MRI results and Pain symptoms not matching. Dr says nothing he can do.

Sbraden, please also get evaluated by a neurologist ( a dr who diagnoses medical neurological problems that aren’t treated surgically), as you could have both the spine issues and a peripheral neuropathy, which needs sorted out. An EMG test can help with that. Mayo will likely get neurologist involved as part of your workup. PN is very common and causes numbness, tingling, foot drop, aching leg pain, weakness in muscles, gait disturbances. There’s a lot of overlap between PN and the symptoms from bulging discs and compression of spinal nerve roots. They are treated differently once the situation is clarified. Good luck! You have been dismissed and a second opinion away from any connection to your current Dr is a must!

Hey Sbraden Did U have the drop foot, numb toes. Prior to Your decompression and Fusion? Also Feel like your going crazy. Is about how Ya describe it am there doing that. Do U take anything for the pain.

@sbraden1234 I think your pain does follow and match up where you have spine issues. This is a dermatome map. It shows you where nerves end up that leave the spinal cord at each level. If you circle or shade in where your pain is, it should match the imaging descriptions for where your issues are. These spinal nerves exit at the nerve roots which are a predictable result. The way you describe your symptoms, it does follow the dermatome map.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535401/figure/article-29335.image.f1/
When you have a disc bulge into the central spinal canal, it can compress the spinal cord, and can affect any nerves below that level. This is very hard to predict exactly where pain will be felt because the spinal cord floats and moves in the spinal fluid, and it all depends on how you move or bend, and pain can change locations. If by chance, you have any bad discs compressing the spinal cord in either cervical or thoracic levels, that will confuse the diagnosis because those can generate pain that is hard to predict. This will not correlate to the dermatome map.

When your neck hurts, this may be confusing your surgeon because that wouldn't be involved in any lumbar pathology. If you do have some neck disc issues in addition to lumbar, it will confuse things, and the spinal cord in the neck can generate pain in the legs. These are the same nerve axons (cells) as they travel to lower body parts that pass through the neck.

I had this situation call funicular pain, and because surgeons could not correctly map my pain, I was refused 5 times. I came to Mayo to a surgeon who understood this. I have a bulging lumbar disk, but it is asymptomatic. I had a cervical fusion which solved all the pain that I had all over my body and legs.

It's also possible that you surgeon doesn't want to consider a possible bad result on his record of his surgery, and it is easier to send you away than confront a possible failure. I think a second opinion is a good idea, and do that at another facility not connected with your current surgeon because doctors don't want to challenge the opinion of a friend and colleague.

Do yo have another surgeon in mind at a respected institution?

Jennifer, how can I find a Mayo Dr to help me. I have extreme right side butt pain into hips with numbing in foot last 3 toes so either S1 or L5. No local doctors have been able to help. MRI doesnt show really much. I do have fusion L5 S1 2023.