Anyone suffering from sciatica?

[joeyr]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to get in touch, mostly for reassurance (hopefully!) - I went to the doctors with a pain in the back of my knee and their first idea was that it could be a DVT. There was some cramping in my calf - the doctor examined me, poking and prodding my leg and checking reflexes etc and then, because the pain kept moving around to my calf, ankle, thigh, said that she thought it was more likely to be nerve pain and wasn't a DVT. This was about 3 weeks ago and the leg pain and cramping feeling is getting better each day, to be honest, but is there all the time. I'm being sent to have an MRI scan in June.

Now, I've noticed a very slight toothache style pain in the very base of my back, which feels a lot like sciatica. I am wondering if sciatica could cause cramping style pain in my calf and thigh, and a feeling of tightness in the muscles there. I also have a tingling sensation some days and a weird feeling like weakness, almost like my leg isn't fully attached (!). Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has had weird leg sensations like this due to sciatica as I have got myself into a bit of a state thinking they might be missing something a bit more urgent like the aforementioned blood clot. But my thinking is that there would be some changes in the leg physically and I have been checked over by the doc. Seems a bit of coincidence if I get this sciatica pain in my left side and then all this weird stuff in the same leg that it's likely to be the sciatica.

Can anyone help?

[silver blaze]

I've had sciatica and my feet used to go numb and pain would shoot down the back of leg and in my hip it lasted for months

[MyNameIsTerry]

They are all classic signs of sciatica. I've had it for over a year, it's pretty much gone days though. My dad has been having bouts of it for years and his were much worse than mine as he had a week where he had to crawl along the floor once when his back went at work.

I would get tingling in my foot & toes, tightness in my calf, tightness would very worse if I stretched it like bending and the tightness would be up the back of the though too. Lower back ache was also there.

It sounds like sciatica to me.

[joeyr]

Ah, that's a huge relief! I thought it was strange that sciatica would affect muscle pain so badly and cause cramps, but I suppose it's all nerves. What you said also explains why I did some gentle yoga thinking it was a pulled muscle in the beginning and the cramps came back much worse the next day. Just walked the dog now for an hour and I can feel it aching in my lower back. Thanks for your suggestion - there's no actual shooting pain as such but I do have an ache along with the other weird sensations.