Ashley, can you help? All others more than welcome too

[essdipity]

I need some help figuring out what's wrong with my right leg.

About 3 weeks ago I fell outdoors while walking my dog. I think I just lost my balance, don't know why. I got a couple of bruises, very minor and no big deal. Well, 2 or 3 days after that, my leg began to hurt, a muscle pain and soreness kind of thing. Not where I fell at all, and I don't at all know if the 2 are connected, but that's the only cause I can think of.

Also, and more worrisome, I noticed that my leg seemed quite weak. When stretched straight out, as in bed, it was very hard to lift that leg. Sometimes I coud do it only an inch or two, sometimes a lot more, but nowhere near what I could do with my left leg. This has continued all this time. The weakness doesn't seem to be especially connected to the pain, as there are times when the pain is absent and the weakness is bad, and vice versa. It also takes much more time to try to raise it and move it.

I find myself lifting my leg with my hands at times, and swinging my ankle over the opposite knee to get dressed can be a difficult process. Also getting in and out of the car.

If this is a simple muscle pull sort of thing, it sure is taking its time about healing. Could it be that a tendon is injured? Or could it be an MS problem? I can walk normally, thank heavens, so my life isn't really affected very much. My neuro has noted weak hip flexors on a few occasions, and my PT said the same thing about a year ago, but it was mild, relatively speaking. I'm not in PT now, and would have to get another referral, which I don't want to do if this is a simple injury.

When I have pain, it is on the front of the thigh at the top, and roughly in the middle, a thumb print size pain.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Mucho thanks,
ess

[sllowe]

The spot on the front of your thigh muscle you describe sounds like your quad.  A pull there would affect lifting it, walking, stride, etc.

I have on on my left thigh that pulls out at the drop of a hat. Takes weeks and weeks to heal. But, the additional symptoms you have chronic sound like they only magnify this one...You contemplating getting the script for PT just to have handy?

shell :)

[Momzilla]

I hope you feel better, Ess. Adults should not fall. We look ridiculous and we fall a lot harder than children who brush themselves off with a lot more charm than we do.

I'm sure your fall was more graceful than anythign I've pulled off, but painful and troubling all the same.

I hope you feel better and that you have your doc document it. I'm not stuttering...It's called ....'alliteration.'

Take care,

*

[ashleyPT]

Hey Ess,

I sent you a PM

[rendean]

Dear Ess,

You're story sounds very familiar to me. It sounds like the story I told my neurologist when he got off the fence and said, "you have MS".  The defining moment was the inability to lift my leg into the car without physically lifting the leg and swinging it over and into the car.

The PT evaluation noted weak hip flexors, weak quadriceps and muscle spasticity. I also suffered from weak  "core muscles" which are  the muscles which help to keep us upright and include the abdominal muscles. When you lay flat and lift your leg you are using your core muscles in addition to the leg muscles. I know this from those 1980's aerobics classes (think shiny spandex leotards, tights and leg warmers, lol).

A sign of my most recent relapse was the inability to lift my right leg into the car. PT did return the strength and mobility to my left leg until this recent relapse, now all my leg muscles have joined the "I'm tired and don't want to work" club.

I think you should call your neuro and explain your symptoms. When my muscles are misbehaving and not working properly, I get small knotty areas, actually a little like ropey strands that will massage out (with some pain involved). The massaging is done by PT then we move on to stretching and strengthening exercises. Does your thumb size painful area massage out?

I hope it isn't a relapse of some sort for you and your neuro will tell you something different, like a simple sprain of some sort. Well, that's my two cents.

Take care,
Ren

[tonyad]

     Sorry you are being troubled with your leg.
My personal opinion is that that you have bruised something or stretched something when you fell...perhaps even a ligament involved, muscle?

  Now thats not to say that when you fell that some of your leg sx did not rev up (Spasticity, more weekness),  i  hate to remind ourselves but as we get older...things are not as pliable, limber, as we used to be and do not heal as quickly. Add, MS in to the mix and that opens up even more problems.

  Perhaps a call to the doc and maybe an X-Ray if not getting better would be an idea.
Take Care,
~Tonya

    

[jensequitur]

I'd say yeah, almost certainly an MS thang.

I have a weak right leg.  It all started with my first flare - I couldn't feel it, and it would fold up without warning and take me by surprise.  When it was really bad I had to lift it up, and I duck-walked so the knee wouldn't bend unexpectedly.

This gets worse and better...  Up until last week, it was doing great - I've been running to burn some calories, and I got up to twenty minutes of running.  Friday I started noticing that my right knee was feeling really weird.  I didn't work out that day, because I was having back problems and feeling generally fatigued.  We'll see how it does - I'm going to go work out today, and if I fall off the treadmill, that's that.

So I'm not sure exactly why I have so much trouble with my right leg.  I'm positive it's an MS thing, but why is it such a problem?  Part of it is the hip flexor muscle - when it's spastic, I find it really difficult to raise my leg.  Part of it is the knee being weak.  Probably there's a muscle around the knee that does all the work, and it's not getting the nerve connection it needs to fire.

One time I got in the car to drive to work and I found I couldn't move my leg from the gas to the brake.  Scary!  It hurt so much to lift it that I had to grab the knee of my pants and lift the leg.  Fortunately it was a short drive.  After I get home, hubby suggests putting my heel on the floor and just moving the toe.  Wish I'd thought of that!

It's quite possible that the reason you fell was because of leg weakness, although it wasn't immediately obvious.  I had some serious foot drop on the right for several months before diagnosis.  I was always tripping on stairs (because I wasn't lifting up my right foot enough) and losing my balance.