This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hi everyone,

I am in the early stages of trying to determine if MS is the cause of the numbness down my left leg, pain in my hip and glute, and numbness in my pinky finger. One symptom I don't see described much anywhere is anything associated with knee pain. Mine isn't constant like the other symptoms, it comes on if I walk my dogs for too long or even just simply jog across a parking lot. Within about 15 minutes my knee will start to really ache.

Have others experienced this kind of temporary pain?

I also have increased numbness and "heaviness" in my leg after sitting in a car or plan for several hours...also common with others?

I have nerve testing in a month (the soonest they could get me in), and then an appointment with neurology, so I'm trying to do more research myself.

Ginger

Do you exercise regularly? Your lower back and hamstrings may be overworked because of gluteal inhibition. Ever had "disc" pain, a slipped "disc" or "thrown your back out"? The overworked musculature will physiologically tighten and shorten over time, leading to spasms if they are recruited and overused during strenuous work, or exercise (even driving in a car over a length of time). Pain in the knee, ankle, hip, and/or lower back is very common at this stage. The best thing to do is to stretch the hip flexors, using a pillow on the floor for support of your knee (this helps avoid housemaid's knee), while you have your other leg posted on your foot. Front knee should not track in front of toes.

Hip flexor stretch

Try to do 2 sets of 30 seconds, static hold. Do not force into pain, or go too far, as stretching of hip ligaments may occur, which you want to avoid. Squeeze each corresponding gluteus during the stretch (squeeze left glute during left hip flexor stretch, etc). After the stretch, perform glute activation exercises:

30 repetitions each (go easy, i.e.: do 10, at first, if that is all you are capable of, no shame), no resting in between exercises unless form breaks down:

1. Side lying leg abduction
2. 45° Clam shells
3. Glute bridge
4. Quadruped hip extention
5. Bird Dog
6. Single-leg glute bridge

These are glute activation exercises that "awaken" inhibited glutes. Hip flexors should be stretched prior to provide greater "motivation" for gluteal activation via reciprocal inhibition. If your lower back gets tired, or your hamstring begins to tire [be very careful, it may even spasm painfully if you force through] you are doing the exercises incorrectly. If this occurs: reduce the range-of-motion of the working limbs. Overextension in the glute bridge, e.g., may cause the erector spinae and multifidus to overtake the glutes in muscle activation. Overextension can occur in any of the 6 exercises, so you must be paying attention to the sensations in your body. You must feel the glutes become "pumped up" and tired for correct activation to occur. Once you are finished, you can walk around and see how you feel. Chances are, there will be less strain on your lower back, knees and ankles due to a correction of movement pattern, not to mention the nice sensation of "freedom" in the hip girdle. If this is the case, then these exercises should be performed night and day for a few weeks to neurologically reinforce muscle activation. Afterwards, glute strengthening and hypertrophy training should occur, taking advantage of the new-found neurological activation, which I cannot cover in a forum post.

Brett Contreras provides excellent information about the importance of the gluteals in movement.

Videos for the above exercises are listed on the right panel, below the squatting figure (scroll down): http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... glute_myth.

Be safe.

Oh thank you but I literally have set 15 records in drug-free powerlifting and used to teach 7+ power yoga classes a week! I had to stop because of all the pain in my body. I have no signs of muscular tears, disc ruptures, all MRIs have come back with insignificant findings. This really isn't an issue of strength or flexibility. If you have anything helpful to share on symptoms of MS, that is what I'm looking for.

Knee pain after running is not an MS symptom. Pain aggravated by physical movement sounds musculoskeletal in origin.

_________________
Dx: 9/8/11 RRMS
Gluten and dairy free diet
copaxone x3: let's hope the third time is the charm!
http://mylaceybrain.wordpress.com

I completely agree. Even if you are ultimately diagnosed with MS, it doesn't mean that every symptom can be attributed to MS.

_________________
Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)

Wow, so this forum is about attacking people for trying to find out if joint pain is part of MS? -- it doesn't just happen after running. But is flared by something as simple as 15 running steps across a parking lot. That's not really "running" like "going for a run."

Thanks for all your help and compassion -- so glad I stopped by.

