Hello...I'm new to this forum. I'm searching for any info to help me manage this baffling condition that started 8 years ago. It started with my sudden inability to push off onto the ball of my right foot. It became crippling to the point where I could barely walk. I went to a foot and ankle orthopedic doc who put me in a boot thinking I had peroneal tendinitis. When that didn't help, he recommended a neurologist. I had all the nerve conduction tests which revealed that it may be a pinched spinal nerve, radiating into my leg. From there I consulted two different neurosurgeons who could not recommend any surgery because there was no clear site of spinal nerve compression on the MRI. From there I was off to pain management where I had numerous steroid epidurals, which did nothing.
So I take gabapentin 300 MG 3 X day and mertazipine 30 MG. I'm able to walk short distances, but my feet hurt like I'm walking on rocks. So I swim for 2 hours every day which I've found gives the greatest reprieve. Swimming for me is my therapy. I have trouble sitting...my right foot burns and feels like a tourniquet is tightening on my leg. So I have to recline off and on all day. As the day progresses the symptoms worsen.
My life is so radically changed dealing with this idiopathic neuropathy. In the beginning, I felt suicidal because I went overnight from being a hiker, dancer, active 63 year old to a painfully crippled person.
Thank you for listening, and I hope we all can help each other cope or find therapies that make life more enjoyable.