Hi Allen
I had surgery on my hip twice,,both times ,theres always been a chance that you will get drop foot,,the dr;s contend that if you do,it will clear up over a period[month]time,Ive met with several people thru theropy that had if for different reasons,and yes,its scarey,. there are 4 major nerves around the hip ,that sometimes get longated during surgery or the protective outer shealth of the nerve gets damaged.i know your not haveing hip surgery,but alot of people that ive met ,that went thru it,had different causes,,it can be from your back but if youve had nerve damage,thats probually the culprit,exspecially around the peroneal nereve and fermoral artey area,,If you have a collagen plug problem ,that could be the problem,,One lady had a stent put in an artery and had issues as well a racquetball player did as well.....I do commend you on the upbeat attitude,its encourageing to us, and I hope and pray that you get it straighten out,,,bobber,,,

Hi everyone! I am absolutely elated, and wanted to update everyone.

Saw the neurosurgeons today and they were very thorough, and says the back is not bad enough for surgery. The disc buldges to the left and all my complaints are for the right, plus it didnt look that bad to the two of them.

They had the hospital records of the embolectomy, and were more concerned with the seemingly lack of pulse in the right foot. Said I should go see a vascular doctor soon to get that checked out.

They believe most if not all of the nerve damage was from ischemia, and it would also cause the foot drop. And that the emg readings could be read as the lumbar, but also could show damage from the ischemic injury. They said it would look the same on the emg, and were pretty certain there is RSD.

I know I shouldnt be all that happy because this isnt really good news. But compared to RSD, and then RSD with a back surgery....well it sounded pretty good to me to avoid the surgery LOL!

They are setting an appoinment to start epidural's, said I could have 3 in a year. Sounded pretty good to me

Felt pretty good to finally talk to some doctors that werent wearing blinders.

So that was a complete relief! I can now fly to Tampa Florida this friday without all the worries of surgery. See ya ll when I get back

Allen....


So nice to read great news...Whew.. now you can go to fla. and not worry so much well where back surgery is concerned.....as far as the RSD in our lives..well its our new best friend..it follows us everywhere..... sorry about that part!!! Safe trip.. KS

Sounds very common sense-ish to me. It's nice to have someone be able to evaluate all the findings, summarize them and especially say the problem is not primarily your back and very well could be a focal problem in your leg. The lack of pulse is a major tip-off and gets back to the necessity for speaking with a vascular surgeon (not that you do or do not need surgery!). The EMG's are just okay at sometimes stating that there is a problem with a nerve or root, but really is just a smoking gun when it comes to defining causation as it doesn't say why the problem is there. It is only a small piece of the puzzle.

All of the pieces of the puzzle really need to add up, history of injury, subjective complaints, clinical, imaging findings and special tests findings to give you your best chance at an early correct diagnoses, oh yeah, and someone who can put it all together for you. And it sounds like you got just that with the neurosurgeons (whose residencey is just about the longest of all the medical specialists).

Sounds like you dodged a major bullet, avoiding a potentially needless surgery. Great news!

Many thanks to you dubious! I followed your advice and explained the broken off piece of collagen, and also asked if the neuro doc could seek out a second doc in the office about what he thought was wrong. Especially when it came to the foot drop and RSD.

He left the room and brought back the department head, and they tag teamed the examination. The chief surgeon was very interested in looking at me considering the weird circumstances. He told me that they quit using the plugs because there was a 10% chance of hematoma, and I happened to fall into that 10%. He also told me that they are now sewing the whole in the artery following the catheterizations with great success.

They spent a great deal of time with me poking and prodding both feet and legs, explaining everything as they went. The chief also said that if he were a clinician, he could very easily have missed this, and sent me off to surgery also. It was very satisfying to finally have someone besides my primary doc spend the time to actually look.

I know this will make my primary doc real happy because most of the time the specialists dont come to the same conclusions he does.

It is also NICE to have caring people here to bounce things off of before seeing specialists and such. It really opens up ones perspective when seen through the eyes of others.

Thank you all soooo much

Dear Allen -

Enjoy Tampa - where it's warm and hopefully sunny!! Soak it up!!

I am glad you had a great experience with a doc.

Take care, XOXOX Sandy