Falling: Is it my back or my peripheral neuropathy?

Have you noticed any muscle atrophy on your right calf or thigh? I also have severe spinal stenosis on my L4-L5. Last year I started having painful sciatica down my right glute and leg. I now notice my right thigh and calf muscle is shrinking slowly even though I am still working out. I also have neuropathy in my feet that only started a couple of years ago exactly the same time I really started feeling the lower back shooting pains going down both legs when playing baseball or doing split squats at the gym. I also started having cramps and twitching more often. All things that many medical websites verify can be a result of compressed nerves. However, every doctor I speak to never gives my reason any consideration. They keep telling me I have idiopathic peripheral neuropathy or polyneuropathy.
I have spoken to 3 people now who have told me that they immediately felt their numbness, weakness, and pain subside after cervical or lumbar surgery. I know we see a lot of horror stories on this website of back surgery causing nerve damage, but I try to remind people, why would you come to a medical message board if your surgery was a success? Most wouldn’t. They would go about their healthy lives happily. Most people that come here are looking for answers because something is wrong. Just keep that in mind.
I’m not a doctor, and you having neuropathy well before your back pain started might be an indicator of a different cause, but who knows. Maybe you had compressed nerves for a long time and iur just more tolerant to pain or covered it up like I do before baseball games with a few ibuprofens. Good luck in finding answers.

I fell in a restaurant in 2011. Slipped on grapes.and h2o that was on the floor (obviously) at a restaurant called ruby tuesdays. Don't eat there. (Go f sue me...lol)
Anyway for the past few yrs my Drs say stenosis spondolothesis and ? L4/5 and hip osteoporosis.
My toes feel numb AT times. What's that neuropathy or peripheral neuropathy? Sometimes it feels like my legs aren't my old legs and walking is harder. 4 yrs ago a hospital Neuro s dept put me out and gave me shots in my sacrial joints and the next day I couldn't walk. Had to crawl around apt. I don't have sciatica. Thks

Things got worse ever since.

Be sure to get your R hip checked out before you move forward with the fusion. I was fused L2 to L-5 for serious arthritis. Now, a few years later, I have serious pain L5-S1 and in the R S-I joint. This was shown on a SPECT scan. With a fusion of L5-S1 out of the question, I was offered a spinal stimulator implant. A few days before it was to be temporarily implanted as a test, I came down with a urinary tract infection. Temporary placement of the stimulator had to be cancelled. That was last April. Since then my R leg has been collapsing. All of a sudden with a sharp jab of pain, I go down. X-rays showed lots of arthritis in my R-hip. MRI showed a badly worn and damaged R hip joint. A steroid innection a week or so later, and the lower back and S-I joint pain went away. It went totally away. Gone. Hmmm. The absence of pain lasted between a week and 10 days, indicating it was from the lidocaine rather than the steroid. I wonder what will happen to the lower back pain when the R hip is replaced, which (because of a shortage of orthopedic surgeons here as well as in many places) will be later this fall or winter? I'm hoping that I get results similar to those from the lidocaine which accompanied the steroid injection.

Thanks for get in.touch. this was for a spinal fusion?

Interesting. I had my hips checked out after I fell for the first or second time. I had hoped that was causing the problem since hips are relatively easy to replace. But no. My hips were fine.

Please let me know if the spinal stimulator helps.

PS. Steroid injections in my lumbar area did no good whatsoever.

Dreams999

Yes L3-S1 spinal fusion.

PS. I saw Poker Face and loved Natasha Lyonne!! She’s a doll and probably crazy as well. I’ll look for Russian Doll.