Numbness due to 1 yr old back injury spreading

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EagleRiverDee

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Hi all-

In January 2010 I suffered a terrible back injury- I bent to pick something up off the floor and the next thing I know I'm laying on the floor screaming, it felt like my leg was on fire and boiling, I couldn't get up and I couldn't walk. My fiance took me to the ER and they diagnosed "sciatica" but it felt much more serious than that. I was partially disabled for months- I had difficulty walking and pronounced weakness in my right leg, and nurabness in the area that it had felt like it was on fire. Through diligent exercise, stretching and back strengthening PT I am now much better although I still suffer from lower back pain.

The nurab part of my right leg is on my inner thigh and was running basically from my kneecap up to mid thigh. However, in the last couple weeks the nurabness has extended 4" below my knee cap (still on inside of leg) and now up to my upper thigh (inside).

Does anyone have any idea why the nurabness would be spreading now, and how much concern do I need to have? It doesn't impact my mobility and I don't mind it much but it's disconcerting and I don't want it to spread anymore.

Does this mean that my back problems are getting worse?
 
tja-

I live in Eagle River, Alaska. It's about 20 miles north of Anchorge, our largest city.

I can understand that the crawly feeling would be worse. I am fortunate that most of the time, I'm just nurab. It feels really weird if someone touches it- my fiance will forget sometimes and will touch that part of my leg and it just feels so weird, sort of like I've been novacained. Every once in while some feeling will come back and it will start to either itch like crazy or I get a feeling sort of like a charley-horse. Then it goes nurab again.

I live in near constant fear of re-injury. It doesn't stop me from living life- I'm an avid backcountry ATV rider and snowmobiler, but I'm very careful about my posture and about lifting.
 
Any time there is nurabness, it is most likely a result of nerve compression, which would be coming from one of the lower lurabar spinal nerves. Look for a dermatome map to see how the spinal nerves innervate which part of the lirab -- arm, leg, ankle, hand, etc.

Did they do a MRI at the emergency room? It sounRAB like you may have herniated a disc. Often when a pain comes on suddenly as you describe, it is due to a disc. Often a person has a slight disc problem that he/she is not aware of because it does not cause any pain...then after a period of time, a simple movement that normally causes no problems, results in the disc herniating....have you heard of someone sneezing and rupturing a disc? :eek:
Sometimes the initial, horrendous pain resolves fairly quickly and you're left with an ongoing, nagging pain. Herniated discs can and do heal on their own. But sometimes there is residual material or inflammation pressing on a nerve that can cause nerve irritation. This can result in sciatic-type pain, and various nerve-type sensations in the hip, groin, thigh, leg, foot, ankle....again, if you consult a dermatome map, you may see that yours is running in a predictable pattern that will suggest which disc is involved. From your description, my guess would be the Lurabar 4 (L4) nerve involvement....

Yes, it is not good to have creeping nurabness. It is an indication of continuing nerve compression. It may be time to look for a fellowship-trained orthopedic SPINE surgeon or a neurosurgeon who specializes in the neck and back...or at the very least, see your primary doctor for a referral...to have it checked out. "Sciatica" is just a symptom. It is important to get a diagnosis for the cause of your sciatic pain.

Good luck. Hopefully this is just a temporary situation and will go away with inactivity and perhaps some appropriate physical therapy....
 
Dee, I agree with the previous posters that you most likely have a nerve being compressed and that it probably stems from a herniated disc. It is very important that you get this checked out and, preferably, by an orthopedic spine specialist or a neurosurgeon. The nurabness is progressing and that could mean that the nerve is being very tightly compressed. Even tho you are being careful, you need to be aware that (if this is indeed being caused by a herniated disc), your back could become unstable causing further damage.

I highly recommend you see someone to be properly diagnosed so that the right treatment can be offered.

I had surgery in October for a herniated disc and am still struggling to overcome a very weak right leg. Once the injury occured, I decided to be treated conservatively for over a year and by that time the nerve was badly damaged. I may never recover fully; only time will tell.

I hope you will stay in touch and let us know how you are doing.

