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Chronic Pain
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Posted 6/25/2015 2:19 AM (GMT 0)
My 24 year old daughter has chronic hip pain. The pain runs down her leg to foot at times and foot turns numb. Pain is achey and sharp. She also experiences pain in the lumbar region and groin. She has had this pain for 7 years. Has had pt in past and chiropracter. Went to ortho and he did mri and said there was torn cartilage and recomended arthroscopy . We got 2nd opinion and no issues seen with mri. The 2nd ortho did not know where to send us from there. He felt it was maybe nerve pain. Where do we go . Rheumatologist? Physiatrist? 3rd opinion with ortho. The ortho up here seems to mis diagnosed people so its one against the other. My daughter when younger had x rays of back and they showed that her disks were not fully formed. I think this kid needs to have a better quality of life . I am trying to help her but am in another state and flew her up here for the 2nd opinion. I thank any of you for help,
Posted 6/25/2015 3:57 AM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the forum and sorry about your daughters issues. First let me say that rarely will two Dr's see the same thing in a MRI. What does the radiology report actually say? That's his forte and that's what I personally go with. If you don't have a copy of his report get it and go from there. Arthroscopy is used to repair torn cartilage and it's not as big a issue as open incision and usually done outpatient with great success, if that's the actual problem. I can tell you that any numbness and tingling sensation in legs and feet is going to involve the nerves somewhere and if it is that extensive likely the sciatic nerve involved. In saying that even without your statement about childhood issues with spinal problems I would be getting in to a Board certified Neurologist or better yet neurosurgeon for a new MRI scan but of her spine especially the lumbar spine as this is where most sciatica originates.

Probably more than half of us with lumbar spine issues have hip pain and the numbness and tingling sensation your talking about down one or both legs. If it were my daughter this is the way I would go before letting ortho do anything, not saying they're bad or wrong, just saying that may not be causing any of her symptoms and I certainly would want to be sure. There's many non-invasive things we do depending on what's actually going on but she needs to know because some things like Chiro care can cause more issues or those already present to get worse.

Good luck and please keep coming back with updates and especially so if surgery is recommend as knowing what's to come and how to best deal with spinal surgery and procedures is best from those who have been there.
Posted 6/25/2015 11:05 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you Vickie,

Still trying to absorb everything. We thought my daughter would have some answers yesterday and now she is back to square one. A neurologist sounds good as I don't think the back has been looked at in years. I feel as if someone is missing something obvious .
Posted 6/25/2015 12:45 PM (GMT 0)
Neuro sounds like the best bet. I have issues with another nerve and my pain stops above the knee. Very similar to sciatica but not the sciatic nerve. Epidural injections have helped me. I see a pain management doctor for it. I hope you find a solution soon!
Posted 6/25/2015 2:05 PM (GMT 0)
Cleavland Clinic has a program where you can send them your scans and they review them & give their opinion on diagnosis/treatment. I don't know if it's covered by insurance or not. My mom utilized that service once for a heart condition & found them to be very helpful.

I also agree with Vickie -- sometimes chiropractic treatments can cause more problems than they solve. That's not to say one should avoid them completely, but just need to be careful depending on the cause of the pain.

She may also want to see a pain specialist. A board-certified pain management specialist would be able to improve her quality of life by reducing the pain to a manageable level. She would still be in some pain most days, but it likely wouldn't interfere with her ability to work, socialize & care for herself most of the time.

Good luck! Hope she finds some relief soon. :)
Posted 6/25/2015 2:23 PM (GMT 0)
Another agreement with Vickie

She said neurosurgeon, better than neurologist. The latter can't actually do anything but prescribe physical therapy, and you've already tried that sort of treatment.

When looking into pain management, a physiatrist can inject lumbar spine, but for anything more you need the anesthesiologist qualified pain doctor, who is trained to do much more.

Quite often the first treatment will be physical therapy, so have a written list of everything you've tried and all the films and scans with you.

You can get copies of all the scans from the place that did them. I make copies so I won't have to keep running back for more. You should have a disk copy program on your computer.

It sounds like a possibility of 2 problems, the knee and the spine. If there's torn cartilage in the knee it may need to be repaired, but that may not stop the pain radiating to the foot and won't do anything for the spine.

Best wishes.
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