Posted 9/29/2007 11:52 PM (GMT -6)
Greetings. I have looked at many sites, and none of them quite touches on the problem I'm having - I'm hoping you nice folks can help me.
I am having bad leg pains during the night, so bad they wake me up; not muscle cramps, but pain. One of the kinds of pain hits my hips, right at the point where the hip bone presses into the bed - either side can be affected, but it's the one that is resting on the bed that hurts. The pain runs down the thigh, not at the side and not at the back but in between.
Usually at the same time, my knees will hurt, on the outside of the joint. I'm willing to believe that this is the result of old rips I've had in the meniscus ligaments, but even when they were new and really bad, they didn't hurt while I was in bed. Also, the pain radiates down along the outside of my calves. The only way I can get it to stop is to lie flat on my back with my legs out straight. Of course, I can't sleep that way, but you can't have everything... When I get up in the morning, I am very stiff and in pain, but it goes away very quickly with moving around a bit. In fact, any time I sit for any length of time during the day, I am very stiff and in pain when I try to change position, but I figured that was just that I'm getting old - I'm 57 going on 123, or at least it feels that way.
Resting on my back in bed with my knees flat (hyperextended, I think they call it) is not painful until, after lying that way for a few minutes, I try to raise my knees, and then it hurts badly. When I rest on my back and cross my ankles, whichever foot is on top develops a pain at the outside of the knee - as soon as I uncross the ankles, the pain stops.
I've looked at fibromyalgia, myofasial pain, PAD, varicose veins, plain old arthritis, and a bunch of other things, and I can't find this particular array of symptoms anywhere. If anyone has any ideas on what exactly I might be dealing with, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks -
betazed