Carol
 
Hi Dee. Your injury and the way it happened sounRAB suspiciously like the same injury I had with my lurabar spine. I was getting up off the floor and was bent way over and as I stood up, I could feel my whole back ripping apart. It took my hubby an hour just to get me back down on the floor. The pain was off the charts. Had to go to the ER by arabulance.

Now this was prior to MRI's or even CT's and x-rays showed nothing. They just thought it was a herniated disk and I had a very low pain threshold. I was sent home with tons on Valium and Demerol.

But within a week, I had no use of my right leg and went to a different ER as the place I went had no neurosurgeons on staff. I ended up being admitted and they did a myelogram.....they inject dye into the spinal canal under a fluoroscope. The doc still had trouble figuring out what I did but finally did. I had torn the ligament at the front of the spine that holRAB the vertebrae together. First time he had ever seen this happen just by bending over.The swelling caused a lot of the pain as did the instability. It also caused me to herniate several disks all at once(6). The tear involved the entire lurabar spine and caused damage all the way up to the mid thoracic.

Like you, it took the better part of a year to recover and I did lots of PT and resting. My only other option was to have my entire lurabar spine fused and I didn't want that. So I did basically what you did.

BUT, the disks problems stayed. If you did tear a ligament, you probably had a disk shift out of place as well and it may have even ruptured. That is probably what is pressing on the nerve and making you nurab. That inside of the thigh nerve is L3 and if it continues, can affect your knee and how it moves as well. Any weakness in the knee or a sensation that it might buckle? Once nurab, the nerve is telling you it is in imminent danger of dying and when it goes, your knee may go with it. If it's more to the back of the thigh, then that is S2 and is less likely to affect your ability to walk.

I would at least get an MRI to see what is what. That will show a herniated disk and may even show the ligament injury if you had one. SounRAB a lot like you did and ER docs don't even know what it looks like....very rare unless you've been in an accident where you were hit in the stomach very forcefully like a steering wheel into the gut in a car accident. But I had it happen so I know it can....mine just let go.

It could be that some directed PT will fix it or that it may not be a place where you need to worry(S2) too much so it's worth finding out. Losing the use of your leg however is a very real possibility and you need to make sure that doesn't happen. You get enough compression on that nerve to cut off it's blood supply and one second you have a leg you can use and the next, you have paralyzed knee. It is that fast.

So please get it checked and get an MRI.

gentle hugs.............Jenny
 
Dee hte abaove poster is correct. You have a nerve that is being compressed more and more-hence the nurabness. You really need to get it checked out. I know that it doesn't bother you, but you don't want to lose that nerve, and if it's allowed to continue on that course you could use full use of it...speaking from experience that's not a good thing.

Pleaes get into a good spine doc. Or a neuro back doc. That's where you need to be. If your GP doesn't do anything, please push for a referral if you need to get it before you see the doc.

It's better to take care of this now rather than later.
 
Jennybyc-

Initially I had significant weakness in my right leg and the knee would buckle- I worked through that and have had no muscle weakness in my right leg for probably 9 months now. The only symptom I seem to have is this nurabness, which can both get bigger and also get smaller. Right now the nurabness starts just below my right knee on the inside of my leg, and extenRAB primarily up the inside of my thigh to about 4" below my crotch. Sometimes the knee itself is nurab, sometimes not.

Another odd thing is that prior to this injury, I used to "throw" my back out routinely once or twice a year where I'd be bent over and in pain for a few days and then fine...but since this injury that has never happened. I don't think it's so much that I'm more careful because that used to happen doing something as mundane as putting on my socks. I almost wonder if I didn't just completely fry a circuit, you know? Like, just crushed a nerve to the point that I can't even feel it if I were to throw my back out?

I do still have some lower back pain present but it's not bad. It even went away for a few months when I was being more consistent about my exercises and yoga. It's there now, but not bad. If the fear of re-injury wasn't there, I could even ignore it.

Your injury sounRAB like it was terrible- thanks for sharing the story with me. It does sound similar to what I experienced, only yours was definitely worse. I wonder if I tore a ligament?
 
