I think I asked this question before...but I can't remember, so here goes:

Have you ever heard of someone walking normally, then their knee gives out and they fall?

OR, in a restaurant last week my right hip gave out and fell against a wall. Luckily I was using my forearm crutch and it saved me from falling hard.

I was walking down some stairs and my left foot gave out, it quit, would not accept any weight on it. I fell the rest of the way and hurt my ankle.

So hips, knees, ankles and feet are unreliable. I am using my power chair a lot now.

My body does not warn me about this new thing. I just fall.

I will be in pain and unable to use that foot, ankle, knee or hip for as much as 30 minutes. THEN I am mostly normal. Xrays are negative. I have some arthritis, but the doctor says what is happening to me is not arthritis. He is setting up more tests.

Brainstorm with me. Guess. We have tried the usual stuff with no luck, so tell me my ancestor was "Big Foot" and I have a genetic predisposition to fall down. That is more than my doctors have figured out.

Bottom line, I can't trust my lower limbs any more. No repetition, that is, it might be my right foot giving out, then 6 hours later my left knee or hip. Way too weird. I am really hoping one of you has heard of something like this. I would not wish it on anyone, but if another person has this problem, I would love to discuss their findings. Thanks...

So it happens with severe pain? And it is intermittent. I know this can happen in knees from a small tear in the miniscus where sometimes the flap floats up and is excrutiating to try to put any weight on it, then on its own it floats back into place within 20 minutes or so and the person feels fine again. X-rays would not show this.

Perhaps something similar happens in other joints?

Another though is that there is intermittent pressure on some nerves from the neck or other area of the spine. Again, nothing might show up on X-ray, but might on MRI IF the right place is looked at. Perhaps seeing an O.D. trained in osteopathic manipulation might help.

I presume you've already had MRI with contrast to check for MS?

And vitamin B levels checked?

Hi Jaspar, first, let me thank you for the info. And yes, they spent about 75 minutes doing an MRI on my brain, looking for lesions and something else. Our oldest daughter was diagnosed with MS about 5 years ago. But they did not find anything. I can't remember if they used contrast or not.

MRI on my chest area ... I have a Multi-Fenestrated Septal Occluder in my heart and they are concerned about doing an MRI in that area. But it seems the MRI of my brain would have caused a problem for me.... if a problem exists.

My knees, the pain is in the area of the MCL, as far as I can tell. I am seeing the Ortho around June 5th or so. His speciality is knee and hip replacement. I don't know if it could be the miniscus, but I will ask him. Severe pain you ask? It is severe enough that I can't put weight on it. And it goes away (usually) within about thirty minutes.

The Rheumatologist found arthritis in many of my joints, so that is probably part of it.

My feet, it seems like I feel something like electrical shocks before I fall. If I am lucky, I am close enough to a wall that I can lift the "bad" foot and lean on the wall, or use the Forearm Crutch to get to a chair. I think the most disconcerting thing about all of this is that there is NO warning. You and I could be walking down the street and one of my body parts decides not to accept weight. No warning.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it might be nerves from my neck or lower spine. I have inoperable lower back damage and a disc up between my shoulder blades that caused problems with my carpal tunnel.

Yes, Vitamin B is well covered. mrsD set me up with a good regimen.

Thanks again, I am certainly open to suggestions, Take care....

as fast as things change, i would ask every year or so, if your back is still "inoperable"....and make sure that your docs know of this issue, that may change their minds, spine surgery should be done for neuro loss, not so muc for pain...

For Neuro loss?? No one ever mentioned that --- that I can remember. I asked my "Corporate Memory" and she says no. BUT I WILL TOMORROW!!! We see the Neurologist tomorrow, she will go with me. Otherwise I will forget to ask all of her questions. I write things down, then forget to get the paper out.

We are seeing him about my lower extremities not working right. It has to be nerves.

What else could cause all this mischief? My legs work fine all day, then my foot gets hot shooting pains through it and fails me. Same with my hip or knee. Weird.

Hi dilfo

This may sound too simple and maybe you have investigated this before, but could there be a chance you have a connective tissue disorder such as Hypermobility Syndrome??

I have a rare CTD called Loeys-Dietz and my knees dislocate causing me to collapse in a heap! Its sore after again for about 30 minutes but then Im fine. Ive got used to it now and thankfully it doesnt happen that regularly as I watch where I step and hold onto banisters going down stairs. Basically what I understand is the problem is the ligaments holding my knees in place has stretched and can no longer hold them steady. I hardly dance, run or act the maggot any more as they are likely to go out from under me!!!

Do you have flat feet? Do you wear orthotics?

Check out the hypermobility dot org website and see if anything there helps.

Let us know how you get on with your doc.

Regards
Rachel

Oh dear that is so SCARY. That has been happening to me for ages, and I hate it. But, it does go away as long as there's little stress and I use a lot of B12. (methylcobalamin)

I generally try to stay in bed when it's happening a lot.

At two different court hearings that were particularly stressful I could barely get to the car afterwards. Someone was driving me.

I no longer take stairs if there is an elevator.

I fell early last winter and hurt myself badly enough that it was hard to walk after that, and that meant weight gain.

Health problems are so thorny, they are never one single thing, there are so many inter related aspects.

A lot of people say that using a walker is the answer, but I think that the answer is reducing stress, or one's vulnerability to it, and lots of B12 (methylcobalamin) and slowly rebuilding ones strength in ones legs... walking slowly and as long as the falling thing isn't happening, consistently.

This spring I could barely walk around my garden, and my feet and legs seemed so heavy that it frightened me, but now I'm doing better and am hopeful once again.

I think the main thing is not to get hurt falling, so staying in bed if you can until it happens less, or stops happening, seems like a good choice to me.

then, staying near a wall, so if you fall you can use it for support, so to tables, chairs, counters...

Basically, that's what I do. I sure hope you don't fall and get hurt.

I had a patient with severe arthritis who did this, and I have done it once, fell flat on my back without bending a knee. Did you blackout momentarily when it happened, and have you been to a neurologist? Seems like a MRI or something similar might dx the problem billie

Hi,

I have permanent nerve damage at my L5 root. There is nothing that can fix my nerve damage in the USA at this point.

Kate