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Lower Back and thigh/Pinched Nerve?

I'm going to a Neurologist for a nerve study Tuesday but in the meantime, I thought I would pick everyone's brains on the forum.

Last July I started training for the Houston Marathon.  Everything was fine until December when my left leg felt funny during a race.  For the next few weeks, I'd be able to run ok until about 5 miles into my run.  Then my hamstring would feel funny-kind of like something was pulling at it.  I ran the marathon and did ok but had that same feeling in my leg early in the marathon.  Around mile 17, my whole upper leg was pounding.  After the marathon, I went to a sports doc who said I had a hamstring tear.  At that point, I couldn't run a mile without pain and my leg still felt funny.  He sent me to Physical Therapy 3x a week and said I'd be running in a couple weeks.  After 7 sessions, I felt worse then I did before I started so I went to a deep tissue massage therapist for the next few weeks and didn't get relief there.  Found another sports doc (2 1/2 months later).  This doc did an MRI and said there was no tear and maybe I had a nerve problem causing my leg to feel like that.

I have no shooting or stabbing pain, no tingling, nothing unbearable except that I can't run any more than a mile before my leg starts feeling funny.  I have some discomfort in my hamstring (from the top all the way down to my knee) but no glute pain or calf pain.

I have some mild lower back pain in addition to a tender tailbone.  I have no idea where the tender tailbone came from except from a roller blading fall I had early last year - well before I started training for my marathon.

Nothing seems to be "textbook".  Sciatica doesn't seem to match my symptoms and since my back pain is pretty mild, I'm doubting a disc problem.  The doc thought a pinched nerve but I thought a pinched nerve would cause some pretty bad tingling or more pain.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for any ideas.

Kim
8 Responses
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1439306 tn?1283948035
U know back when I was 17 years old. I was training really hard with weights and running a lot because I was a soccer player.Ohhh yes, also alot of abs too. I can relate to you with the tailbone pain. It was painful that I couldnt even sit on a chair and had to bit on a pillow or on a side of my buttock so that pinchyness would not hurt. Anyways back then I did not know anything about Kinesiology or Sports Science.
The pinchyness was due to the very tight back muscles that occured to to first me not stretching at all my back and hanmstrings enought(cat stretch is good) also when I did too much abs,contracting the abs causes the lower back to be pulled excessively out of its range of motion,(specially when its not even stretched or was used the day before,)
Then the running tooo much.
Then not even doing stretching and lower back strenghtenng exercises to strenghten that part of the body. SO my abs were strong but my lower back was weak.
i recommend a nice warm up that gets blood flow and temperature to the trunk are, then doing a lot of cat stretches and back stretches everyday for a week, see how you feel. Also go to an athletic therapist and tell them.

About the leg thing I have no idea. Usually when the muscles are tight or you are stresssed they will turn into brick and cause pinching in that area.So u have to relax
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Avatar universal
depending on a few other variable, you might do some research on endometriosis
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My lower stomach and lower back hurts.  Somedays are worse than others.......anyone have any ideas what is going on?
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I found some interesting info about magnesium that be helpful for your situation, here's a little from the page:  
"Magnesium's role in relaxing muscles. Another primary role of magnesium is to work with calcium to help regulate the body's nerve and muscle tone. In many nerve cells, magnesium serves as a chemical gate blocker - as long as there is enough magnesium around, calcium can't rush into the nerve cell and activate the nerve. This gate blocking by magnesium helps keep the nerve relaxed. If our diet provides us with too little magnesium, this gate blocking can fail and the nerve cell can become overactivated. When some nerve cells are overactivated, they can send too many messages to the muscles and cause the muscles to overcontract. This chain of events helps explain how magnesium deficiency can trigger muscle tension, muscle soreness, muscle spasms, muscle cramps, and muscle fatigue especially in the back and legs where some of the body's largest muscles live."

You might want to look into it and see if it can help with your problem at all.  Good Luck!

http://www.jigsawhealth.com/products/magnesium_supplement.html
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Avatar universal
Hi Titanic.  Thanks for your reply.  Not a bad idea on the stress test.  I'll mention that this week when I see the Neurologist.  If she can't/won't do one, I'll go to a cardiologist.  I had a stress test done a couple of years ago when I started training harder for my marathons.  I wanted to make sure my ticker was ok.  But that was in late 2005 and I didn't have these symptoms so I can easily go back and ask for another one since my symptoms are different.

Thanks again.

Kim
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Avatar universal
Thanks mrslady.  That would drive me nuts getting pinched nerves over and over again.  My problem has been going on nonstop since early December, though.  Driving me crazy....

I tried the floor/chair thing you mentioned and have no problems at all doing that.  I can lay on my back with no problems at all but I can't lay on my stomach for very long though.  I usually lay on my back or side at night since that gives me that most relief.  I don't have pain all the time, though, and I don't know that I would call it "pain" anyway.  It's more of an odd feeling or sensation in my leg.  My back muscles seem tired but they don't really hurt.

I hope this Neurologist can find something this week.

Thanks again.

Kim
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Avatar universal
Hey there, you may want to consider having a stress test run. Check the blood flow in your legs.  
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Avatar universal
I have been getting pinched nerves over and over again for years unfortunately due to being run over by a wild horse when I was really little. Pinched nerves can range from barely noticeable to impairingly painful sometimes lasting for days at a time. The best way to tell if you have pinched a nerve in your back is to lay with your back flat on the floor without a pillow or head support so that your spine is completely flat against the floor, and put your legs up on a chair so that you are in a 90degree angle position. If you lay there for a while and the back pain is relieved whenever you are in that position it's more than likely you have pinched a nerve in your back. Otherwise I don't know what else it could be. But I guess you can try that and see if it works? Good luck!
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