likely just old age

Old age ain't for sissies

Sounds like sciatica which could hurt from the back and radiate down the outside of the leg and across the top of the foot. Depending on which nerves are affected, you may feel the pain in different areas.

See, I was thinking it was a "tight" IT band. Iliotibial bands aren't muscles so they don't really tighten up, but they get stiff and kind of sticky so they don't slide over the muscles very well and can be kind of painful.

TV - I was thinking IT band also, I suffer from that since my TKR but it’s centered over the knee. Not sure how far the pain could reach but it’s awful.

Thanks so much for your thoughts, everyone.

I want to give a brief response now before I have to runoff to someplace, but will be back later.

I am familiar with sciatica because I get that on my other leg. That is horrible. I call it my bear trap because it feels like my leg and down to my foot and big toe is trapped in some sort of a cruel bear trap. That is a nightmare condition. But this particular pain and numbness on my upper thigh looks like the outline in the diagram with the article I link to. It’s in that area. It does not go past my upper thigh and it is not consistent with the symptoms and presentation of sciatic pain. And also because I have experienced sciatica on my other leg, I can note the difference.

The other condition that several of you mentioned was IT band syndrome. Unfortunately, I have also experienced that particular type of pain. If I’m subtly walking, say a pill and I haven’t been exercising or walking, I get this tightening painful situation along my upper leg and maybe down to my knee. I usually noticed it on my upper thigh and it feels like some sort of cramp and I cannot continue walking uphill even a gentle slope if I’m out of shape without this pain. That’s not always present, but if I again try to suddenly do something and I’m out of shape which is usually the case because I have horrendous back pain and I am horizontal a good part of the time because verticality is problematic. But I think I know what the IT band pain is like. I think I’ve experienced that as I just stated and this is different.

As I stated earlier in the beginning post, this pain is the upper leg, lateral or outside of my thigh. It comes on after I have been standing for about an hour or sometimes even from walking. I’ve had several episodes of it. When I cannot get off my feet and the pain continues it turns into burning pain, quite substantial, burning pain and paradoxically as it sounds it is also a numb feeling. Again it feel so I could put a tack in my upper thigh and not even feel it. I’ve carefully read several of the descriptions of the nerve compression described in the link, and I feel very confident that this is the likely culprit.

As to the cause, I usually do not wear tight clothing because if I wear something like Levi’s jeans, which I used to live in it causes compression on my pelvis and increases my back pain. I have had a long-standing back injury and now have spinal stenosis and facet joint arthritis around L2 - L3 (lumbar vertebrae number two and three). That same vertebrae is mentioned as where the nerve that innervate the upper thigh tissue – – not motor, but skin and tissue — so I wonder if my injury around L2 L3 might be the cause of the pain in my thigh. I’m not doing a good job of explaining this I think because I’m trying to use speech to text with the iPad and I’m also speaking onto the notepad because I cannot use this application with HOUZZ. So I have to skip between Pages to see what I’m responding to and what I’m writing and it’s not accurate to make a lot of typos. Also, I’m uncomfortable right now so I’m just distracted.

Teresafic wrote:

“I have Meralgia paresthetica.

I have had it for many years. I have a nerve blocker injection every three months and I am on Lyrica.

It took several PCPs to find one who took enough time to care. She looked it up on google. There are many, many articles about it.

Many PT exercises, which I never found to be helpful.

For me the nerve blocker/ Lyrica combo works.”

Thank you, teresafic.Your response is helpful. I have questions, but have to be someplace, so will ask later. I looked up the medication Lyrica and it appears that that is a lot like a type of gabapentin used for seizures and often used for nerve pain. I cannot take that because I tried it before variations and dosages, but could not tolerate the very weird feeling it was like my brain had been eaten by a brain worm. I couldn’t hold my thoughts together. I couldn’t think I felt ill and was really ZOMBIFIED. I gave us a good long trial of maybe a month or two and I just could not get any work done. I couldn’t function. The same with that tricycle antidepressant amitriptyline that they often use for nerve I couldn’t tolerate that either on lower or higher doses.

I will communicate this pain to my doctor, but apparently there’s no rush maybe it will go away. I can try to do stretches or exercises, but it hasn’t seemed to make a difference. I think it is probably from my Spine arthritis and stenosis is that is in the L2 L3 area. My doctor had wanted me to go to a Spine clinic and it’s connected with a university teaching hospital that I have not had good luck with before because it seems very well. I just thought they were really sloppy. I went there for several things and went to their pain clinic as well and they were really pretty awful so I don’t have confidence in that group and that’s fine clinic. And the other thing is the Spine clinic absolutely will not give any narcotic medication and I suppose if I ask, I’m looking like a drug seeker. I want pain relief not any type of altered state of mind. They use gabapentin and again I cannot tolerate that medication. It just makes me feel like I’ve had my brain injected with lidocaine so it’s a non-starter.

The other thing a lot of of these Spine clinics and places want to do is not so much diagnose. You is do a procedure like a injection of steroids and something else around your spinal canal. This excel can have risks. And if I end up in a lot of pain because of something they tried to do I’m not gonna get any pain. Relief offered to me except for that god-awful drug. In my opinion, Neurontin or gabapentin. For me that drug is awful. I understand it’s helpful to some people. I gave it a good try but cannot take it. So I talked longer than I meant to — anyway, thanks a lot for the feedback, all of you.

Please excuse typos and choppy note.

I have also used gabapentin and I did not like it. I was able to tolerate Lyrica.

Maybe try a nerve blocker. That is pretty successful for me. I am sure a pain clinic will use it. I go to a pain clinic to get my nerve blocker.

THANKS. Where do they inject? What material do they inject? glad you found some relief.

They go in through my groin and it is a corticosteroid.

Not a steroid so they are able to do it every 3 months.

For clarifcation in my prevois post, i said I went to a pain clinic. It is actually a psysiatrist.