Pain in upper outer thigh

by Amanda
(Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

Pain in upper outer thigh - sharp, burning, tingling and numbness

A few years ago I started to get a sharp pain in my outer right thigh accompanied with the feeling of my leg on fire from the inside. It's about midway down my thigh and the burning feeling shoots down my leg towards my foot, on the top of my calf. This mainly happened when at rest or laying down.

I informed my doctor about it. She noticed no discolouration or swelling and touched my leg, which seemed a normal temperature to her.
I have many spider veins on that thigh, a varicose vein just below my knee on the inside, I am overweight and in my 30's.

My doctor had me tested for diabetes and my thyroid, but all she found was that I may be developing hyperglycemia. She wasn't concerned.

Years later, my leg bothers me more, it tingles and is numb even when moving, not just laying down. Occasionally, my knee goes limp and I wobble. I didn't have a desk job for a while, and am now working seated again. The tingling is distracting. My tailbone throbs and feels numb, I constantly am rubbing my leg to try to soothe it.

My lower leg feels heavy and I have developed a sharp pain under my heel. I limp a bit and my foot is stiff and sore to step on, when I stand up.

I have been going to see chiropractors and massotherapists for years. I first started going at 17 years old. I have had back pain since then, and had a pretty bad car accident at 19 years old. Although I broke nothing, I have had such pain from my neck to my tailbone, since then.

What is causing this? Any advice on what I should be talking to a doctor about? Tests that can be done? I don't feel like I have been taken seriously, so I assume it's nothing, but I feel I am getting much worse.

I'm 37 years old and gaining more weight due to having difficulty moving. (I have been gaining about 20 lbs each year and have doubled in weight since I was 20 years old.) I want to walk and try to increase my circulation, but I feel disabled!

I appreciate you taking time to read this,
Sincerely,
Amanda

Hello Amanda,
Your weight is a complicating factor but not the cause of this pain and tingling in your leg.

Please do these tests and let me know what's happening. Keep to the same thread.

1. Bend slowly forwards, backwards and sideways. Do you get pain in the back? Any immediate radiation down the leg?

2. Using the Search engine in the navigation bar at C-H, type in "Slump test for sciatica". Do the test and let me know what you feel.

3. Using a pin prick the normal leg, and then your naughty leg. Is there a difference? Where?

4. Standing, jump on your good leg a few times. Now on the tingly leg. Is there any sense that your leg is going to give at the knee? Not pain but weakness.

5. This is more difficult. Sitting, rub your thumb with some oil, starting at the hipbone and moving down through the groin and down the inner thigh. Is there a difference right and left?

You could have a condition called Meralgia Paresthetica, though I doubt if it goes below the knee. Use that search engine again.

More likely this is coming from your back. Let me have the results of all those tests above, all of them please, and then we'll take this further.

That hyperglycemia is significant; it can make your quadriceps muscle weak. You are on the verge of diabetes and having to inject yourself for the rest of your life; it's not nice and very expensive.

Do some homework on the term "glycemic index". Knowing which foods have a high GI, and avoiding them, is the way to prevent yourself becoming diabetic. Do it, otherwise there are much worse things to come. Only you can save yourself.

Dr B