Back and leg problems

[SARAHHOUSE67]

Hi still have problems with my back year on still in pain when to pain clinic not helpful talk pain not keen to see the nurse in January has anyone have an idea what the nurse talks about and also from my knee down feels like there's nothing there and I walk as if I have wooden leg can someone tell me why.

[Bananas5]

Out of interest...why didn't you find the pain clinic very helpful?

x

[SARAHHOUSE67 in reply to Bananas5]

They just talked about pain but going benefit of the doubt by going, specialist nurse this month see what she has to say first. but need to have relief from pain not talk about it.

[Bananas5 in reply to SARAHHOUSE67]

The pain Nurses are very knowledgeable and hopefully will suggest several therapies as well as meds..

Hasn't your GP prescribed anything for you?

x

[SARAHHOUSE67 in reply to Bananas5]

yes codine been on year and Gabapentin but didn't work for me I had physio for 8months or more but still the same because I fractured my sacrum year ago I have lost weight dropped two sizes been to see a Rheumatologist and he did have EMP and evoked test and they found nerve Damage to L4 andL5 nerve damage then discharged me and sent To my GP who Sent to pain clinic part from that nothing

[Bananas5 in reply to SARAHHOUSE67]

OK. Sorry you have been left in limbo.

It might help to keep a diary of when your pain is worse, or better?, before you see the pain Nurse. If you can use the 1 to 10 scale she may say well its 7 hen you wake but 4 after a bath.

I am surprised the GP hasn't changed your meds but if the pain clinic prescribes something then GP has to write script.

Keep an open mind when you see Nurse...pain clinic is lovingly referred to as Last Chance Saloon.

Over 35 years we have had 3 and they have all been brilliant with wonderful Consultants. Take someone with you if you can.

x

[SARAHHOUSE67 in reply to Bananas5]

Thank you its 21st January let you know what happens next

[Bananas5 in reply to SARAHHOUSE67]

XXX

[johnsmith]

you say: "and also from my knee down feels like there's nothing there and I walk as if I have wooden leg ". This could be serious. Get an MRI scan as soon as possible. Speak to a chiropractor. They can give you an opinion to take to a medical doctor. You and I are not medically trained and as a result do not speak medical language with its appropriate meanings. Guesswork: pressure being applied to nerve - Pressure needs to be removed off nerve. Your doctor could dismiss your worries. A doctor cannot dismiss the opinion of a chiropractor as easily because of legal implications.

I could of course be wrong in my suspicions. Hence the need to investigate.

[SARAHHOUSE67 in reply to johnsmith]

thank you I have the appointment on Friday

[Hidden in reply to SARAHHOUSE67]

Do NOT see a chiropractor under any circumstances Sarah! With nerve damage already there at L4/L5, you risk causing further damage done by someone who hasn't seen what is going on inside you!

[johnsmith in reply to Hidden]

There is rightness and wrongness in your answer. Your are right a chiropractor cannot see what is going on inside. Neither can an x-ray. An experienced chiropractor knows how to reduce pressure by altering spinal posture. They also know from experience if there is a problem or not. So they can inform the patient what they need to say to a doctor.

Chiropractors overall have done far less damage to patients than surgeons in regard to back problems. I know people who are dead because the doctor prescribed pain killers to a person with a tumour pressing on a spinal nerve. A chiropractor would have been able to spot the potential problem.

The chiropractor which I see on the NHS has more than once sorted out problems that the NHS medical profession are unable to deal with. On one occasion I had an infection which was causing intense back pain. The GP I saw insisted that I did not and prescribed indobufen. I got taken to hospital by ambulance the following day. At the hospital the consultant checked for heart problems and insisted that I could not have a back infection and prescribed Voltarol tablets. The voltarol tablets took off the pain but the cause was still present. I saw my own GP two days later and told him what my chiropractor had said. My own GP told me that there is a condition called discitis. Discitis is usually caused by an infection that develops in one of the spine’s vertebral bones and/or intervertebral discs. Often, discitis is a bacterial infection. A week course of antibiotics cleared the problem.

A senior hospital consultant said such a thing as a spinal infection did not exist and prescribed pain killer. A GP refused to prescribe antibiotics and prescribed anti inflammatory. My own GP who prescribed anti biotics on a chiropractors say so and this cured the problem.

The chiropractors opinion got me the right treatment. The long term effects of discitis is very nasty.

