Something wrong with legs

I've been to doctors, a specialist, physical therapist, x-ray, and no one can seem to figure it out.
This "injury" or whatever it is, has been re-occurring since high school when I ran cross-country. The hamstring area would start to hurt. After hs I didn't do any sports or exercise, but the hamstring areas (not sure if it is hamstrings, glutes, or somethings else) would feel like they've been torn every few months. I figured out that if I slept in an awkward position, or crosses my legs while sitting it would seem to aggravate this inflammatory response, and would hurt only while walking. I went to a physical therapist and they had me do hamstring exercises, they seemed to help a bit but not cure this occasional re-occurrence. I've been going to the gym for over a year now, doing squats and other legs exercises so muscle weakness is not an issue. It would aggravate every once in a while and I'd have to take a week off from the gym, but the past month both legs have been really messed up every week. I haven't been to the gym for about 2 months, they seem to heal for several days then one or the other leg will feel like I re-tore a muscle. They started getting worse a couple months after switching my routine (squats EOD), but it didn't hurt during squats or immediately after squats (weird) but 2 days after.

Another weird thing is that each leg would seem to cycle, once every 3 months it would be my left leg hurting, 3 months later it would be my right leg. I'd take ibprofen and rest, let it heal, but a several months later it might come back for unknown reasons. The specialist I went to said this is not a normal pattern, and thinks it doesn't have anything to do with muscle injury but something wrong with a nerve in my back maybe (scheduled for mri).

Any ideas to look into appreciated. I got a foam roller and have been using that.

just a thought relating to ur specialits suggestion its nerve related.

I had this happen a few yrs ago. a Mortons Neuroma. (not related to cancer, its basically a inflamed nerve))

a nerve gets compressed in the foot between 2 metatarsals, usually after too much walking or running (for me it was walking , perhaps with incorrect fitting shoes), and the nerve is squeezed between the 2 bones each time u take a step, and the more u walk the worse it gets because it gets more inflamed which results in it getting more squeezed so its a vicious circle, which puts u in agonising pain. and its a weird electrical type pain, that shoots up and down ur legs, feels like a electric shock, and soon u cant walk. the treatment is very simple however u just need orthotic insoles that have a lump of foam between the 2 metatarsals which are compressing the nerve and each time u take a step the fosm pushs upwards and splits the bones away from the nerve and the problem reverses.

now u may not think this sounds like u, but bear in mind the electrical pain is felt not in ur feet but up and down ur legs especially in ur thighs. So i would suggest its either this or a compressed nerve in ur back, perhaps by a bone spur.

do u have any spinal damage? id suggest a back xray looking for slipped discs, or bone spurs, a doctors test for sciatic nerve damage, and also try positioning little bits of foam
taping them under ur feet , feel from ur big toe, 3 bones across (between 3rd and 4th metatarsal from ur big toe) about 1/3rd back from ur toes, just under.the pad of ur
foot.

just some ideas, maybe it will help.

Thanks for the input. The pain doesn't feel like an electrical shock, more like a muscle tear/strain. My back x-rays showed up fine, maybe an MRI can reveal some nerve being pinched in my back. I don't know if the nerve would be in the foot, because the pain never goes below the knee. If it is a nerve, the question remains what treatments will help

then its quite likly doc will find bone spurs pressing on sciatic nerve. and the only real way to fix is surgery, a relative had it done. theres also a herbal combination for anti inflammation of the sciatic nerve that works well but ill hav to find the name of it.

if its muscular, then id see a chinese doctor for relief maybe some cupping and acupuncture and massage.

ill bet the mri finds something pressing on a nerve .

I just scimmed your post but from what I could see - Ihave the same with the hamstring. Might be a nerve in my lower back that has a little compression on it.

cpio wrote:
I just scimmed your post but from what I could see - Ihave the same with the hamstring. Might be a nerve in my lower back that has a little compression on it.

Do you notice that if you cross your legs a lot, it will start hurting the next day or so? I always thought this wasn't normal because I see other people sitting with their legs crossed all the time.

I havent noticed that .. I get it in my right hamstring, I also have problems in my right shoulder. I practice alot of yoga and it helps. Stress also seem to play big role.

j87x wrote:

cpio wrote:
I just scimmed your post but from what I could see - Ihave the same with the hamstring. Might be a nerve in my lower back that has a little compression on it.

Do you notice that if you cross your legs a lot, it will start hurting the next day or so? I always thought this wasn't normal because I see other people sitting with their legs crossed all the time.

Anxious1 wrote:then its quite likly doc will find bone spurs pressing on sciatic nerve. and the only real way to fix is surgery, a relative had it done. theres also a herbal combination for anti inflammation of the sciatic nerve that works well but ill hav to find the name of it.

if its muscular, then id see a chinese doctor for relief maybe some cupping and acupuncture and massage.

ill bet the mri finds something pressing on a nerve .

