Weird leg sensations

B

BrewCrew09!

New member
Hi everyone,

I think I am going nuts. My left leg, from the knee and down into the foot, feels like it has the creepy crawlies, sometimes like an electric wave going through it. I tend to lie on my left side in bed with my right leg over my left leg, resting on it. After a few hours of that, it is worse. It is better when I am up and walking around.

I saw an "on call" doctor about this about 2 weeks ago and she did tests for muscle weaknesses (just the reflexes tests) and all was okay. I went to my family doctor two days ago and he kind of discounted restless leg syndrome (I don't have the urge to move my legs to get rid of these creepy crawlies).

He sent a referral to a neurologist and ordered a whack of bloodwork (to be copied to the neurologist). He said I would probably be getting an EMG test. I have never had one of those.

My leg doesn't hurt at all, no pains anywhere, nor is there any numbness. It doesn't feel like "pins and needles", just this weird feeling like something is moving through my lower leg and into my foot.

Would anyone have any idea what this could be? I am getting very worried, even though my family doctor said that it is nothing to worry about. When I concentrate on the leg, of course it gets even worse as I am concentrating on it. I am totally stressed with anxiety (I have anxiety and panic disorder) and I know this would probably make these sensations worse too.

Thanks all!
 
What you are feeling is just nerves sending little bursts through thier channels. You have some pressure somewhere in your back that is presing on your nerve canal that is causing it to do those crawly feelings. AFater I had my back surgery, that was the first feeling I had when I started to get the feeling back in my left leg. First it felt like worms crawling, then ants crawling along....creepy feleing, but it's nothing to get upset about.

The EMG that your doctor ordered is a test to see if you have any nerve damage. With this test he can see if there is long term damage or recent damage to your nerves. What they do is insert thin needles into the path of the nerve and give it a little burst of electricity to see if you can feel it. That way they see of there is stll feeling-and life in the nerve. It's not the most pleasant of tests, but it is really necessary to tell if there is damage to the nerves.

Hope this helps explain your crawly feelings-they aren't anything to worry about, its' just a irritation to your nerves...
 
Flyer,

If you don't mind my asking, when did you first start having problems? Did you have any unrelated symptoms in the days/months prior to this occurring?

Bethsheba
 
hi there i have the same symptoms, waiting for an appointment in orphopeadic, taking to long too much in pain i feel like geting a knife and poke it the pain is unbearable, i also have at the side of my foot swollen and thats very painful hope to get it sorted out this week, fingers crossed wait to hear from anyone to give me comfort, its not funny when your in pain everyday,
 
You know, when i think about this, these weird leg sensations occured just after I had my last chiropractic adjustment for my back (I have a degenerative disc problem in lower back). I'm wondering now, (since Ibake&pray mentioned back surgery) if that adjustment had anything to do with these nerve sensations? Hmmmm... I entirely forgot about that possible link. What do you think? The only unrelated symptoms is I have anxiety disorder and also GERD, both of which I've had for years and I take a pill for high blood pressure. Maybe this is related to my back and/or that adjustment?????

Edited to say that I had my chiropractic back adjustment (which I get once a month) on October 14th in the morning and these sensations started that afternoon and I saw an on-call MD the next day on October 15th. I saw my family doctor on October 29th when he sent the referral to a neurologist. This does sound connected. Does anyone think I should contact my chiropractor or just wait and not go back until I see the neurologist? Should I call my family doctor and mention this to him as I never did mention this at all?
 
Hi, Flyer . . . hearing about your back adjustment rang a bell for me. I have only been to a chiropractor once but have known others that have gone and sometimes the treatments actually make the condition worse.

If something got pinched around your sacro-iliac joint (sciatica), it could be causing your leg symptoms.

I have sciatica from an on the job injury about 20 years ago when I fell on a concrete floor onto my tail bone. My symptoms include aches which wrap around to my hip sometimes and also feelings in my leg like muscles tightening when walking, occasional loss of control in that leg and foot, every great once in a while charlie horses and occasionally tingling which is short term and goes away after I get up and move around.

I would mention this possibility to both your chiropractor and your regular doctor to see what they say. They gave me an x-ray for my sciatica but nothing was conclusive; however, when they had me do range of motion and they did pressure point testing on me, it was diagnosed.

Let us know how you do!

Lindaru :)
 
It's possible that your symptoms are related but I doubt very much there is a connection to your "adjustment" other than it may have aggravated an existing condition.

Over 30 years ago I slipped a disc in my back but in the last 20 years or so, I've had no problems. Then recently, I experienced excruciating back pain so severe that that the doctor ruled out a possible spinal tumor. Well, I was blaming it on the disc I had herniated long ago. Long story short, pain went away when I stopped taking my blood pressure medication! I have since read that back pain is a common side effect of that particular med. Moral of my story...when something goes wrong in the "here and now" we blame it on an old condition when it actually may be a "new" condition.

First off, your back pain may or may not be related to your blood pressure medication...you might want to check out the blood pressure boards as others have had similar experiences.

GERD and an anxiety disorder are OFTEN symptoms of Lyme Disease (of course they can be symptoms of other things as well!)...but given the combination of your symptoms, and the length of time you have suffered with them, I would seriously consider learning more about Lyme Disease, which is a bacterial infection(s) that can affect multiple body systems.

Symptoms for Lyme vary depending on the individual and the coinfections, diagnosis can be difficult, but treatment can be effective, especially early on. You'll have to do a considerable amount of reading as it is a complex condition but I can't help but think it may be worth your while...especially if little or nothing show up on your tests.

Bethsheba
 
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