back pain

[Toddyboy12]

I posted on here a while back about my back pain. I ended up at the walk in centre today as I was in severe pain this morning couldn’t get out of bed and almost passed out because of the pain. I have had a cough for the last few days and this has definitely exacerbated the problem. Again was given more pain killers and told to keep moving and exercise but until I can get on top of the pain there’s no way I can start any exercise. This afternoon my left leg started to feel numb and like the feeling that you have slept on your arm and it goes ‘dead’ and now the pain in my leg is worse than my back 🫤. I believe this to be sciatica. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Haz58]

Ask for an x-ray if you've not had one. I was in dreadful pain with my back & leg right down to my foot. I've had sciatica on and off so know what that feels like. Doctors kept saying it was muscular for 3 weeks, gave me morphine and all sorts which didn't help much. He got a physio to call me and they sent me exercises. Finally got an x-ray done and I had a T9 vertebrae compression fracture. No idea how I did it. Was then told by GP not to do exercises and he very careful. I'm not saying it's the same but just in case! Good luck.

[cyberbarn]

I am sorry to hear that you have had no joy from the walk-in centre. Did your leg start to go numb after you visited the centre? They say that if you have new symptoms you should see a dr again, so it will be worth either going in again or talking to your GP.

And remember sciatica is a symptom, it doesn't say anything about the cause. As Haz says, worth asking for at the very least an x-ray but remember that doesn't show soft tissue damage and that can be very painful too.

[Toddyboy12 in reply to cyberbarn]

hi yes leg pain started a couple hours after getting home from the walk in centre. Hoping to speak to the gp today.

So frustrating as the pain in my back seems to have got better but my leg is now the problem

[cyberbarn in reply to Toddyboy12]

Pain is weird like that. Pain happens in the brain not in the body, so if something irritates a nerve, that signal is sent up to the brain where it gets processed and eventually tells the front part of the brain, the conscious part, that you have pain in X area. But sometimes that isn't correct.

With back and pelvic pain there is something called referred pain. This is where the source of the pain is in one place but the brain perceives it to be somewhere else. So it may well still be your back that is the problem, just that the signals that the nerves are sending to the brain make the brain think that the source of pain is in your leg.

There are other kinds of pain too. I think Tom Jesson explains sciatica and the associated causes of pain very well. shop.tomjesson.com/blogs/bl...

I hope you can get to the bottom of what type of pain you are having and why, and hopefully that will help inform the how to deal with it bit.

[Toddyboy12 in reply to cyberbarn]

Thank you for your reply.

Havnt managed to speak to anyone today, but although the pain has subsided my leg still feel numb. I can walk on it ok but it’s a weird sensation.

[rabbits65 in reply to cyberbarn]

I looked at that tomjesson.com very helpful read. Thanks.