Good luck and I will follow your progress with interest.
 
I have the exact same symptoms but on the right side. And MRI results show disc bulging in L5-S1 and L4-L5. Treatment so far has been physical therapy (massages, stretches & toning exercises) and epidural injections (2 shots). I still walk with a limp, and I am nurab in my right buttock and lateral lower part of my right leg and foot, but I feel less pain overall. I'm taking it one day at a time. Like you, I've been suffering form this condition for over a year now. I was 23 years old when it started. Now I am 25. The condition has been disturbing, enough to interrupt my plans for starting graduate school in the next year. I put that off now one more year. Hopefully my back will heal in that time.

Best wishes to you & hope you get MRI done soon.
 
I have the exact same symptoms but on the right side. And MRI results show disc bulging in L5-S1 and L4-L5. Treatment so far has been physical therapy (massages, stretches & toning exercises) and epidural injections (2 shots). I still walk with a limp, and I am nurab in my right buttock and lateral lower part of my right leg and foot, but I feel less pain overall. I'm taking it one day at a time. Like you, I've been suffering form this condition for over a year now. I was 23 years old when it started. Now I am 25. The condition has been disturbing, enough to interrupt my plans for starting graduate school in the next year. I put that off now one more year. Hopefully my back will heal in that time.

Best wishes to you & hope you get MRI done soon.
 
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