Meralgia Paresthetica - It's a new one for me too, unfortunately. It's caused by compression of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, as illustrated in the photo. (courtesy of Mayo Clinic website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meralgia-paresthetica/DS00914)About 6 weeks ago I started having tingling down my right thigh. Then it progressed to burning pain, and now shooting/stabbing pain. It happens when I stand, after about 5-10 minutes. This has made working my 12 or 13 hour shifts pretty miserable.
Apparently this is a condition that occurs in pregnant people - if you did not or do not experience this with your pregnancy, thank your lucky stars. It also occurs w/obesity and diabetes.
I have been bounced around from a few doctors while I tried to get this figured out. Thankfully, Dr. Google helped me find the answer. I was then able to seek out a care giver who knew about the condition and knew how to help me with it.
I have found a chiropractor, Dr. Sellers at Performance Wellness here in Austin. By chance, his wife also had this condition during her pregnancy. He said that construction workers also tend to get it b/c of the weight of the belt on their hip, compressing the nerve.
I think my treatments are working, a little right now - but I've only been to 3 sessions. He has to sort of dig into my right side to alleviate the tension in my muscle groups. It's painful, but I think the treatments are working. I'm occasionally having less pain with therapy and with walking/standing. I can almost walk 2 blocks now - something I haven't been able to do for a while. Today was bad, though, couldn't stay in Walmart more than 15 minutes.
Wish me luck - I hope my progress continues and that my insurance coverage doesn't run out before then. For anyone who thinks the US health care system doesn't need to be reviewed, I disagree. I get all of $1500 coverage (+$200 deductible) which may cover 14 or 15 visits maximum. [I have 22 weeks of pregnancy left, so I sure hope things get better before the end. This is a debilitating condition and I'm hoping I can work until the end of my pregnancy.] And Jack and I have really good health care coverage - a lot of people don't. I was able to find someone and go to them if I wanted, not a lot of people have that option with PPO's or HMO's. So I count myself lucky in that respect, not so lucky to have gotten it in the first place.
Have I mentioned this is going to be an only child?
4 comments:
Hey Roxanne,
I actually have this too, all the time. (And I'm not preggers! :) But some of the things that I find really help are concentrating on how you stand and walk, by forcing your pelvis to tip down (imagine tucking your tail bone between your legs). It happens in pregnant women because of the change in pelvic tilt. The other thing that helps me is to straighten out that leg as much as possible by standing up (probably next to a wall) and grabbing your foot behind your butt and then encouraging your pelvis back into it's more normal position. (i.e. tuck your tail bone). That's a trick I use when I'm standing in surgery and can't go walk around. So. Hope that helps some! Good luck. Also, make sure that your undergarments aren't too tight across your inguinal ligament, some times that's a culprit too.
Eleanor - thank you for your advice! You are a surgeon? I also do surgery (in a vet emergency hospital) and find that it is the more challenging thing. Walking hurts me, but sitting I find a lot of relief. So I work on records a lot :) I'm sorry to hear you have it all the time...I was wondering, Have you looked into the steroid injections or tried them?
Roxanne, it's me Ellie, Jack's cousin. :)
I've only heard about the injections from people that do them, not from people that have had them done. So, not a lot of experience there. but it might be worth it for just a few months. I wouldn't expect them to last longer than that. Good luck!
Ha.. after Rx wrote that we reasoned it was probably you. We are just not used to your formal name...
We are going to get an injection next week I think we will keep everyone updated on how it goes.
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