Update on Hawianesegirl's Numb Leg - ThinnerTimes

Hawaiianese Girl · 05-19-2008, 05:13 PM

As many of you already know, my leg was damaged during my wls. From the second I woke up from surgery I could feel that it was totally numb. As the weeks have gone by, it slowly started burning and hurting at the same time. For more details check out my original post in this forum under "Why is this so damn hard for me?"

So it's been 8 weeks of living with a numb, hurting, and burning left leg. Imagine what a third degree sunburn may feel like and then put clothes on top of it and try to carry on with your daily activities. It's been HELL. So, I had my appt. with the neurologist today and it went well. I don't have a case for suing anybody and I'm actually ok with that. The Bovie machine that they laid on top of my leg did not shock me or burn me. It was the sheer weight of the thing that has caused this, so I can't place blame anywhere and really, they couldn't have known this would happen. So, I have to take meds and ride it out until, hopefully, my leg comes back to normal one day. The doc said I have, "meralgia paresthetica" which means that something was laid on a certain nerve that has caused "numb pain". The nerve in my leg is sending false messages to my brain that my leg is on fire or burning as well as hurting. So I have to be on medicine that causes my brain to send messages to my nerve that says, "you're not on fire and you're not burning." Doesn't that sound kind of scary? It sounds like a pretty serious drug when you're talking about brain and nerve signals. So, the meds are supposed to calm things down in my leg and not make it so painful for me but we'll see. It takes DAYS to build up the meds in my body so I probably won't feel any changes for awhile. So that's that!
Thanks for asking about me!
~Mahealani~

Zenomia · 05-19-2008, 05:17 PM

Wow...

What a weird complication of surgery. Now here is something I can honestly say I didn't take into consideration when looking at WLS. Did they tell you how long you would have to 'deal' with this? On one hand I am glad it wasn't intentionaly done and you now know what it is...the pain has a name. At the same time, geeze...sorry you have to go through it. Best of luck...and keep us posted...I hope the meds kick in QUICKLY!

KyMama56 · 05-19-2008, 05:19 PM

Mahealani

So glad you found out what was wrong. It's does sound scary, at least to this lay-person. I have never heard of anything like this happening. I hope your leg starts feeling better soon.

VanessaSFL · 05-19-2008, 05:24 PM

Hope ya feel better soon but hey guys...what is a Bovine Machine?

mistymee · 05-19-2008, 05:29 PM

Because I am one of those types of people that is often very skeptical, I would be asking a second opinion of a doctor that is completely unassociated with the WL surgeon as well as the doc you saw today... but whatever it is you do, I hope that you're on the right track on getting that leg healed..

I have two numb toes from an injury sustained when falling down the stairs, but I simply can't image my whole leg or that 'on fire' feeling.. Yuck.

(BTW.. I love your name, it's beautiful)

RebeccaNV · 05-19-2008, 05:30 PM

I am sorry to hear about your leg. I hope that it get's better soon and you can get off of whatever medication that you are having to take for it.

Hawaiianese Girl · 05-19-2008, 05:36 PM

Thanks for your comments, ladies. Yeah, I've been pretty upset at the fact that I wasn't prepared to go into major surgery and come out with another huge problem, yanno? When I first told my surgeon about this he told me right away that the exact place on my leg that is hurting is exactly where they laid the bovie machine. As a matter of fact..ALL of us have had the bovie machine laid on top of us during surgery, you just may not know it. The Bovie provides electricity to the surgeon's cauterizing tools but the catch is, it has to be laid ON us, somewhere, usually the upper left leg, in order to keep it "grounded". Well, my leg did not appreciate the Bovie sitting on top of it for 6 hours straight, apparently.

I just want this pain to go away, yanno? It's friggin annoying as hell. My pants, skirts, and dresses just brushing up against my upper left leg is torture. And I think 8 weeks of it is enough!

I mean, I really would hate for this to happen to someone else and before today, I had not met ANYONE who had this complication, much less heard of it. Someone finally contacted me privately who has the SAME problem! So I'm going to get in contact with that person and let them know what might be the problem. They are actually thinking of hiring a lawyer.

I don't know how long this will last and the frustrating thing is that the neurologist doesn't know either. He wants me to try this medicine and come back in TWO months. That seems like forever. The one thing that is giving me hope of a "normal leg" one day, is that the are seems to be getting a little smaller. A few weeks ago I drew a black line around the area with a sharpie so that I could get a visual of how big the area is. A week later I drew another line around the pain and burning and it was actually in a different place than the first line. I could still see the initial line, which was good, because I could see that the area was retracting. I now have 3 different lines and there's about to be a 4th today because there has been movement of the pain. It's getting closer to the "epicenter" which is where things are totally numb. It's so weird. Some spots are totally numb, some feel like they're on fire and some literally hurt so bad that I want to just chop my leg off. This is what I've been dealing with ALONG with the pain of the surgery and everything else that goes along with trying to recover. It just sucks. I swear it's just my luck. Every time I turn around something is happening to me. It's been like this for years and I just don't get it.

Anyway, I think I answered all the questions but if I haven't, I'll post again.

~Mahealani~

P.S. - And thank you Mistyme....it means "Full Heavenly Moon" in Hawaiian.

Godsblessedme · 05-19-2008, 05:37 PM

that is weird yeah to what Zen said, well i sure hope it gets better with the meds

VanessaSFL · 05-19-2008, 05:42 PM

Thank you for the reply to what the machine does.I guess I could have "googled" it but asking you was much better.

Feel better soon..hoping the meds absorb fast.

Hello Katie · 05-19-2008, 05:53 PM

I had a severely "messed up" leg after surgery as well, mine is my right upper thigh. They never really did find out exactly what it was because they had never heard of anyone else having those symptoms after my surgery. They first thought it was nerve damages and then were calling it muscle damage, but basically I just delt with it after seeing multiple doctors and having nothing help I pretty much gave up. Thankfully I wasn't working or taking classes so on my bad days I could just relax and take some medicine. It took 12 weeks before I felt any improvement at all, I still even at 5 months post op am not right but I don't have debilitating pain anymore. Just the occasional weird feeling it something sits on my leg, even like a magazine or anything. I hope you feel better soon and I'm sure over time you'll get some relief.