My pain is in my lower right rear leg, above ankle, below calf. This seems so abnormal, for my diagnosis, a bulging disc & drying up disc. If I lift, twist, or kick the bag in cardio, I have the most excruciating pain in my leg I've ever felt. Dr. Says I just have to live with it, because surgery isn't an option at this point. I am trying pt first, which I slowed down on and my symptoms come right back!! My point is, my pain doesn't radiate and I thought maybe its something else causing this pain. There's no muscle pull because I can hop up & down on it, and I have had a scan for blood clot. Negative. So I have been treating it as a compressed nerve, caused by the discs. Hopefully I'm doing the right thing!! Thanks for any thoughts, opinions.
Hi Im sorry to hear you are experiencing this pain, it is terrible and hard to manage. I have experienced this with a compressed sciatic nerve, Ive had pain in the ankle, calf, thigh and buttocks but not necessarily all at once and not in any order. It continued until it got progressively worse and extended through the whole leg, I lost the reflexes in that leg too which is when the decision was made to do the microdiscectomy. I was functionally disabled because I couldnt dress myself and found driving difficult. I had the surgery last week and have had a patchy recovery, interestingly on the other foot 3 toes that have been numb for around 3 years became painful for a day, my GP is not sure why this has happened as its on the opposite side from the disc bulge. I much prefer numb to painful. When you are younger, Im 49, they dont want to seem to operate until you are really bad which leaves many of us in pain and discomfort for years. Hope this helps you.
Thank you! I'm in your age group, 47, and I was told I should just go to PT and they never even referred me to a neurologist. The pain is just so bad, I'm sure because its a nerve. And my diagnosis was only mild to moderate, & minimal in some places, so they don't think it's a big deal. Thanks again for your comments :-)
There are only four "categories" when it comes to the ranking system that is used in MRI lingo: minimal, mild, moderate and severe. When an issue is moderate, it is approaching or entering the zone where it is taken more seriously!
You might want to make an appointment with a spine specialist. This would be a fellowship-trained orthopedic spine surgeon or a neurosurgeon whose practice is limited to the neck and back. Sometimes people think these specialties are only interested in doing surgery, but they have the most extensive training in the back and neck of any medical profession, and is the most reliable place to get an accurate diagnosis.
You can waste a lot of time letting a family doctor or PCP handle a spinal issue -- they have just enough general knowledge to think they know what is going on...but can often miss the subtleties. I learned this lesson the hard way.
The Following User Says Thank You to teteri66 For This Useful Post: Mommy47 (12-14-2012)
Re: Are these symptoms normal? 
