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trapped nerve?

andywood

Maximum Pace
Apr 8, 2008
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Apologies as the text is just cut and pasted from my blog, but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this sort of thing?

Any insight or advice appreciated!

Cheers, Andy.

www.jyonnobitime.com/time

I woke up in the middle of the night to a sharp pain in the inside of my left groin, making it difficult to sleep. Through the day at work the pain spread down the inside of my thigh. Across the front of the thigh. And down to the knee.

No pain when still but simple acts like stairs or getting into the car become painful. I couldn't raise my left knee at all.

I thought that it was maybe some strained muscle from playing football yesterday. But the muscle wasn't tender to touch. So I decided to see the local chiropractor.

After I told him the symptoms, he seemed sure of what it was straight away. A trapped nerve in the lower back. Sure enough, when he examined me, the left side of my lower back was sore to touch.

The sciata nerve has its root in the spine. This is the longest nerve in the body. Stretching right down to the foot. The pain comes from the spinal chord but is felt along the course of the nerve. The pain in the leg or foot is often worse than in the back.

The chiropractor thinks the root of the nerve has been trapped due to stretching or bending down on the bike for long periods, causing the bones in the spine to squash together, irritating the nerve root.

Today I had some electronic impulse therapy. Followed by a light massage. Followed by a back stretching machine. (All for 600 yen!)

The painful symptoms still remain though. I'll go back to the chiropractor again tomorrow. And also try some light stretching and of course rest. If there are no problems, hopefully the pain will go away in a few days.

Looks like a weekend of beer and onsen!
 
So I decided to see the local chiropractor.

:eek:

I am sure a lot of people on here will be able to recommend you a good physiotherapist, and not somebody who thinks that all problems stem from a spinal imbalance.

Anybody know a good physiotherapist?
 
Haha,

Don't know Owen, but it all seems to add up. But yeh, like when you have a sniffle and you start to trawl the internet to find you are dieing of something or other...

I'll go with his diagnosis... for now...

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
:)

Haha!

Well, please let us all know how it goes. Hope you get well soon and all that.
 
Andy, sorry no insight or advice, but you did fairly recently switch to your new titanium steed and changed to a new position/fitting (if my memory serves me correctly). Might be worth investigating that.
 
Hi Andy, welcome to the club! Your issue sounds similar to mine, but without you describing the pain in more detail, it's hard to say.

Take a look at this site and try to determine which type of pain fits your experience best:

http://www.neurotherm.com/idetprocedure/discogenic_lower_back_pain_differential_diagnosis.php

Until you know for sure what your issue is, I would avoid chiropractic treatment. It could make things worse. For now rest and see and understand your pain better, also when it gets better or worse, is the best first step.
 
Until you know for sure what your issue is, I would avoid chiropractic treatment. It could make things worse. For now rest and see and understand your pain better, also when it gets better or worse, is the best first step.

Not just me then; I really would stay away from all of that chiropractic stuff until you get a real, and proper evaluation by a decent, correctly qualified physiotherapist (no doubt harder to find in Asia than the West, but they must be out there).

Again, wish you well.

>An after-thought based on logic; you had to go on an internet forum asking relative strangers to help you out with a medical problem AFTER going to a so-called specialist... which cost 600yen...

Not stirring, but have a think about that for a second.
 
The chiropractor thinks the root of the nerve has been trapped due to stretching or bending down on the bike for long periods, causing the bones in the spine to squash together, irritating the nerve root.
[/I]

Using Owen`s devil`s advocate approach, did he tell you this before or after you mentioned you cycled a lot?
 
Until you know for sure what your issue is, I would avoid chiropractic treatment. It could make things worse. For now rest and see and understand your pain better, also when it gets better or worse, is the best first step.

I'm with Ludwig on this. One day of pain seems a bit fast to dive into chiropractic stuff. It could well be just a muscle strain/tear (not unlikely after a bit of footie), so a wait and see approach (for now), might be best?
 
ditto.... i'd go for lots of rest, anti inflammatories, and plenty of hydration until they figure it out. If there's a way to get an MRI, that will tell the docs's what's going on. i know the pain can be all consuming at time..... hope you recover quickly..
 
Ok rule number 1....never tell the doctor that isn't a sports physician that you are a cyclist.

