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I am having episodes of severe numbness - thoughts?

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Posted 2/10/2015 4:55 PM (GMT 0)
As I posted before, I am having a difficult time with my pain. For some reason or another my pain has plummeted thru the roof. I have been a prisoner of my recliner for days now hoping this will improve.
The last couple of nights, I would awake and my buttocks and thigh are completely numb (they still hurt but are numb). As far as the pain, it's in my lower back and will radiate into my leg, but not all the time. This is not new to me except the level of pain is now dramatically increased. Yesterday I was thinking I may have blown out a disc.
I do get it with the sciatica type pain but this feels different for some reason.
Thank goodness I have my PM appt. tomorrow so I can bring this up and also my patch dilemma (doc wanted me to go from 48 hr to 60 hr on to 72 when he knows darn well I was fine at 48). Anyway, I think I did something to my back within the past 2 weeks because the pain has been horrendous.

Has anyone ever experienced really severe numbness in those regions? Anyone that has blown out a disc, will you tell me your experience?
Posted 2/10/2015 8:11 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Sis.

I wouldn't get hysterical about a disc until seeing the pain doc and letting him do a diagnosis. No way can we simple patients tell you what's going on.

That said, if I sat in my recliner all night my derriere would be numb too. It's hard to turn over in the recliner and I'd be stuck on my back, so I have to get up and go to bed sometime. Same with spending a night on the couch.

When I've had pain radiating from my back down a thigh or leg it's always been a spine problem causing sciatica. My treatments that have worked have been various types of spine injections. When those stop working I've gone on to nerve ablations, which are pretty similar as far as what I experience, just a bit different treatment.

If the problem is a disc, which most of my low back pain problems have been, the trick is to get the pain under control until they dry up and stop hurting. If the pain is absolutely horrible and you can't walk, it could be more serious, so see the doc ASAP, maybe go to the ER. You decide, consider calling the pain doc! But if surgery is not necessary, the injection has worked for me.

I have a lot of bad discs and a bunch of places where there is numbness down the dermatome. You really have to let the doc diagnose what's causing it. Sometimes just bad posture is causing it. I've got a numb thumb right now and I think it's from nerve problem in my neck, but imaging hasn't shown anything the neurosurgeon thinks needs surgery. I did find though that I'm hunching my shoulders and if I stop that it eases up some.
Posted 2/11/2015 1:07 AM (GMT 0)
Alcie - thanks so much for your input. I had to laugh at the derriere part though, I do understand that if I laid my butt in a recliner all day it would be numb but that is not what is happening. I was simply saying that instead of my usual activity I have had to either be in the recliner or in bed because walking and standing is so very painful. I am not new to pain, am not new to lower back problems of all kinds but rather was hoping for some input from others that have had issues with really severe numbness doing into the buttock are and down the leg(s). I can't remember when I had one of my discs blow, what I was feeling at the time. I know that all my discs are buldging from L3 down to S1. The one at L5 is really bad and has been for about 4 years. I was hoping for more people to tell me their experience with this sort of pain/numbness and what the source was. I understand that the dr. is the one to make the diagnosis, but I am going to be honest - I don't trust doctors, they have betrayed me, abandoned me and caused me a lot of unnecessary stress and anguish.
I can't have injections or ablations or any invasive procedure done to my spine because of the condition it is now in. I'm a sad case.......... cry
Posted 2/11/2015 6:35 AM (GMT 0)
Anyone with suddenly worsening SEVERE lumbar spine pain and new increased numbness in areas that were not numb before or spreading /worsening numbness, needs to be concerned about Cauda Equina Syndrome. It is a severe compression of the thecal sac in the lumbar spine . Are you also experiencing any changes in your ability to empty your bladder or bowels? Does the new numbness extend into your inner thighs or genital area as well?
If it continues or you experience loss of ability to either empty your bladder or bowels or can't control your bladder or bowels, as well as the increased severe pain and increased new numbness, you need to see your doctor as soon as possible.
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