Why am I having involuntary movements in legs?

Hi,
Hopefully you can help me with this problem that I am very concerned about. I had a L5S1 fusion done 12 weeks ago. I have been having these involuntary movements in my legs, feet, and hips while trying to rest or go to sleep. It is constant and more in my left side. My legs jerk and muscle twitch around and keep me from sleeping. It started the week after surgery and has gotten much worse. What could be the problem? I have never had this before. Please tell me what your medical opinion is? I thank you very much!
Ps..I am afraid of this being a spinal cord injury

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine her, I can not offer her the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that she needs, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about her health concern.

These involuntary are called tremors and these tremors could be associated with fatigue, stress, anxiety or a form of panic attack. Other possible causes of tremors could be overactive thyroid, Parkinsonism disease, certain medications, alkalosis, and low blood sugar. Sometimes previous injury may cause pinched nerve and may be a reason of tremor but this possibility remains low. Therefore, it is quite essential to thoroughly assess the all possibilities here with the help of a doctor. Hope this helps

[kay290]

Many times Doctors overlook the obvious. It is very unlikely that you  would develop any of the above diseases right after surgery. Doctors put me through a multitude of testing when it was  spinal cord compression all along.There are many nerves in the Lumbar region and almost impossible to avoid in surgery. Twitching and body jerking /jumping at rest is exactly what I had (among other things) from my neck herniations prior to surgery. I still have alot of muscle twitching-my neck twitches/jerks which is new since the surgery.I think it is nerve damage, which may take a long time to heal. I will ask my surgeon on March 8.

[ggreg]

Dear Becky,
To answer your concern about spinal cord injury, I believe that would cause loss of sensation and some inability to move your limbs, rather than the opposite, which you have muscles firing up all over the place.  Usually after an operation on the spine, you'll get swelling, plus the invasion itself into a region with lots of nerves will make them ultrasensitive.  Swelling and sensitivity takes a while to settle down.

But this has been going on for you several months, so obviously you'll need to return to the docs who cared for you and have them check out if there's anything they can do to make your lower limbs quit jumping around.  They'll want to do a scan, to make sure the surgery was successful, they'll want to do an EMG to test the voltage that's going into your leg muscles, and they'll want to give you medicine to (a) reduce swelling and nerve irritation, (b) ease up the muscle twitching, and (c) help you sleep.  And if they did not give you a back brace to wear for a period of time, they ought to do that, as well as maybe order some physical therapy to perhaps loosen up your lower back and legs.
GG

[Becky559]

HI,
I really appreciate your responses as I didnt think I had tremors at all.Kay, what did they do for the spinal cord compression?   I think both of you are on the same track of thinking as I am. I do see the surgeon this week for my three month follow up. I have tried to call the office and tell the medical asst. about all my symptoms, but she always talks to the PA and the doctor isnt getting the messages from me. They just want me to WAIT to see the doctor....do they care that you are not sleeping and this is about to drive you nuts? I dont think so!  Kay, please let me know what your doctor says...I appreciate you doing that. I even ask for a CT scan and other tests that might help in treating this, and the PA wouldnt order anything. I really like the surgeon, but I dont like how his office handles these kind of calls. I really think that I have damage, irritated nerves, due to this was the third surgery in this same area and this was a fusion that took five hours to do because I had so much scar tissue in the area.

So, please write to me if you have any more news or information...for I really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Becky

[kay290]

I had ACDF surgery of C5-6, C6-7 in Oct 09. Dr. said it may take 6-12 months for neuro symptoms to calm down. My hip jumped last night, so I am still getting alot of symptoms but comparatively speaking there has been improvement over time. I used to jump (various body segments) all the time at night or lying down resting. Take a sleeping pill. Melatonin is a natural sleeper in the health food store that you can try.