I am thinking I have multiple things going on as well. My sensory neuropathy is equal on both sides, sural nerves on the EMG. It has worsened slightly in the 4 years between my EMG's. It is idiopathic, although I did find out late last year that my B12 was in the 200's. (700's now.)

My gut feeling is I have super-imposed symptoms on the left leg, which is causing the more electrical-type pain down my anterior calf and all through my foot. Reading about dermatomes and myotomes it follows a predictable pattern as L5-S1. The EMG showed partial denervation of the muscles in my left foot--read an article how this can happen with nerve root compression. Even muscle atrophy can be caused by this!

Ginnie, my MRI was from March 2013. My lower back is not that of a normal 44 year old woman. I have both parents to "blame" for crappy genetics. The 2 neurologists I have seen don't do surgury, just diagnostics. Neither one even looked at my MRI films, just read the written report. The neurosurgeon I saw Monday, he specializes in brain and spine surgury. He did the opposite--just glanced at the written report, but studied my films (and pointed lots of bad stuff out to me.)

Doc, I totally get that I need to be very cautious with my decision. Surgury is the final frontier, so to speak. No matter how much I want to jump on that train and be "fixed," I know there is no such thing as far as our neurological systems go. I wish this decision was easier.

Jen