Up to now, over the last three years, my symptoms have mainly been numbness in my feet, and burning sensations. More recently I've experienced tingling up my shins and as high as the groin area, both of which have now gone.

However I'm now getting painful stabbing pains in my inner thigh area and further up on the outer thigh area. I wondered if other sufferers have experienced this and can tell me anything about this particular symptom and possible causes ?

Meralgia Paresthetica.

MP comes from entrapment of the lateral femoral nerve which arises from the lumbar spine. It can become entrapped in scar tissue from abdominal surgery or back issues.

Figure 2B at this site shows where the nerve is:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000401/2109.html

I have had this, and found Lidoderm patches placed at the top of the thigh where that nerve exits the abdomen, gave relief.
After using the patches for 14 days in a row, I had a remission of sorts. I was surprised after about 15 yrs of agony. I still get little reminders, if I overstretch the leg, but not often or as severe.
At one point I had severe pain (all after a C-section).
My MP started with odd sensations, feelings of hot water running down my leg, tingling/numbness and escalated to severe stabbing pain (like 100 beestings all at once). I only had it on the right side.
Some doctors feel, tight jeans, or keeping a wallet in the back pocket of tight pants, will make this worse.

You can Google Meralgia Paresthetica and find more. Some sites compare it to other hip
problems.

Many thanks Mrs D.

The diagram certainly helps explain where my pain is coming from. I guess I'm still a little puzzled that while I've still got numb/burning sensations in the feet, all other unpleasant sensations have in the last couple of weeks ceased below and up to the knee and started above the knee.

I used to get severe sharp pain along the sartorius muscle....it is gone now.

The nerve pain described earlier in the thread has for the moment disappeared - instead I'm now suffering from muscles spasms in the backs of the legs - something new - but equally unwanted !

muscle spasms--- magnesium helps in the vast majority of cases of this.

My magnesium thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread1138.html

This is simple, inexpensive, and helps the heart, blood pressure and many other things as well. Make sure you choose a supplement that is NOT magnesium oxide.