Quote:
Originally Posted by Renton555
I need the armchair PTs to come out. I have a dull pain (barely qualifies as pain, more like an ache) along the left side of my left calf, and down into the ankle a little. It emerges, without fail, in two situations:
1) When I am lying down with the leg straight for more than 15 minutes.
2) When I am standing for longer than 5 minutes.
It always goes away once I start walking or once I bend the knee. It never happens when I'm sitting even for extended periods. I've had this pain for over a month now.
Diagnose me pls.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nuclear500
Sounds like a peroneal issue where the muscle is actively trying to plantar flex (push down) and its not being allowed to because there is ground in the way
When you are lying down, are you allowing your feet to relax or trying to force your toes "up"? Is this under cover where the foot is being forced straight?
Bending the knee or walking is going to allow the peroneal to either be active in its function (pushing off) or relax (the foot just falling straight) and it will alleviate the muscle contracting for no reason (Charlie horse). When you are sitting your body senses that the feet aren't required for stabilization and therefore they aren't being engage in any manner and are allowed to relax.
*shrug*
How to fix? I runno raggy. It might be an imbalance against the tibialis muscles, or perhaps even the larger part of the calf.
An update: this is still happening and I think it might have even become worse. I have mainly chosen to ignore it but it took until today for me to do a modicum of investigation. Based on my findings, I don't think nuclear500's hypothesis fits.
Recap: I have pain in my left lower leg. Calf but not really any particular muscle, more like the left side and left rear of the calf. It happens exclusively when I stand for longer than a couple of minutes. Now that it has developed a bit, there is some numbness in my foot and toes if I stand for more than a few minutes. The pain is a dull, cramp-style sensation that worsens as I continue standing, but never becomes unbearable. Numbness and pain dissipates almost immediately upon sitting, and a bit more slowly as I walk. I can walk for 40 minutes without having any symptoms.
So I did some reading. Sciatica doesn't fit at all. A herniated disc compressing a nerve doesn't fit very well, as generally the pain is constant and doesn't depend on position. Scarily, lumbar stenosis fits like a glove in terms of the symptoms, especially that LSS pain onset is caused by standing and relieved immediately by sitting. But I don't fit in the population for LSS, I'm too young and no trauma to the spine.
Today at the poker room I had the pain pretty bad while I was standing waiting to get cashed out, and since it was fresh in my mind, I tried relieving the pain with some different positions. First I stood on my right foot and bent my left knee with left hip extended. This did nothing for my pain. Then, I bent my left knee AND hip such that my thigh was parallel to the floor but my torso was still upright and spine extended. Basically a single leg raise with bent knee. This immediately lessened the pain and numbness.
So my amateur diagnosis is that it is a pinched nerve caused left hip extension. This seems to fit more than nerve pinching in ankle, knee, or spine. Any thoughts?