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Over Memorial Day weekend I tried my friend's inversion table. I've never been on one before so wasn't sure about safety. My friend told me to go into full inversion. I was completely upside down for less then 20 seconds. When I tried to come out of the inversion my friend said to just bend my knees. I was completely inverted bending my knees. I finally came out of it but I did not experiencing any pain until the next day. And it really wasn't pain actually but rather electric shock sensations up and down both leg. Although these sensations aren't as intense now, I am currently experiencing a burning, prickling sensation mainly on my inner thighs, around my knees and ankles and the toes on my right foot are throbbing - sometimes feel like they are going to explode. There is also a mild prickling, pin and needles feeling around my elbows and abdominal region and sometimes around my genital area and buttocks. After four weeks of physical therapy after my doctor said I might have herniated a disc but since I have had no relief. I finally took an MRI of the L-Spine and the Sacrum. Apparently I have facet arthropathy on my l4 and l5 spine and they think this is what is causing my symptoms. But from my research with facet arthropathy there usually isn't any pain past the knees. I feel like I am miss diagnosed and that I do have some kinda of nerve irritation, compression or worse damage. My doctor said my condition will heal on it's own but I am really finding this hard to believe. Can someone please help me with something my doctor might be missing? Do you think I should take an EMG test? Any thoughts or further explanation would be greatly appreciated!
Optional Information: Person's Gender: Male Person's Age: 39 Already Tried: Physical Therapy
Hello.
Yes, you are correct, typically with facet irritation people can have lower back pain which radiates into the buttock and upper thigh, but not typically past the knee.
When people have an issue involving the thigh and down the leg to the foot, the issue is often with L5 or S1 nerves, so looking at the MRI for places which could be compressing these nerves on the right side would be important.
If nothing is obvious on the MRI, the issue is still probably nerve irritation, but perhaps just temporary irritation, as no area can be found on the MRI. In these cases, it is more likely that you will have improvement on it's own.
EMG testing can be helpful, though it would be done after you had several weeks' worth of symptoms, which it appears to have done. It would probably be helpful for a spine surgeon to review the actual images from your MRI as well.
Thank you Doctor for quick reply. Based on the information I gave you do you feel like my issues are a result of the inversion table?
Well, for some reason, your nerve had something cause it to become irritated.
It certainly could have been an issue with the inversion table.
But the MRI doesn't seem to suggest anything specific that could have caused it. Nevertheless, the timing of your symptoms after the use of the inversion table seem to suggest it.
Experience: Neurosurgeon - Brain, spine, and peripheral nerve surgery