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Neuropathy with back pain exercise
Neuropathy | Last Active: Jun 23 5:02pm | Replies (62)Comment receiving replies
@brennankb55 your understanding of sciatica is incorrect so it’s hard to tackle the rest of what is woven here. The sciatic nerve starts in the lower back in the buttock area and the pain may or may not travel down your leg to your foot. It’s a lot more complicated. A visit back to the doctor to ask a more questions would be helpful. If pain is showing up in your leg or foot and it’s beginning in your spine from disc compression, it is called radiculopathy (referred pain) and not neuropathy (local pain). Neuropathy is when the pain is local and its cause is local. So sciatic pain in your foot or lower leg is radiculopathy not neuropathy. Neuropathy can be caused by nutritional insufficiencies and may be able to be treated by supplementation, exercise, and topical treatments. Radiculopathy on the other hand is caused by nerve impingement at your spine, sacroiliac, hip or knee nerve impingement. My sciatic pain is due to nerves which run through my piriformis and buttocks muscles that are in trapped, and when I sit too much my buttocks, muscle muscles squeeze the trapped nerves that run through there and caused pain in my SI joint area. You can go for painful nerve tests and they will tell you where your pain is originating; you can have MRIs done and they will tell you if you have compression in your spine which may cause referred pain to your legs and feet; it all can be related or it all can be different or a mix of both. My suggestion is to continue getting tested and acquiring more specific information. One way you can tell the difference is by rubbing the area in question and seeing if it makes a difference. If you scratch and itch and it doesn’t stop itching then it’s not a local issue. Neuropathies can be numbed easily by top topical ointment, radiculopathies are much harder to relieve by local treatments.
We do get cheated out of good doctrine these days that is for sure!
Replies to "@brennankb55 your understanding of sciatica is incorrect so it’s hard to tackle the rest of what..."
@loriesco ~ I greatly appreciate you sharing your wealth of knowledge, but I didn't share my complete diagnosis or my knowledge of what constitutes neuropathy vs. radiculopathy. I've had IPN in both feet for about 15 years, getting progressively worse. The more recent CE compression where the nerves exit the spinal canal is causing additional pain/numbness in my left ft, not to mention the incredible pain in my hips and legs. So right now, it's a mix of both. The MRI from 2021 showed nerve compression in my spine, but I had no back pain, so they wouldn't pursue it. I didn't mean to infer that the sciatic nerve is causing the IPN. It's being compressed from sitting, because I can't stand or walk without leaning heavily on my walker. I have all kinds of topicals I've used to calm the nerves in my feet over the years. They are doing very little right now. I'm waiting to get in to see the neurosurgeon and see what additional tests he might order. I also have an appointment in June to see a new neurologist. The prior one just wanted to put me on Gabapentin, hence my comment in my post.
All of this recent problem started when I went to my ortho for pain in my hip - bursisis - which I've had from time to time in both hips. I got a cortisone shot and it helped for a bit. But I complained at my follow-up that my sciatic pain on the left was excruciating. The ortho is the one who referred me to a spine doctor because she believed all of it, including the neuropathy, was originating in my spine. The recent MRI pretty much confirms that! So this Thursday is the first try at an epidural to relieve the pain and inflammation. It's not a fix - it's just temporary. So again, you don't always have all of the information from a post to jump to some of the conclusions you also made. But I do appreciate you weighin in.
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@loriesco I don't mean to be rude here, but I believe that this site is for sharing experiences, not diagnosing or explaining physiology. By sharing experiences, we can learn from one another and then take that to our doctors for further discussion and research. My kind suggestion would be to share an experience that you've had and allow the person to educate themselves. For instance, I learned that a neurosurgeon did back surgeries from a comment that you and another mentioned, and that my doctors never advised me of! From that little tidbit, I hope to speak to one in the coming weeks to see if I might be a candidate for a minimally invasive laminectomy procedure. I am so grateful for that shared experience!
I hope you have a great day!