Connect
← Return to Calf weakness/atrophy -L5/S1 radiculpathy due with no pain
Discussion
Calf weakness/atrophy -L5/S1 radiculpathy due with no pain
Neuropathy | Last Active: Apr 23 3:54pm | Replies (11)Comment receiving replies
@somewhereinco Welcome to Connect. I love your member name as I imagine a beautiful place in Colorado, a favorite place of mine!
I have had very similar symptoms also in my right foot and calf that came from a bad ankle fracture 4 years ago. I am still working to regain muscle mass lost, and I can see a place with a bit of a recess on the outside of my calf as compared to my uninjured leg. I am progressing. Single foot heel raises are hard, and I just work toward that in baby steps until it fatigues. I've also recently figured out that fascial tightness in my calf and leg has contributed to resistance to the muscle working properly. I have done lot of work with a physical therapist who does myofascial release, so I have been able to improve my leg function with some of that that I've been doing on my own. I don't know if there was nerve damage, but at the time of the fracture, I felt a nerve firing that was being stretched because the ankle was also a bit dislocated, so I straitened my ankle enough to stop that pulsing, but not to absolute straight foot forward. I did have some numbness in the 4th and 5th toes while in the cast, and I'm sure that was exacerbated by inflammation in the injured joint.
It sounds like you may have had a spine condition acting on the same nerve that I damaged with the fracture. Was there something on your imaging report showing nerve compression from the L5/S1 level? I am a spine patient too and had cervical stenosis and surgery to fuse C5/C6. Have you considered rehab doctor? They are an MD version of a physical therapist and may have a hands on approach to rehab.
This is the Myofascial Release therapy that I mentioned. We have a discussion with lots of links to information about it. MFR has helped me a lot. I don't know if it can help you, but it does address physical issues of tight tissues and those can cause nerve compression.
Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
Jennifer
Replies to "@somewhereinco Welcome to Connect. I love your member name as I imagine a beautiful place in..."
Connect
Thank you! Yes, we're really enjoying living in Colorado.
Yes, I had a lumbar sacral MRI and a sacral plexus MRI, both showing moderate degenerative disc disease at L5-S1 with focal posterior annual tear, resulting in mild canal stenosis and approximation of the traversing bilateral S1 nerve roots.
Now, I get that it appears to be only mild canal stenosis, but the nerve is getting contacted by the disc bulge, and I didn't think you'd ever want that to happen, regardless of how mild or severe the contact is. What I'm also intrigued by is the fact that I don't have atrophy anywhere else on my right leg. It is just my calf. I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on television, but logic would dictate that if atrophy is only occurring in the calf area, there is probably an issue with one of the nerves or several nerves between my toes and my knee on my right leg. Yet no one has suggested using an ultrasound in that area to look at the nerves and look for any entrapments or impingements of any of the nerves. From my reading, I am suspecting it is going to reveal something with the tibial nerve. Another interesting item to note is that the MRIs show that the annular fissure and disc bulge is pressing on the left S1 nerve root, but my symptoms are occurring on my right side.
One more test they could try is taking a sample tissue of my calf muscle to see how it looks. Is it healthy? Is it not? Can it be healed/repaired?
I've actually never heard of a rehab doctor or MFR therapy. I am currently in PT, and my current guy is a DPT, trying to strengthen and rebuild mass, and I haven't noticed any real improvements with it yet. I've only been going to just over a month, so perhaps I need to give it more time. I don't know. Really what I'm looking for is an answer as to whether or not the time and effort to do all of this is going to result in fixing anything. I've read about permanent nerve damage and fatty atrophy that are permanent and scary because no amount of work or effort to repair/reverse them is going to work. I need someone to find out what the status of my calf muscle and nerves are.
I'll think about looking into MFR, but that may have to wait until I can get the answers to my questions above. I don't have an endless amount of money to keep throwing at treatments that "may" help resolve the problem. This is the 21st century, and I'm certainly not the only person this has happened to, so I can't understand why this appears to be so difficult to solve.