Different symptoms of Sciatica?

Hi, I've been suffering from extreme lordosis most of my adult life and in the past 18 months I have started with sciatic pain down my left leg clear to my toes. At first it was only down the back of my leg but I've noticed lately that I have a lot of pain going down the front of my thigh as well and now my right leg is doing the same thing. I have had the nerve conduction test done and it did show that my sciatic was damaged but now I'm starting to wonder if there is another nerve being affected as well since the pain is now down the front of my leg starting in my groin area. Could someone give me an idea of what might be causing this?  Sitting, standing, walking and now even laying down has become very painful for me and fills each day with constant pain.

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

Well, this is more likely to be radicular pain than separate involvement of all nerves. Radicular pain refers to pain originating due to involvement of spinal nerve roots at the point of origin of nerves near the spinal column. This type of pain is more widespread and tends to involve specific areas of distribution. Similar symptoms can also be caused by involvement of the separate nerves but the possibility is not as likely. Since you have mentioned pain in both legs, I would suspect involvement of either sides. I would advice getting this evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon. An evaluation may include a complete physical examination and a few tests such as the MRI, nerve conduction studies etc. After a source of pain or the region of nerve involvement is identified, the treatment options can be decides upon accordingly; which may include physiotherapy and muscle strengthening exercises, medications to relieve pain, nerve root block, interventional or surgical techniques etc. At this stage it would be difficult to comment further without the relevant details. You may like to discuss the possible options in detail with your doctor after the evaluation has been carried out. Meanwhile you may try some NSAIDS or other neural pain medications that you might have been prescribed.
Hope this information helps.

Take care!

[LyndaInUtah]

Thank you for responding. I have an appt with my physician on Monday and I'll let him know of the new symptoms. Hopefully we can work something out to alleviate this problem. Again thank you for the response and I'll update on how it went.

Lynda