Having surgery to fix a musculoskeletal problem is completely retarded. It would be like if your car had a defective tire that was causing the alignment to get messed up, and you took the car into the shop and had the alignment fixed, but kept the defective tire on the car. A couple months of driving later, the alignment would be messed up again (because of the tire), and you'd convince yourself that the car was a lemon or something stupid like that. Maybe you'd even purchase a rife machine in an attempt to fix your car (joking). Doctors are worthless when it comes to this stuff. They take an x-ray and say,

"Here's your problem! X bone is pressing on Y nerve, so we need to remove X bone to alleviate the pain on Y nerve!"

Again, retarded advice, as X bone is there for a reason... your muscles put it there. So, if you have X bone removed or fused via surgery, just like the car example above, you'll have the exact same problem a couple months/years later, because you didn't actually fix the problem, you only fixed a symptom of the problem. Your muscles are the tire in the car analogy. Muscles move bones, it's not the other way around. So, you need to figure out which specific muscles are causing the dysfunction, and then restore them to their proper balance and alignment, and then the bones will return to their natural position and the nerves will no longer have pressure on them.

J87x, I would read at least the first two books by Pete Egoscue. After you read them, you'll literally laugh at how simple it is, and the prospect of having surgery will never cross your mind again. Here are the titles:

Pain Free, A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain (by Pete Egoscue, his 2nd and the "flagship" book)
The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion (his first book)

If you're only gonna read one book, read the Pain Free one, but if you're gonna read both, read the Pain Free one second. I recommend reading both.

Good luck, bud!

Again, retarded advice, as X bone is there for a reason... your muscles put it there. So, if you have X bone removed or fused via surgery, just like the car example above,

well my mother had it done and it worked. small pieces of bone can separate from vertebre and press into nerves. not because a muscle moved its location. in her case doctors removed her tailbone at a young age (which definately is retarded i know, and barbaric) anyway, this eventually caused bone spurs to develop.

so i stand by my advice, which he does not have to take, as 'retarded as it may seem to u'.

anyway, its only if an xray finds bone spurs, it may not even happen, wat do u suggest? just leave them there to cause more damage to nerves?

Anxious1 wrote:

Again, retarded advice, as X bone is there for a reason... your muscles put it there. So, if you have X bone removed or fused via surgery, just like the car example above,

well my mother had it done and it worked. small pieces of bone can separate from vertebre and press into nerves. not because a muscle moved its location. in her case doctors removed her tailbone at a young age (which definately is retarded i know, and barbaric) anyway, this eventually caused bone spurs to develop.

so i stand by my advice, which he does not have to take, as 'retarded as it may seem to u'.

anyway, its only if an xray finds bone spurs, it may not even happen, wat do u suggest? just leave them there to cause more damage to nerves?

Anytime I see a comment like "the only way to fix it is via surgery," I get a little riled up. Sure, if you tear your ACL in half, you'll probably need to repair it with surgery, but that's different. I personally think that J87x has a pretty basic issue of musculoskeletal dysfunction and telling him that the only way to fix something is through surgery is pretty dangerous advice, but that's just my opinion. If you're not addressing the actual dysfunctional muscles during physical therapy, the therapy will (ironically) only serve to make the dysfunction worse, which is why most basic physical therapy programs don't work. I personally spent a great deal of time lifting weights, playing sports, and doing various PT programs, but because I was in a state of dysfunction, I was literally making myself weaker, more prone to injury, and in a constant state of musculoskeletal pain because I was making the dysfunction stronger with every workout... until I read the Egoscue book, and everything clicked for me.

Bone spurs develop for a good reason. I just went through the Pain Free book and typed up all the quotes relating to them. Here they are:

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"Bone spurs are painful, tiny calcium deposits that are formed at the spot where improper friction is irritating the bone. A form of callus, they serve to protect the bone from stress and chafing. Removing the calcium deposit is the standard medical procedure, but doing so without removing the cause of the irritation (also standard medical procedure) means that the inflammation and the pain will eventually return. The body will continue to activate this protective mechanism until the source of the friction is eliminated.

The formation of calcium deposits is a result of friction caused by musculoskeletal misalignment. The body always reacts to friction. It has to, otherwise vital components will be worn away. The bones' defensive mechanism against friction is to generate an extra layer of calcium. But this solution is not idea since the calcium interferes with the movement of the vertebrae. Given enough friction and enough calcium, the process creates nerve impingement. The standard surgical remedy is to remove the lamina of the vertebrae – basically, one slope of the arch or ridge that runs along the posterior of the spine – enter the canal, and scrape away the calcium.

I have rarely seen a case of this where the procedure was really necessary. Yes, there is calcium in the spinal canal, and there is nerve impingement. But if the lumbar, thoracic, and cervical curves are restored to a functional state, the spinal cord and the branching nerve roots usually have enough room to operate without interference. All of these conditions occur because of muscular dysfunction, as weak and compensating muscles allow the structure of the spine to be displaced and damaged.

[in the context of ankles]
Bone spurs don't just happen. They are the result of grinding and pounding the ankle's components in isolation (rather than in context with the other load bearing joints)."
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My point is that if you're not fixing the actual problem, more and more bone spurs will develop (because your body is using them for protection), and you'll end up with ongoing issues.