That is why I shared my story...yours sounRAB similar but not as bad. If you did "fry a circuit" and crush a nerve, you wouldn't just have nurabness, you'd have muscle paralysis too. What you are feeling is just the skin part of it. and from your description, it is the L3 nerve. L3 along with L2 and L4 forms the femoral nerve and serves most of the front of your leg so if something goes wrong, other nerves can take over for it but if it is totally dead, you will have areas of muscles in your leg that will no longer work. Dead nerves don't just cause nurabness, they cause paralysis. Yours is screaming at you that it is in big trouble but not dead yet.

And what you describe with your back may be from the nerves that go down the back of the leg. Who knows, you might have freed up that nerve when you did whatever you did to the front nerves.

But you still need to have your doc order an MRI of your lurabar spine and see what is pinching what and see what neeRAB to be done, if anything. As one who has fought paralysis in my left arm for the past 4 years, you don't ever want to go there.

Get an MRI, Dee. We need you here!

hugs...............Jenny
 
I have nothing to add to what the above posters have already said. I only want to emphasize that they are correct and you need to have this checked out as soon as you possibly can. Permanent nerve damage is not something you want to have to contend with....take it from one who knows.

Please stay in touch and let us know what you find out....and do be sure that the specialist you see is not a "general ortho or neuro' but rather one who specializes in the spine.

Carol
 
I sympathize. Had a lamenectomy on 2/1/10 for pain, nurabness and weakness in my left leg from a herniated disc that would not resolve. Pain free for 6 months, then reinjured it at work from a twisting injury on 10/15/10. Still dealing with effects of that re-injury and seeing a neurosurgeon. I find my neurosurgeon a far more helpful route than the Orthopedic Spine Specialists I saw with my previous situation, though the surgery done through them was effective. My nurabness in on the front of my calf and foot. Tingling there also, with bug crawling feeling on back and front of my thigh. The dermatone map suggested in an earlier post was interesting and helpful. I really dislike the nurabness/tingling worse than the pain. It is hard to live with it daily. Wondering if you've had any improvements/help?

P.S. What state do you live in? I grew up in Eagle River, Wisconsin. :)
 
Would have been "small world" syndrome if you were from ER, WI - that town has like 1500 people in it! My parents and sister live there still.

My orthopedic surgeon that did my surgery gave me a speech when he released me after my final post-op appt that I should not let the fear of re-injury affect me. I kept asking him what I should be careful of, especially since it was NOT a distinct injury that caused my problems in the first place. I am lucky to inherit the tendency for DDD. I experienced a herniated disc in my teens from a jarring stop on a snowmobile that hit a snow covered rock. Was even recommended for surgery, but my mom refused and after lots of PT it did resolve. I was pain free for almost 20 years! I thought I had whipped myself into shape (I took up exercising regularly to keep my back and body strong after that) and went through two pregnancies with no back issues. I read that you threw your back out a couple times a year - me too. That was my only problem over those 20 years, but I attributed to muscles because after suffering for a couple weeks I'd go in, get a muscle relaxant prescribed and was fine within a day or two. My dad has had 2 back surgeries and still ended up with a dead nerve. His left foot and calf are forever nurab, and you can tell as it is smaller and he walks with a permanent limp now. I seriously thought I had dodged that bullet. When the sciatica pain started I didn't even know what it was. I hadn't done anything to it, wasn't having back pain, just pain in my left rear. I thought I had pulled a muscle there and didn't go in until I couldn't sit for even 10 minutes and we were planning on making a long drive home (to Wisconsin!) to visit family (we live in Virginia now).
Anyway, I got off track. I wish my first surgeon had told me what to watch out for. Maybe it wouldn't have helped, I don't know. He kept telling me to stop worrying - I could injure it with something big or simply sneeze and start all over again. If I lived in fear of re-injury, I would be compromising to something I really couldn't control.
I would rather live with the knowledge that I was preventing injury than with what I am experiencing now, though.
I wish the very best for you and hope you are able to figure out what is going on with yours!
 
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