I understand your frustration. It's hard waiting for a diagnosis for something that so greatly impacts your life. You aren't being attacked though.

A lot of us have found symptoms we blamed on MS not to be caused by our MS. It's kind of a sore point for pwms. You bring up any ailment with your doc and the doc says "oh, that's just your MS." (To be fair, my doc doesn't do this). The previous responders are likely trying to save you from putting up with pain that isn't caused by MS. We put up with a lot of MS symptoms. We don't need to endure things that can be fixed.

It's not uncommon for very active people to have joint issues. Have you looked into that possibility for that particular symptom?

OMG, you're not seriously accusing us of "attacking" you for trying to give you helpful suggestions from our years of experience are you?

I, like many (or most) of the other posters on here, am plagued with several other medical conditions besides MS. There's absolutely no way in hell that I can identify a specific symptom as MS, and my many doctors agree. I have MS, HNPP (a hereditary peripheral demyelinating neuropathy), arthritis (in most all my joints), etc., etc.

I'm sorry, but I repeat, I don't think your occasional joint pain is likely to be from MS. My knee pain is from joint damage, and I'm starting physical therapy for it next week -- just got evaluated on Wednesday. It's the knee on my non-MS side.

Why did you ask questions if you're going to freak out and disagree with all of our answers anyway? Where's your "compassion" for people like me who are trying to give helpful answers with our brains jammed full of MS lesions???? Sheesh. Welcome.

_________________
Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)

Wow, short fuse. I have two other auto-immune diseases myself so please spare me the desperate attempt to gain sympathy and pity.

goldendoodle,

your tone is out of line and unacceptable. one of the reasons i like this board is because we all maintain our wits and respond to each other politely and respectfully. i hope from here forward you will do the same.

_________________
Dx: 9/8/11 RRMS
Gluten and dairy free diet
copaxone x3: let's hope the third time is the charm!
http://mylaceybrain.wordpress.com

strong second to mmp. let's all take some deep breaths and move on.

I ran a search on my previous posts to folks that arrive with problems and high levels of athletic activity. these should be a good start:

introductions-f20/topic20001.html#p192278
post196315.html?hilit=athletic#p196315
post206052.html?hilit=athletic#p206052
post197670.html?hilit=athletic#p197670
post196578.html?hilit=athletic#p196578

you can also go to scholar.google.com for great reading.. I just ran a search as follows

http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=spor ... _sdt=0%2C5

here are some targets for nutrient values.. tests that are not done in the mainstream for ms but if you get them done you can find out if your levels are healthy or not.

for any of it to be meaningful you have to really get that 'normal' is not good enough, and not let the doc shrug off any findings as 'normal'. read on, there's at least one example in there of how the wheels can come off when normal is taken as acceptable/healthy:
regimens-f22/topic2489.html

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

I don't know about your numbness problems, but with respect to your knee pain, have you done anything extreme lately? Heavy weight squats or leg presses for example? Many years ago I had the same symptom of knee pain that you describe. It lasted for months, maybe a full year or so. I had gone hiking up a trail with 3000 ft of elevation gain in 4 miles. For fun on the way down I decided to run. I was jumping over rocks, swinging around trees on the switchbacks, and generally scaring the boots off other hikers on their way up the trail. I ran all the way down and had a great time. It reminded me of skiing and here it was the middle of summer. Unfortunately, it was a really bad idea. The first day back at work the following week I knelt down on some concrete. It felt like someone drove a nail into my knee. Anyways, the knee pain you described on short jogs across a street or parking lot continued for a long time after this hike/run. It was usually very sharp and would cause me to stop running. Sometimes I wondered if I was going to make it across the street before getting hit by traffic. The pain eventually stopped and hasn't been a problem since. One difference, my knee pain would kick in after just first few strides, making it to 15 minutes as you describe would have been out of the question.


That sort of sounds like a circulatory issue.

By the way, I agree with the other posters on this thread. Even with an MS diagnosis, it's often best to not attribute every little symptom to MS. We still get other problems and these are often treatable! That said, you might want to seek a doc's advice on your numbness and heavy leg symptom. Just don't go shopping for an MS diagnosis. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

NHE