Limb pain? Could be spine.

Posted by nijxoj4 @nijxoj4, Nov 30 2:08pm

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.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Chronic Pain Support Group.

dlydailyhope | @dlydailyhope | Dec 1 6:48am

@nijxoj4
Totally agree that spine can cause pain in legs/ankles/feet. I have this now (severe stenosis at L2-L3 and many pain syndromes in buttocks/hips/hip flexors and left ankle and right middle toes).

I am sorry you suffered so long and no doctor could properly diagnose and treat you sooner. I was not properly diagnosed for 5 years with cervical myelopathy (spinal cord compression/flattening injury). I now have permanent residual damage where my shoulders/arms/hands are much weaker. I had to fire a primary doctor who treated me like I was a hypochondriac (she even put that in my medical records) while I was suffering from a damaged spinal cord causing many symptoms at and below my neck!

valleygirl1955 | @valleygirl1955 | Dec 1 12:03pm

I have a bad back and am facing spinal fusion soon encompassing L4, L5, and S1. I also have a bad ankle which I shattered years ago and it's weak to begin with. Lately during recovery from hip replacement surgery I began having intense burning and itching sensations on the outside of the ankle. PT thought tendinitis from added stress put on it from the hip recovery. Now, we are all fairly sure that most of my ankle problems stem from my lower back; which is worse following the hip sugery. I've had ongoing PT for months on the hip and about 3 weeks on the ankle itself. Nothing seems to help; but when I over exert my back I sure do feel it in my ankle. This is a new thing for me as my back has never affected my ankle in this way before and I've had a bad back for years; albeit, not near as bad as it is now. Thank you for your post which has given credence to what I was suspecting.