Rule number 2 as a cyclist ALWAYS consult a qualified sports physician but never tell him you are a cyclist!

Also it's interesting to note that some of our heavy mileage guys are all suffering from serious injuries to knees and backs.

Andy, have you ever been professionally been fitted to your bikes, along with cleat setups and Etc? Or has it been a case of just going by how you feel on the bike?

On a last note here as none of us are doctors, specialists or even remotely qualified to give you any advice on this, I would continue to consult with those that are qualified.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

Pain has got worse and I'm struggling to stand up straight let alone walk about this morning. I'll go to see another specialist for a second opinion.

Hard to hide the fact you're a cyclist when you're a big foreign guy riding a big bike in a small rural town...


I had my new bike fitted in the summer. Quite a different set up to before, so yes I'll be looking into that.

I'm sure everything will be fine and dandy. The wife just looked at me and said "you should try having a baby!"

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
The wife just looked at me and said "you should try having a baby!"
www.jyonnobitime.com/time

I get that from mine also.

My wife has said to get yourself to hospital and having a full works done mate. Also to help reduce the pain use ice packs and stay away from onsen and hot baths, booze and anything with caffiene. (My wife is qualified to give advice)
 
James, onen and booze!? Really?! We had to skip today's planned hiking but are thinking of onsen all the same....

Just back from the hospital:

Yesterdays pain only got worse. I could barely walk this morning. I went to see a different doctor today and had some xrays taken. It seems I have a stress fracture in my lowest vertebrae. He thinks this is from childhood. Most people can lead a normal life with this condition but prolonged time in same position, like operating machinery or I guess cycling, can cause irritation and pain spread via nerves. He and I are more concerned about my hip joints. The right ball joint is quite worn. Perhaps a hip job will be necessary later? The left has some wear and some calcium build up. I got some medicine for the pain and for the calcium. 3 days of rest. If the pain doesn't subside by Monday, its time for an MRI scan...
Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
Ice works by narrowing the space inside the blood vessels, which limits blood flow and decreases the metabolic requirements of your soft tissues. The limited blood flow also reduces the amount of irritating chemicals that are delivered to the injury site. While these chemicals are a natural and useful response to inflamation, they must be kept in check to avoid swelling, and excessive formation of scar tissue at the site of your back or neck injury. Ice also acts as an anesthetic to reduce the pain of injury.

As for booze it's a muscle relaxant and what you don't want to do is relax the muscles that are actually supporting the area that is injured.

One of the things they prescribe to the Keirin riders is Glucosamine and Fish Oil with EPA and DHA. As a serious athlete you will need to make sure that your intake meets your DRA, it changes for everyone based on age, gender and level of exercise so make sure you are getting enough as most people just take what's on the packet, although the jury is still out on if it actually helps or not.
 
It's been a while, but I've had good luck with the electro-stimulation and the stretcher device (which I found very relaxing/helpful, if it's the same thing as for you). It came via a 整形 doc, who also runs a dojo above his clinic. (As close to sports medicine as I've found locally.)
 
Andy, mate. I am sorry to hear about all this.

A very good friend of mine recently had a hip replacement in the UK. She is a competitive horse jumper, and still in her mid-20´s.

If you like, I can put you in touch and maybe you can discuss her experiences in comparison with yours.
 
Hi Andy,

Sorry to hear things are getting worse. I can certainly feel for you!

Great you had some x-rays taken for a start. If the x-rays show what you say they show, this is certainly a start for hypothesising about what the issue could be. However, be warned that doctors sometimes mistake the most obvious issue they can see in an image for the cause while in fact something else might be going on. E.g. in my case the Japanese doctors look at my MRI and always say I have hernia and leave it at that. In fact, while I have two slightly herniated disks, this is not at all the cause of my pain, and it is possible to tell both from looking at the MRI more carefully and by carefully differentiating the type of pain. This is also why I suggested you describe your pain in more detail and try to differentiate between different types. My Japanese doctors never bothered to try and understand my pain properly, and instead straight went for prescribing pain killers which, however, hardly work.

Anyhow, if you can ask the clinic to give you the x-rays on disk and send them to me, I can show them to my specialist uncle for a second opinion. It would need to be by Monday morning my time though because this is when I see him next and will have his attention.

Greetings from a hospital bed in Germany!

Ludwig
 
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