Sciatica returns

[jsewell]

Hi
I had surgery on Aug 4th of this year and woke up with my sciatic nerve so mad at me . Ended up i couldn't walk the pain was so very bad if my toe even touched the ground. No rest possible. So after 5 1/2 half weeks in a wheelchair or bed i had a second surgery to remove the hardwear that had just been put in the lumbar area. The pain went away. It was caused because the screws were pulling out and got the nerve tangled up in them. that is the way i describe it anyway. But that doesn't explain why right after surgery it was so bad, it did get worse when the screws started loosening. Anyway , i thought that problem was long gone.
Two days ago, my right leg started hurting when i was just walking. so i didn't do much of anything. Now the last 2 nights my legs have hurt enough to keep waking me up at night. The left leg is definitely the worst right now and is really reminding me of that time in Aug. Not as bad, but the same pain . Help. I really don't know what to do. I will call my surgeon on Monday if it remains the same. I do see my physical therapist on Monday too and get his insight. No fun , i was just ready yesterday to go for my first post surgeries hike. When i was getting dressed and realizing i couldn't step up or bend my leg without any pain, i desided to forget the hike or walk or anything. sucks.

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
judy

[Maria]

Judy,
Sorry to read this. I think the only words of wisdom I have are it sounds like you did the right thing abandoning the walk and not further aggravating the situation. I'm hoping it's temporary.

I have been walking alot. In fact today I got overzealous and did two long walks amongst my 4 shorter dog walks. On the 2nd walk in the evening nearly on the way home my right foot tendonitis kicked in again!

Ratz! This stupid posterior tibial tendonitis seems to never go away completely (which I knew it wouldn't just have forgotten I had it as I was doing so well).

Can't find my foot braces now as it's been so long since I've worn them and have to wear them to bed as it helps to immobilize from nearly any movement.

Wonder if that would work for your sciatica? I am remembering a long time ago a woman that I worked with told me in her country they put her in body cast when she hurt her back and had terrible sciatica. She was in the hospital and wore the cast a month I think and then of course she had muscle wasting all over but she said she stopped having back probs and sciatica after that. I had never heard of that before. I do see that immobilization is used at least short term of ligament/tendon type orthopedic injuries of the knee and foot more now before surgery.

Ok blabbing on here.. will stop and just hope this goes away soon for you!

[Rob Wilson]

Maria - sorry to hijack this post but could your posterior tibial tendonitis be tarsal tunnel syndrome? It seems that I have both of these (the nerve and tendon).

[jsewell]

Rob i see you had the piriformis muscle surgery for sciatica. How bad was your sciatica? How long did it last and how did you figure out it was caused by the piriformis muscle? I'm hijacking it right back!!
judy

[mmglobal]

Judy, I've had several clients with unsuccessful lumbar surgery, then later have their sciatica resolved with piriformis surgery. One ID'd it with a diagnostic injection. Others went to piriformis specialists. Any spine surgeon or pain management doctor SHOULD BE able to rule it in or out. Too many of them won't take this diagnosis seriously and don't consider it.

Ask your one of your docs. I've not done this, but I'm told that if you search youtube you'll find videos with instructions on how to sit and move to trigger piriformis syndrome (PS) if that is the problem.

Mark

[jsewell]

Thanks Mark,
I was reading about this yesterday. I am on my way to physical therapy and he should know the moves to irritate the piriformis. I also was lucky to get an apt with my surgeon for Thursday morning. Usually it takes weeks. I'll let you know what happens besides me going into depression!!
Judy

[Maria]

Judy,
I had this or so the PTs thought during a very prolonged period of time post my 2nd back surgery tho when it was very well addressed by a PT in 2001 with about a year's intensive treatment in this area as well as with SI joint probs, cervical probs and other stuff I finally got some good relief. Now adding to the PT was the start of ESIs and my opioid pain medication (had already been on Neurontin for 3 years prior to this round of PT).

The physicians at the time were very non committal re what my exact problem could be tho they did authorize the PT and other things but I felt the PT that worked with me intensively made all the difference.

However my probs were most intense from 1992 (post 2nd spine surgery and failed back surgery to 2001/4). Prior to 1992 I had episodic pain and the episodes were bad but at least not continuous neverending and chronic.

