Hi Lisa,

It was good to hear from you. Yes, MP is common but very often an elusive diagnosis. It would take a book for me to relay my experiences and frustations of the 30 plus years with my MP. The good thing about it is the fact that the intensity does vary with me unless I have really made the LFCN angry. Walking and standing create the highest level of pain for me. Years ago, if I would take immediate action upon the first signals that it was escalating and immediately sat down for a while, the pain would subside. If I was not able for whatever reason to sit immediately, the pain would just keep going until it was so unbearable that I wanted to amputate my own leg on the spot, anything to stop the pain. Once I hit those intense levels, there was NO relief by sitting. I describe it as having "fried" the nerve. It was so fried one time, it put me in bed, literally, for a week. Those were the good ole days when it was intermittent. Intermittant meant everyday but not ALL day. As long as I could get in a "sitting" position off and on, I was only in pain off and on during the day. Then it continued to progress as more months and years passed. Intermittant has turned into constant but with various degrees of intensity. Walking and standing are still the highest levels for me and I can only stand or walk for about 5 minutes. Sitting is a little less intensity and I can do that for about an hour. Even laying down is painful but that has the least intensity unless the nerve is angry. I can be in a sound sleep and be rudely awoken by a lightning bolt type of electrical current from my hip to my knee. It is like having a stun gun hit you. The burning is relentless.

To be continued......
Hopeless