DERMATOLOGY / SKIN ISSUES:
- dryness facial area, ears, inside of ears, top on head……. Feels like the dryness inside frontal lobe travels throughout the head and back neck…… makes me feel dizzy, pain/heavyness in joints after showers….. if I am cold I develop dizziness symptoms…. If I drink cold liquids in cold weather I get dizziness and feel swollen , zombie like.
If I sweat, although initial feeling is good, the sweat makes me cooler and that starts to make me dizzy/faint/etc and with the cold the dryness gets intense in ears and other parts.
WIND – makes it worst.
Head and shoulders shampoo didn’t work.
Aquaphor works couple hours then it’s all back again. Seems to be systemic / internal problem. Started after 2nd covid pfizer vaccine.
Neck back/front…. Cold air or drinking ice colds created a hair whitening/thinning/loss pattern.
Spots on my arms and body…. Sun touches skin and it feels as if it’s burning.
I don’t swim due to skin feeling afterwards.
END OF NOTES FOR PERTAINING TO SKIN / DERMATOLOGY.
April 2018:
- Sudden sharp pain in left buttock, felt like a muscle tear.
- This caused a left foot drop, immediate loss of function at ankle, and unable to lift foot.
- The symptoms were similar to what was experienced in 2011 and 2012, and I felt it was either SI Joint or L2-3 related. No Foot Drop during 2011 or 2012.
*In 2011, I had sudden shooting pain in my RIGHT leg, and injections at L2-3 nerve root helped alleviate the pain and symptoms completely.
The flow of nerve pain was down my inner thigh, groin, down to the foot and toes.
*In 2012, I had sudden onset of pain on the left side buttock, lower back, which was thought to be from L2-3, but after my own research I asked the doctor to give me an SI Joint injection. After months of suffering and almost being told to go for fusion surgery, a single SI Joint injection resolved the issue completely.
NOTE: My SI Joint symptoms were so bad that I couldn’t go to the bathroom easily. It took me an hour to position my back and taking Oxycodone or Hydrocodone every 4 hours to just simply use the bathroom. With all this true si joint pain, I never had any symptom of foot drop (in 2012).
MRI #1 LUMBAR (2018):
It showed the midline calcified disc that has always been there along with other wear and tear of the spine as I have a history.
MRI #2 PELVIC (2018):
It showed a large muscle tear, avulsion injury.
Surgery (09.2018):
Surgery was done to decompress the L2-3 area.
Calcified midline disc (large size) was not removed.
Note: Prior to this surgery, although my pain was being managed well with Nycynta ER and Advil, at times I felt I was not needing the medicine as much. However the pain wasn’t completely gone and I still had the foot drop.
When I woke from surgery, a new concern, I was unable to stand as my left leg had severe weakness and shooting pain (and neuropathic) sensation traveling along the lateral femoral nerve down to my toes. Prior to surgery I did not have this onset of pain, but did feel at times the pathway which was causing the foot drop was coming from those muscle groups that are possibly involved with the lateral femoral nerve. Lastly, I developed a new pain and continuous muscle contractions after this surgery at front of left thigh which was more prominent when sitting. This is mentioned in the segment after this but it’s important to note that new symptom started after the L2-3 surgical procedure, but to end this symptom another surgery had to be done at L4-5 to stop this symptom, which was very strange. A surgery at L2-3 caused a new symptom which was now coming from L4-5? And had surgery to fix that issue. That was strange.
MRI (2019):
Radiologist failed to mention in the 2018 MRI that there was soft tissue impinging upon the L5 nerve root. All other findings were similar including the L2-3 large midline calcified disc.
Surgery (10.2019):
Surgery was done to explore the soft tissue impingement on the L4-5 nerve root. However it is not 100% confirmed that that was the main problem or cause of foot drop.
Prior to surgery I was in a better state than after surgery.
After surgery my pain had increased and as of current, I have been unable to get off of medications due to continuous non-stop pain.
New Pain (11.2021):
After a step slip, I developed mid-back pain (chronic burning all over spine, tingling sensations down my legs and feet, including sometimes my hand and right arm).
Presently I get mid-back pain which changes with my movement, if I walk it gets better, but then builds again and I have to sit, then lie down, and so on. It’s not a constant pain in the mid back but it is very debilitating.
Right leg is now very involved with lateral femoral nerve symptoms along with mid to inner thigh symptoms traveling at times to groin, and toes.
Note:
Overall, the pain prior to the New Pain (11.2021) was very prominent around the SI Joint area and traveling down my left lateral femoral nerve and in severe inflammation case it would go to the top of foot and toes. Now since the new pain, I also feel the right leg impacted. I wake up in the morning with a feeling of stenosis, impacting both legs with the traveling pathway as mentioned.
**In December of 2020 I developed severe migraines.
**In February of 2021 I developed severe abdominal pain.
***** There seems to be an inflammatory issue going on due to prolonged damage of current unsolvable pain *****
PRIOR HISTORY (1997 – 1999):
In 1997 or 1998 I had herniated discs at L3-4 and L4-5.
Surgery was done, however I never had any pain relief.
Another surgery was done in 1998 or 1999 in which the herniated discs had to be chiseled out. Had complete recovery.
NOTE:
It appears I never had pain relief from the first surgery (1997) because the surgeon only decompressed the spine and did not remove the calcified discs. It was during the second surgery (1998) that the discs were chiseled to provide pain relief.
This is very important, because now, in 2018 I had the
L2-3 decompression surgery, however there remains a large calcified midline disc herniation. Therefore, can this mean this is a similar situation as was in 1997 – 1999?
Furthermore, according to previous MRI’s (i.e. 2012), it continues to show a large midline calcified disc, but during that year it was a SI Joint issue, and after treatment I recovered completely.
Or was this an L4-5 nerve impingement issue, but if so, why is the pain grown more after this surgery?
Or lastly, is this still an Si Joint problem? If so, then how come in in 2012 a single injection worked? How come I did not get a foot drop then, even though the pain was more severe in terms of mobility?
Prior to the new pain (11.2021), I always felt the left SI Joint was the issue. There were indications the right side flared up at times too. It truly felt like an SI Joint issue, but if this can be mimicked by a spinal problem, then which spinal level can this be?
*** Just a quick mention of early on symptoms. After the initial injury in 2018, after a while when I was able to walk a little, I would noticed that my spine would feel like a rod (stenosis) and that pressure would at times be so bad that I thought I would collapse with my LBP and legs giving up.***
I find it hard to believe that prior to this initial injury on 04.01.2018, I was completely normal (pain free) and can run for miles easily. I did not have foot drop.
And since this injury it’s a been a painful puzzle to solve?