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Old 06-17-2017, 04:15 PM #1
haywired haywired is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2016
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haywired haywired is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 7
5 yr Member
Default Would you go to the ER?

Here's my story, the extremely extremely abbreviated version.

I have worsening right leg weakness and heaviness as well as low back pain. It has been going on for a while but last night and today I got especially bad.

I'm slated to have an MRI this coming week, but in order to get the MRI I have to drive across several state lines-long story there that I won't go into. Meanwhile the last x-ray of my lumbar spine that I have had was in March, appointment time when my symptoms were much much less severe.

At this point my right thigh looks different than my left immediately upon gross inspection. I pointed this out to a spine orthopedist last week , And after seeding barely blasé during the rest of the appointment, upon seeing this he said "now I'm worried"

Naturally, while I was there at the doctors office I forgot to insist on having another x-ray taken. Maybe I just didn't have the fight in me-I know that the MRI imaging is much better than an x-ray, but I can't shake the feeling that every day things are getting worse and I am not intervening at all-so much so that even though the MRI is only three or four days away I still feel very concerned today.

Other symptoms that have occurred so far include shooting pain-admittedly transient and rare but quite unpleasant when it happens-in my right outer thigh, extremely weak hip abduction (or possibly adduction - er, The one where you push out words against resistance ) , and nighttime burning neuropathy in my foot. Driving for a long periods in my civic is the worst and seems to really bring on the low back pain. I'm considering renting a car or getting to the MRI location some other way, but there's a little part of me that's just not sure if I'm going to be able to make i driving for a long periods in my civic is the worst and seems to really bring on the low back pain. I'm considering renting a car or getting to the MRI location some other way, but there's a little part of me that's just not sure if I'm going to be able to make the journey at all.

My dilemma is just that I don't know when this becomes an emergency-it's just been one long continuum of worried and more worried and even more worried . But today it is quite bad, and I seem to have left leg which say but today it is quite bad, and I seem to have A little new weakness on my left side. It used to be that this weakness would only come on towards evening but now it is present even in the morning . I went to one PT session on Wednesday with the script from my physiatrist, and after those exercises had the shooting out ter thigh pain again .

I've also had a recurring chronic UTI since April and about four others since October-finally on long-term anabiotic's that my urologist recommended for that… But it just seems that with each infection , or any other challenge to My immune system, The muscle weakness in my right leg and knee gets worse and worse. To be clear, it's not like I can't walk-I'm grateful I can-but today I can barely balance on my right leg for more than 10 or 15 seconds; in December I could have done that for 3 to 5 minutes and was doing so in PT. I feel so nervous putting my body through the stress of traveling once again, not knowing what's wrong.

The MRI Tuesday will be of my entire spine. My physiatry says that there's no point in imaging my SI joint. I've had two brain MRIs one round of them in 2012, and another last summer- The MRI Tuesday will be of my entire spine. My physiatry says that there's no point in imaging my SI joint.

I've had two brain MRIs one round of them in 2012, and another last summer-
The follow up was because a non-medically necessary MRI and 2012 revealed two tiny white matter hyperintensities, luckily in the five years sense, last summer's imaging revealed that they had not changed significantly… But the fact of there being there at all still it's worrisome .

I've had a lot of health challenges in the last nine months, including a very complicated recovery from what should've been a minor orthopedic surgery for my ankle. I was diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy he/RSD, and my foot (Not the ankle) brought on I believe by postoperative splinting that was too tight. However I still question the RSD diagnosis simply because my pain levels are much lower than everyone else's with this diagnosis-to give you a sense I am not on any pain meds including gabapentin and I am not kept awake by pain at night. However the muscle atrophy in the foot is marked, there's joint swelling in my toes, some dystonia in my toes, and blotchy red skin on my foot… And poor temperature and sweating control in the affected foot . I suspect it could be raynauds secondary to cold exposure .. But who knows.

Even though I wasn't sure if it was RSD, I did go through with a series of four lumbar sympathetic block's. The low back pain has been worse after each of them for a while , and I know that's typical to some degree, but the weakness also was exacerbated temporarily after the blocks, and now I'm worried I did more harm than good. The second and third block were a few weeks apart and boyh had some steroid injected .. perhaps that should have been avoided so close together.

In February/March I was really sick and had some weird neurological symptoms including vestibular changes, headache, and it one point it seems like slight or auras around lights.. I recovered mostly from these symptoms in a week or two, but for the rest of the winter (and much of the time sense) had bilateral joint pain, tailbone pain, and neck pain that I've never had before .

I've spoken about all of this with different doctors, without much in the way of results or proactive suggestions . Recently my mother is recovering from a period of hospitalization and awaiting a cardiac procedure, and my capacity to devote all my energy to pursuing these doctors has been much less than it was this winter .. I just sort of ran out of energy .

Of course I know no one can make this decision for me, re ER .. I Just thought you all might have some experiences to share or something. Everything is been so weird with my right leg that I am really afraid of making it worse when I travel . Not sure if this is the best sub forUm really.

Well, if anyone managed to get this far, I'm impressed! I apologize for sounding like a bit of a nut .. Just venting mainly i guess , this is getting creepy Also sorry for some bad examples of speech to text AutoCorrect in here. Tried to edit some out but probably missed a bunch

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday

Last edited by haywired; 06-17-2017 at 04:23 PM. Reason: Autocorrect fails
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Skeezyks (06-19-2017)

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Old 06-19-2017, 03:10 PM #2
Skeezyks Skeezyks is offline
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Skeezyks Skeezyks is offline
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Hello haywired: I'm sorry you are having all of this difficulty. It's been a couple of days now since you posted this. Perhaps you've already taken some sort of action. Unfortunately there's really nothing I can offer with regard to it. From what you wrote, it does sound, to me as though checking in with someone (whether by going to the ER or in some other way) would be warranted before you try to make the kind of a drive it sounds as though you'll need to make in order to get your MRI done. I have a ruptured disc in my lumbosacral spine that impinges on the sciatic nerve. I haven't had any major problems with it recently. But I can recall times when just getting in-&-out of the car was excruciating, let alone riding in it. And driving was simply out of the question. If there's some other way to get to your appointment besides driving, that might well be the best option. I wish you well...
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