recurrent bilateral calf muscle pain

[pviola]

I'm 24 years old, filipino male, last january 2009 i started having simple pain in both of my calf muscles out of doing nothing.. (yep u heard me right. i'm just playing in my pc the whole day, i thought its just ordinary pain) what i did was try to play basketball hoping that the pain would go away (bad2 idea), then it started to became worse.. after a 3 to 5 days i had difficulty walking because i'm having severe pain in both of my calf muscles especially morning my first few step its like hell! i have to lie down in my comfort room and wait til the pain go away. the pain always came back when i tried to walk..

after that i seek professional opinion about my illness.. to make my long story short.. i've been to a lot of doctors internal medicine (no idea of my illness), orthopedic (no idea), rheumatologist and neurologist.. and also i've done through blood test cbc normal, potassium normal, calcium normal, cpk-mb & ana normal.. the only problem was my esr shoots up to 125 (normal 20 i guess). during my days with my rheumatologist he provided me with temporary relief by giving me PREDNISONE(steroids), it was effective (pain was gone completely) but the problem was you can't use this for a long time. when i'm about tappering the dose the calf pain was recurring (damn)...

Now i went to my neurologist, done several test DOPPLER & EMG NCV results were negative... transfer to another neurologist showed my previous tests... he gave me a medicine RIVOTRIL 2mg.... now the pain is not as worse like before but i'm still having Calf pain both.. and also my muscles in my biceps, triceps, legs is a little bit pain and i dont know why??? can any one help me ??? who can diagnose what kind of illness do i have??? ive been suffering from this prob for almost a year now.. please help.... thanks... my email add: paulo_viola_06***@****


This discussion is related to Recurrent severe calf pain - Bilateral.

[Tuckamore]

Hello Pviola,

Welcome to the Pain Mangement Forum. I am sorry to hear about your undiagnosed calf muscle (gastrocnemius) pain. The soleus muscle and gastrocnemius form the large calf muscle.

Because your pain is bilateral that should rule out injury. It sounds like you have had all the right tests and been to all the right physicians.  As a lay person I doubt I can offer you anything suggestions that they have not already thought of or ruled out.

The fact that the steroids provided you with total relief may indicate that this is an inflamatory process. Have you had trigger point myofascial injections?  There are also muscle release treatments that most doctor of osteopathy, some chiropractors or sports medicine physicians can preform.

I assume that they have ruled out inflammation of the veins and arteries or vasculitis?

Your condition is puzzling. The one thing that I have learned is to nor give up. Additional physicians with a new set of eyes and thoughts may find the underlying problem. There are systemic conditions that can appear as muscle pain or move to the muscles. Possibly an Internal Medicine Physician will have some additional ideas.

Sorry that I am no help. Please don't give up. Let us know how your search progresses. We'll look forward to your updates.

Peace,
Tuck