[hosbay in reply to johnsmith]

Hi Johnsmith again

Interesting to see you had discitis. Was this before the other spinal problems you are suffering from? The reason I am asking is because I had discitis 6 years ago (L1 and psoas muscle). 1 year after this I had a C6 spinal incident which damaged my arm and finger nerves. 1 years after this I had my sciatic incident which has plagued me ever since. One Neurologist I saw about my sciatic neuropothy concluded that the discitis was most probably a major factor in the subsequent spinal incidents. Other neurologists, orthopaedic consultants and GP have all said they did not feel that there could be a connection/association, but I wonder now.

Probably not important as far as managing the conditions is concerned but important to me in my understanding.

[johnsmith in reply to hosbay]

The discitis? pain started 2 weeks before I saw the chiropractor. As I see the chiropractor regularly I told my own GP that I had painful back and would let the chiropractor deal with it. I assumed I had done something to cause the pain. By the time I saw the chiropractor I was adopting a non upright walking posture because of the pain. The chiropractor examined me and told me that I had an infection. The chiropractors treatment did help because she treated other parts of my back and neck as well.

The discitis? and its aftereffects altered how much I was able to cope. I was able to get a cleaner via social services for a number of years until budget cuts caused the local council to redefine what certain words meant when defining who and who does not get social care. I lost the cleaner and had to find another paid for out of my benefits.

Getting back to your discitis question. The discitus would alter how the spinal reflexes behave in response to inputs. Add this to your demand that I move without thinking to do things. Damage can occur. You have done a movement in certain way for years. However, you now have some damage. The damage can be loss of proprioceptor, or scar tissue, or nerves producing a different signal. Your command to move is the same. Your muscle coming on line is the same. The movement has been made before the brain has received signals saying something should be different and that you should learn to move a different way.

If I remember rightly. A nerve message travels at 30 metres a second in the big nerves and a lot slower in the smaller nerves. I think you can do the calculation regarding strong muscles doing damage before brain registering damage is being done. The brain being a creature of habit sets up the movement sequence and sets it in motion before receiving signals concerning OK-ness. After all it has been doing this movement sequence for years.

Simplifying there are two types of muscle. Fast and slow. Fast muscle can deliver very high power in a time range of 10ms. Fast muscle has no endurance. Slow muscle has lots of endurance but has low power. Hence the true stories of a little women lifting a car when her child is trapped beneath. Fast muscle when fully engaged can damage bone, ligament and tendon of the person fully engaging their fast muscle.

When doing tasks. It is efficient to only use high power for fractions of a second and low power for the rest of the time. The old sea shanty songs were designed for sailors on sailing ships to coordinate short high bursts of high power.

Because of timing and sequencing of nerve messages, you cannot correct a movement in mid flight if there is a problem. The only effective thing you can do is stop. Doing a signal timing diagram of the nerve signals from brain and nerve signals back to to the brain from the different size nerves is a useful exercise. As you have done electrical engineering such a diagram would have been used by you at one point in your career.

Enough for now. One needs time to comprehend and criticise any errors of thought I may have. Interested what you think.

[SARAHHOUSE67 in reply to hosbay]

keep going back and telling your GP need to see the right Doctor. we have to fight

[Hidden]

You have a trapped nerve which is cutting off the supply of feeling to your leg. Please be very careful now, how you walk, sit, stand and don't be lifting anything wrongly or too heavy, in fact don't lift anything at all.

It isn't a nurse you need to see, but a GP, insist on being referred to a neurosurgeon who will give you an MRI.

[1234Mm]

I know what you’re experiencing and it’s coming from your back. Have you been diagnosed with slipped disks, if not you need to have your back scanned. Good luck!

[SARAHHOUSE67 in reply to 1234Mm]

no

[PFKAAde]

Hi SARAHHOUSE67

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

As others have mentioned the numbness in your legs is something that needs investigating.

After some relatively minor symptoms (drop-foot and some sciatica) I woke up one morning and couldn’t move my legs. This happened twice and each time I needed surgery to remove the pressure on my spinal cord. Problems with the nerves as they exit the spine, or problems with the spinal cord itself can lead to symptoms in your legs and feet.

Can you still move your toes normally? Can you lift your feet (like when you flex you ankle) normally? If no to either of those it also suggests nerve damage / pressure further up.

Also if you get any numbness or tingling in the ‘saddle’ area, or any issues with continence — you need to see a doctor ASAP as this can indicate Cauda Equina syndrome (and needs urgent treatment).

My own GP wasn’t very good at recognising the seriousness of my situation and the surgeon was furious that I had been allowed to leave the GP’s surgery on foot (well, crutches) as he said I should have been leaving in an ambulance and going to A&E.

It might not be that bad, but it is definitely something that you need to mention to your GP and don’t underplay it!

🙏🏻