Limb pain? Could be spine.

A growth on your spinal nerve branches can cause extreme pain wherever the branch connects to.

Started having severe ankle pain about 15 years ago. After many injections and tests, found a doctor that said it was bone spurs and had surgery. Pain worsened. Doctor said it was fixed and removed my pain meds. I struggled with daily life for another 10 years. 15 years ago, my lower spine was already showing signs of deterioration but that pain was nothing compared to my ankle.

Eventually, my L4/L5 disk collapsed and I sought treatment. After the first MRI, my surgeon asked about the ankle pain documented in my chart. He said that there was bone growing into the nerve branche that extends to the ankle and offered remove it when fusing my vertebrae.

After the surgery, the ankle pain was less but not gone. The surgeon explained it could take a year or more to heal from the bone growth damage. 2 years later, I rarely have ankle pain.

Sharing this in case anyone out there has limb pain that limb doctors can't explain and haven't confirmed that thier spine isn't the problem.