Re: L5/S1 - Leg muscle atrophy?
You hit the nail on the head when you said you had no idea if you were doing further damage. No one, including the neurologist, can tell you the answer. We are all different...and nerves react in an entirely unpredictable way.
I don't really see how you would hurt anything by doing exercises to strengthen the affected leg muscles, if you are able to do so. And you might look into acupuncture to see if it might help. I had lower lumbar issues to, but had numbness rather than muscle atrophy...so I can't say from personal experience whether acupuncture might help your situation.
When there is muscle atrophy it means that the message the brain is sending to move the muscle is not getting through, or is garbled. The recruitment of the right muscle is not happening, and other muscles take over or pick up the slack...Once the nerve is decompressed, it may be possible to build up the affected muscle...but there are no guarantees.
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