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Is there any help at all for foot numbness in PN
Neuropathy | Last Active: 21 hours ago | Replies (124)Comment receiving replies
@wascaly
I think you are into something about the origin of your foot numbness. I have cervical/lumbar stenosis, degenerative disc disease and neurogenic claudication plus cervical myelopathy which caused spinal cord injury at C5-C6 and symptoms below this level down to my feet.
I had cervical ACDF surgery in 2022 and lumbar surgery in August 2024. My numbness in my feet and pain/weakness has improved but now struggling with hip pain. I question if nerves supplying my hips/hip flexors that help lift my right leg were possibly injured.
Have you had MRIs recently for your cervical and lumbar spine to see if there is new nerve/nerve root/spinal cord compression? Have you had EMG/nerve conduction studies and/or myeloma to test the health of your nerves supplying movement/sensation to feet? You may need 2nd and 3rd new opinions. Some doctors don’t like to take patients with previous surgeries because they don’t want to be liable if anything was not done correctly or if there was permanent damage done.
I was also afraid to fall when my feet/low back/hips and buttocks would go numb while walking my dog. My lumbar surgery helped relieve some of my weakness and numbness from neurogenic claudication severe compression of L4-L5 (my surgery decompressed and fused L3-L5).
Replies to "@wascaly I think you are into something about the origin of your foot numbness. I have..."
Thanks for your suggestions. I don’t remember exactly what tests I’ve had, but I do believe I’ve had a nerve conduction test some years back.
Now I’m in a senior living facility and in the process of (once again) finding new doctors, including a neurologist. What a pain this has been!
I realize I need a lot of help with my balance (or lack thereof), but I know I couldn’t do any of the exercises since it requires BALANCE, something I don’t have!
Anyway, I appreciate your suggestions. I certainly have my work cut out for me.
When I had cervical and lumbar L1-L5 3 years ago they employed a nerve monitoring service which I assume was meant to guard against nerve damage during the surgery. FWIW Medicare must not think much of the service as they received about 5% of the billed amount between Medicare and my supplement provider.
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@wascaly
* Correction, myelogram, not myeloma. Just love autocorrect😉 Myelogram is a test where they inject dye to check spinal cord and nerve/nerve root health and to see if there is any injury/communication problem. Your numbness I. Your feet seems like compression or injury of a nerve supplying your feet sensation and communication back to brain about the numbness you are feeling. You may also want to check to see if you have any vascular claudication causing an issue with small fiber nerve health in your feet. A neurologist can do a skin punch biopsy (they take a small sample of tissue at upper thigh and calf or ankle) to check if small nerve fibers have been damaged that are causing your numbness.