Chronic bilateral femur, shin and sole of foot pain

Posted by skipper @skipper, Nov 16, 2011

I am a 58 years old male, sedentary lifestyel, weight of 200 lbs. 3 months ago, I began having the aforementioned pain which typically rates about 7 on a 1 to 10 scale of severity. It is often as bad at night as in the daytime.

Standard X rays have revealed nothing remarkable.

Blood flow to lower extremities is normal.

I am awaiting an MRI and hardly know what to expect. Perhaps something spinal, such as a stenosis?

In the meantime, pain management is an issue. Voltaren (10 days course) was not effective. I typically take four Tylenol 31's with 8mg. of Codeine, at a time, just to take the edge off the pain. Lately, the doctor has tried Dilaudid 2mg. One tablet every 6 hours as needed. It tends to take 4mg. to deal with the pain and I would rather not proceed any further down the road with narcotic analgesics.

Your thoughts please?

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aglassofsherry | @aglassofsherry | Mar 11, 2012

Have you seen a rheumatologist? I did, and he said he thinks I have Myofascial Pain syndrome. I just finished a 6 week physical therapy regiment of Myofascial release, exercise, and strengthening; I take an antidepressant, Ibuprofen 600mg 2 times a day, and ambien for sleep. None of this helps entirely, but I think it has helped some. My pain started in my hands and then my feet, and now it is all over my body. Since you posted this, do you have more places of pain?

seelindsay | @seelindsay | May 10, 2012

I may have some kind of spinal stenosis. Just got back MRI results which appear to show 'some compromise of the neural foramina at L4-L5'. I think this is another way of describing spinal stenosis. The physician's good news is that he said there was no indication for going into surgery of any kind at this point.

I am being served by a physical therapist who is using some mild electrical impulses applied to my L4/L5 location for about 15 to 20 minutes. Pain management has been better as a result. I have been offered hydrocodone-acetominphin for pain control (a narcotic ) and I would prefer not to use it. I didn't need it last night for the first time in three nights. I had had my first electrical impulse treatment earlier in the day.

It's a wierd conundrum. Sometimes a cane helps me with pain, sometimes no cane is better. I can't figure it out.

Hope this might be of help. I will track this conversation.