Carla
Hi Olivia, I too have the spinal stenosis, leg, hip, etc pain. Here is my problem, I also have RSD, which is reflex sympathic dystrohy in my right upper half of body, like my right hand, arm, shoulder. I have been having back problems since 1995 or 96. For many years, I was told by doctors that my rsd had spread to my back and legs, then one day when the pain was truely diliberating, nothing had worked and I finally broke down and went to a foot orthopedic doctor, who in turn sent me to a pain management doctor, who in turn sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. All these doctors just to find out what is wrong with my back,hips,legs,ankles, and so forth.I did go for a myleogram, mri(not sure if that's the same as a myleogram), cat scan, nerve conduction test, x-rays, everything that you can think of kind of test. I had the doctors stumped because usually the pain is suppose to run down your leg not up.My pain would start in my ankles then work it's way up to my hip and back. They have never heard of the pain being that way with that was from the back. I even would have charlie horse types of pain that were 10 or 20 times worse than a charlie horse. I also would have the pain like someone took a knife and stabbed me in my legs going up and down my legs until it reached my back. Parts of my body also twitch or jump around whenever it feels like it. Like muscle spasms I guess, but it gets very annoying when I am sitting still or even doing something that all of a sudden my leg jumps or my fingers, and so on. The test results showed that I had the following:Herniated disc, bulging disc of the L-4 and L-5, spinal stenosis, pinched nerves, and bone spurs. I have tried many different medications for the pain, currently I am on MsContin which is morphine, also in between that I take Soma which is a muscle relaxant. Neither one is really helping me now. I can't walk or sit for long periods of time, nothing relieves the pain.One surgeon refuses to operate on me because my rsd can spread to my back and legs and he doesn't want to take the chance. I did find an orthopedic surgeon that would operate but he wants to put in a lot of hardware (plates and screws) and because of my health history could take up to 2 years to fully re-cooperate, so I had to give it some long thought of should I or shouldn't I. My ex-husband mentioned his neurosurgeon to me and that I should go to him to see what he thinks. The neurosurgeon said that he could do microsurgery, and shave the disc's so that they wouldn't be hitting my nerves and the recooperation would only be a few months compared to over 2 years. Plus the neurosurgeon knows all about rsd and told me not to worry about it spreading because it shouldn't spread. I was suppose to have my operation back in Nov of last year but I couldn't because of my white blood count was too high and I have to wait till it hits the normal range. There are sites that you can do some research on your problem, but go and have every test that you can to find out exactly why, where, and what can be done to relieve the pain. Some people say that Neuontin does wonder and helps relieve their pain, I have tried it but because I was on many meds for my rsd, I buildt up an immunity towards them. Besides my ankle, legs, back, hips, rsd, problems I also have torn all the ligaments, etc in my left elbow that I am to the point of anything to work on that is surgery.I also have hypothyroidism, and asthma.So my health is so out of whack but I am trying to start getting stuff done so that I can be a normal ACTIVE person like I used to be again. I am concentrating now on getting my white blood count down so that I can have my operation and when I do have it done, I will post my results on here for you and others to let everyone know if it was a success or not. Take Care