Good luck.

Re the posterior tibial tendonitis I fit that diagnosis perfectly unfortunately. It has cleared up again thankfully. My dog walks have been shorter with the exception of one longer one today and no "me" walks the last few days.

Good luck Judy. Hope you get some relief very soon.

[jsewell]

I saw my spine surgeon this morning. the next diagnostic step is am EMG of my legs next week. I have been working on stretching with my physical therapist as well. Parts are a little better and some areas are worse! Just ups and downs. Today my whole foot went numb. I couldn't move it at all at the time. Kind of scary , i hope it can't just randomly happen.
judy

[Maria]

I had foot numbness that scared me silly way back in 1999.. I mean I couldn't feel my foot to walk while I was walking. Very scary. Mostly tho I had it with driving longer than about 10 mins back then. 20 mins or more and my calf was also numb.

My OSS back then said that the sitting position was compressing my L5S1 nerve and also the position of my foot during driving (to the pedal).

I still have this occasionally tho not all the time like I used to have it.


Hope you get some good answers from your doctor Judy and that the foot numbness is transient in nature.

[jsewell]

I was just relaxing in bed like usual when my whole foot went numb, i'm glad i was not driving as i didn't have any contol over it at all, could not move it at all. It is scary incase this happens when i am driving some time.
We will get some more answers after the emg of my legs next week.
judy

[jsewell]

I had my EMG and follow up appointment. I have weakness on the ankle of my left leg ( not the one that went numb, figures) the doctor told me i had some ankle trauma. I had a leg EMG 2 years ago and he found the same weakness and i told him at the time that i had some trauma. Darn if i can remember what heppened although i did have one good fall on the mountain trail.

The back issue and right leg issue is acute lumbar sacral radiculitis involving the L5 nerve root. I imagined this happened at my surgery on Aug 4th. That is the one where i had no use of my right leg , except to be in extreme pain all the time. That brought me to a wheelchair. Some hardwear was removed and that pretty much cleared up the pain and with some practice could walk again.
On the EMg report it shows on all the muscles of the right leg, a chronic denervation changes, diminished motor recruitment .

i do have pain in my right buttocks area, hip area and of course lower back. My surgeon said some day i will be all the way fused. I only have L5 to S1 left. Seeing he had to take away all the hardware in the lower spine in Sept he had told me if this did not fuse or heal properly the next step wil be anterior surgery. so he once again brought that up. I am currently having epidural injections to calm everything down.
the first ones lasted about 5 weeks, the last ones only like 2 weeks. I have to wait until the end of April for the next. It is pretty painful now so this will not be much fun. I will probably have to up the pain meds.
So i am told when i no longer can stand the pain or as when the shots stop working it is my say to have the surgery,. My spine is very unstable at this time. No good news. But i didn't expect any. Right now the right side wakes me up at night when i do land on it.
This spine stuff sucks .
Judy

[firemedix911]

I'm sorry about what u are going thru man. Praying for you.

[jsewell]

Thank -you firemedix. And i will pray for you as well.
Judy

[Maria]

Yes it sure does suck to have continuing problems and chronic pain! Am sorry that you're having more pain and there sounds like more surgery in the future for you. Add me in on those prayers for your continued general and spinal health too Judy. Maria

[jsewell]

Thanks Maria
I hope all is well with you .
Judy

[Maria]

Hi Judy,
My back is holding it's own so far. My feet however seem to have a chronic thing going on again re the posterior tibial tendonitis. What a pain! I've been wearing my supportive thingys to be bed each night and they are a bit of a pain because the Velcro straps get stuck on blankets so then I have to wake up to kick the blankets off that are in a snarl at my feet!

I did walk an hour last night w/neighbor and Lola which was kinda dumb but felt good (except afterwards to my feet).

Am really slow about preparing to move. Am still going thu files and man am I just the slowest to get rid of things so haven't even gotten to packing yet.

Gotta get over to the new place next weekend and do some painting preparation. I intend to do this myself so we'll see how far I get with that! I can just see half painted walls and unfinished rooms...

Oh well... plugging on here so hope you'll be doing much better when you get your CPAP machine! take care~ Maria