About 3 weeks ago I experienced some lower back pain after lifting, nothing too serious. The pain progressed to my right glute and down the lateral side of my leg to the calf - it was very painful, burning sensation what I would best describe as nerve pain (?). It reduced my range of motion to touch my toes to about 90 degrees between torso and legs, worst pain when standing with some relief when sitting. I decided to try and stretch my glutes and hip flexors and for whatever reason it helped the pain and range of motion significantly (more or less back to normal).
What I’m left with is a weakness in plantar flexion of my right foot, no real pain in my back or leg to write home about, and the right gluteus medius/upper outside region of butt is tender to the touch. The weakness in my ankle/calf is most disturbing. It is not constant, it seems to improve after a few days of rest, but gets fatigued quickly - yesterday I ran a mile and it got to the point where I had significant difficulty staying on the ball of my foot. After a night’s sleep it seems some strength comes back but not 100% when compared to left leg (e.g. doing standing calf raises to compare at about 60% of left leg). I don’t seem to have issues with internal/external rotation of my leg or dorsiflexion of my foot (lifting toes).
Thus far I have been self-diagnosing/treating only.
My questions are:
Is this something that I can take a wait and see approach? It seems I had/have some S1/L5 or peroneal nerve compression that caused the issue and perhaps gently stretching and easing into strengthening is appropriate.
If more complex, what is my best next step? Private consult with you, GP, Chiropractor, PT…?
@PieterC Hey - thanks for the questions. Sorry to hear about this but sounds like overall you’re coping well with the situation. We’d need a consult to give more insight on this or individualistic advice. With that said, often times radicular or radiculopathy based symptoms can occur in these situations which may result in decreased range of motion, strength, and function. The good news - we don’t typically get overly concerned unless progressive neurological symptoms occur (bowel/bladder issues, groin numbness, progressive loss of motor function, etc). Otherwise we manage these scenarios similar to others with education, graded exercise exposure, management of loading, and embracing the process. I will say often when someone has radicular or radiculopathy symptoms then our timeline may be extended a bit longer than say localized symptoms to low back.