Achey Leg Pain. May not be SI Joint

[spine journey]

Hello Community, I posted this in on another thread and thought it may be better suited here.

I'm so happy to have found you! I would like to know if anyone can relate to my Leg pain pattern. I'm in TX, I've been recommended for L5/S1 L-ADR. Been researching for the past 3mons and ready to make the decision to move forward, but concerned I may have another issue beside Degenrative Disc Disease at L5/S1. Back in June 2011 I developed severe leg pain. I don't believe this is the typical leg pain, but I'm told it's just discgoenic pain. I have pain in both legs that travel from my waist to just above my knees. The location of my leg pain is the front and side of my legs. It is NOT the back of my legs, or the typical sciatic pain that hoovers over the buttock and travels down the back side of the legs. I can sit for hours, but standing and walking causes increased leg pain. This pain quickly elevates with walking and standing for more than 30+ mins. This pain is a deep, deep achey pain. I do get increased sharpe LBP with this leg pain, but lately my leg pain has been worse than my LBP. The Dr.'s say this is refered pain from the diseased L5/S1 disc. None of my Dr's feel that I have a SI Joint problem. Thay all feel it's discogenic. Lately, my leg pain has been worse then my LBP. When the leg pain elevates, I get a bone-on-bone feeling in my hips. My leg muscles feel extremely achey.I have to sit during an episode of this pain b/c it becomes difficult to walk.

Can anyone relate to this type of leg pain?

Thank you,
Spine Journey

[trkdoc714]

Welcome to SPS. I wish I could answer you with a definitive but all I can do is relate your pain to my own experiences. I had the odd areas of pain before my surgery as well. Looking back, I attribute it to an unusual gait that I developed due to the disc issue. I still have knee and "hip area" pain but it's nothing like it was since I started walking upright again.

I hope your surgery provides relief of all of your pain.

Good luck,

Bob

[laid up doc]

my gait was so screwed up that i had cervical pain that magically vanished after my lumbar surgery (had an MRI - rather unremarkable and didn't correlate w/ symptoms).

also had achilles tendonitis in both heels at various times - treated as bone spurs w/o any improvement. only thing that helped was treating my one bad disc!

doing so well after surgery - were it not for this incision issue, i'd probably be doing backflips! (metaphorically speaking, of course!)

but, my neck/foot pain is GONE. radicular aching - gone. still working out some spasms, but they have improved markedly now that i'm week 4 post-op.

really hard to say for any individual - but i've found and read that disc pain can cause just about any remote effect...

[spine journey]

Hello Bob & LUD. Thank you for your replies. Yes, I'm learning that a degenerative disc can cause all sorts of other issues. Lately, my leg pain has been worse than my LBP to the point of it getting difficult to walk. So I started thinking what the heck is going on??? It's so frustrating and confusing. I'm started to think that my degenerative disc is correcting itself, BUT my legs are killing me. During one of my initial visits with my Dr I described ithis pain and he called it pseudoradicular pain---this type of pain seems theoretical. I've already postponed my surgery once b/c I became apprehensive about the device in the US, but I really need to do something because I'm not living. My LBP is intermittent and it dose not handicap me everyday, but I have my days just about weekly that I can't move for 2-3 days then all of a sudden I'll start to feel ok so I'll think I don't need surgery. But, my leg are killing me! Often the leg pain is unbearable. I think I just need to move forward with surgery and start my healing process. Unfortunately, I also have cervical spine issues as well-- So the top of my spine and the bottom of my spine hurt! I think I agree with you, my deep ACHY leg pain is gait. Becaue my leg pain is in the front of my legs I've struggled with believing it's b/c of my back disc. Everyone shares about the back of the leg pain but no one shares about this type of leg pain so I was just confused. Thank you for pipping in!

[trkdoc714]

There's also a possibilty that your cervical issue may be a cause of leg pain, but I'm not sure of the area it could affect. I'm at the beginning of a cervical journey myself and am experiencing middle and lower back pain but no leg pain.

I hope you find your answers that will lead to ridding yourself of all of the pain.

Bob

[Pbchoclovr]

Hello and welcome to the site.

The leg pain and location you described was very similar to my experience. I had pain that stopped at my knees and a disc that was flatter than a pancake. Prior to surgery, I had days when I could barely walk and other days almost no symptoms at all. Throughout my journey, often my lower back pain was less than my leg pain. Once I had surgery, my leg pain disappeared. Now my pain is all related to the healing process. In fact, the day of surgery I was in a period of no pain. My surgeon wanted to know if I wanted to postpone. I told him absolutely not. It turned out I made the best decision possible because the surgeon later told me I was practically bone on bone. I do not regret having surgery at all. If I hadn't things would have continued endlessly.


Linda

[Pbchoclovr]

One other thing, I don't remember specifically what I googled when I was doing my search, but there are diagrams on the internet that show exactly the path and areas various parts of your spine effect. The title of the diagram is a dermatome map. The following link might be helpful to you:

Dermatome Map of the Body

It's a link to a chart which shows specifically the levels of the spine and what areas in general on the body that particular level effects.

Hope it's helpful.

Linda

[spine journey]

Thank you Linda. Yes, I've researched the Dermotones chart before and my pain issue is associated with above levels e.g L4 L3 and not L5/S1 so im confused. Surgeons are saying its because of the Diseased disc. It sounds like you had a similar leg pain. It's often worse than my LBP and handicapping to the degree of walking or standing is very painful. What ADR device did you get? ProDisc? I'm trying to connect with other positive Prodisc patients because there is a lot of negative outcomes posted and I have to have surgery in Dec. I'm scheduled for Dec 13th. I'm searching for them within this site.Thank you!Sheila

One other thing, I don't remember specifically what I googled when I was doing my search, but there are diagrams on the internet that show exactly the path and areas various parts of your spine effect. The title of the diagram is a dermatome map. The following link might be helpful to you:Dermatome Map of the BodyIt's a link to a chart which shows specifically the levels of the spine and what areas in general on the body that particular level effects. Hope it's helpful.Linda

[Pbchoclovr]

Sheila,

All my leg pain was pre-surgery and often cause me to limp severely and traveled down my leg to about the knee level. Often times, I would need to hold onto objects to stand or to get from A to B. Movement alone was excruciating, depending on where the disc was residing at a particular time. Most of the times it was my right leg being effected, but once in a while it would bother the left leg. What I know from my reading and looking at the charts, is that there is some overlap in areas effected. The charts only give a general area each spine level impacts.

I wasn't a candidate for an artificial disc due to arthritis in my spine. I had a one level fusion which cleared up my pre-surgery pain. All my pain now is related to the healing process since I'm only about 4.75 months post surgery. My surgery was a total success as far as I'm concerned. I'm now starting to have some normal days which I hadn't had in over a year.

Best wishes as you research and prepare for surgery.

Linda

[spine journey]

Hello Linda, I hope you are healing well! Thanks for the insight-- It sounds like you know exactly the pain I'm referring to.

I'd like to share that I'm moving forward with ADR. It's scheduled for 12/13 in TX!

Looking forward to healing!