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This just started today (or at least this is the first I've noticed it). When I sneeze, every once in a while I also get sharp shooting pains up the outside of my right thigh. Like needles poking me kind of pain, but more spread out and not just surface. Nothing when I cough, though.
Recent changes: I now have three kittens in the house (two are mine, the third I'm babysitting for the holiday), and they have all been jumping up onto my lap with their little kitten claws exposed. So I have lots of little scratches everywhere. But those are all surface and fairly insignificant. Also, yesterday I pulled something in my back trying to open my frozen car trunk lid. I've been resting it, taking Advil and using heating pads, and it's down to a low ache.
Any ideas? Suggestions on treatment? (Yeah yeah, I know, go see a doctor LOL)
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Since you already said "go see a doctor" yourself, I'll skip that part. I think that the fact that it happens when you sneeze is more due to the fact that you tend to contract the muscles in your body when you sneeze. And while you do that when you cough too, it's done in a lesser way. So I'd say don't worry about the connection with sneezing. As for the pain itself, I'll leave someone else to give you advice on it. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I would wonder if the thigh pains with sneezing is secondary to the back injury yesterday. I usually prefer ice to heat, and the advil dose should be 600mg three times a day with food.
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Theaca, I also wondered if the back strain was the cause. That's part of why I made a point of mentioning the strain.
I'm on regular cold meds this morning (thank you sister who decided to come to Thanksgiving sick and cough all over people) so I'm not sneezing now. The back is a little achy without painkillers. Those ThermaCare pads are quite nifty, I need to buy more of them!
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Neurogengic pain in the leg after a back injury could be due to pressure on the sciatic nerve. And the all-over spasmy-ness you get with sneezing could irritate that.
Anti-inflammatory and anti-histamines. Ice for the first 24 hours, then heat.
Get your weight off your feet before you sneeze. And no kidding, see a doctor. Get an MRI and find out what's going on down there. Don't let anyone tell you to "wait a while and see what happens."
My back injury was in 1996, it wasn't until 2000 that coughing and sneezing finally put me in the hospital. By the time it was all over I'd throw myself at a cement floor rather than cough or sneeze while standing on my feet.
Also for the "stop sneezing" advice. It's true. load yourself up with antihistamines and stay home from work. If it's allergies, get a respirator and/or HEPA filter and breathe clean air. Get rid of the cats.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I don't necessarily agree. 90% of back pains resolve within one month. Most back pains are not serious. If you get evaluated and you don't have any serious problems on exam or by history, then the doctor may very well be conservative for the first few weeks. That's the standard of care. Now, waiting four years, THAT'S not standard of care.
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I didn't wait four years. I fought with the worker's comp company for four years. They took the original doctor's "it's probably just a back strain, wait and see what happens" as a final diagnosis. During that time my back got increasingly worse, but it wasn't until I got taken to the emergency room in an ambulance that I finally got the MRI that my neurosurgeon and chiropractor had both been requesting.
According to the evil comp lady, I didn't need an MRI because "I wasn't in any pain." Followed by: "We've never been contacted by your doctor.(despite the fact that they'd paid the doctor). By this time the original doctor had left town, and the HMO he worked for was out of business, so it we couldn't get records back to that point. But that doctor was the only one she would admit had ever seen or diagnosed me.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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"I don't necessarily agree. 90% of back pains resolve within one month. Most back pains are not serious."
The complaint is pain down the legs when sneezing, after a back injury. That's not a back strain or spasm, there's nerve involvment.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Back pain is extremely serious, when left unresolved. Many self-correct, true, but if left undiagnosed then further exacerbated, serious injury can occur. As in, lifelong.
But this doesn't sound like sciatica to me. For one, the pain's down the outside of the leg -- I suppose it's possible, but I've never heard of nerve damage with that kind of effect.
But then, I also really don't know what I'm talking about. See a doctor, padawan.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I didn't say it couldn't be serious. I'm just saying the doctor needs to take a good history and exam to decide on a proper course of action. Which may be conservative for the first few weeks, depending.
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I think that the fact that it happens when you sneeze is more due to the fact that you tend to contract the muscles in your body when you sneeze. And while you do that when you cough too, it's done in a lesser way. So I'd say don't worry about the connection with sneezing. As for the pain itself, I'll leave someone else to give you advice on it. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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