I am a 65-year-old male and my hamstring nerve pain is excruciating if I touch it. How do I fix this?

Hi doctor,

I am having hamstring or herniated disc referral nerve pain. I will upload full documentation of the issue. Thank you.

Thank you doctor,

If I use my back to do work, I have soreness or tiredness but not back pain. Raking leaves, washing dishes, golfing, and while putting my back at a slight angle, and holding it in that position. My core strength is not top-notch (working on that), but it is just a tired feeling. With a bit of rest, it goes away the next day.

Pain in hamstring - I detailed all the types of pain over time. I am very inflexible, and I cannot touch my toes at all. I fall 6 inches short all my life. So stretching my hamstrings is easy to reach the limits. I sit down and try to reach my feet. I cannot get much below my knee on most days. I think I have heaviness in my right thigh and used to have in my left thigh before this latest nerve problem started. I put it down to muscle contraction, spasm, or clenching. It does feel heavy, though, and electric currents are what I have now, like an electric cattle prod stabbing into my hamstring on the worst days or like a giant needle jabbing in and pulling out in a second.

I did have the burning sensation for those two days as well. And I have also had tingling and pins and needles sometimes in my toes, back, and outside of thighs. Hamstring pain issues are bilateral. Extreme nerve pain is just on the left side for now. Because I am sitting on my right buttock only now, it is starting to complain and feels sore at the end of the day. No nerve pain on the right leg yet. Sometimes, I experience some tingling sensation in my feet and inside my thigh. Hamstring nerve pain is excruciating if I touch it. If I press harder, it becomes extreme. I have not done that in the last few days but just putting cream on it by moving my hands across the skin. On a scale of 1 to 10, my nerve pain is about 5. Sitting is the worse. While walking, I have no pain except while getting tired, stumble, twist, or walk downhill. Forward bending is usually fine, but stretching to my toes will sometimes give me pain, but not always. After a few minutes of lying on my back, I experience terrible nerve pain, so I do not do that. Lying on my right (and sometimes on my left) is the only position where I can almost count on zero pain. But if it is a bad day where I would have had a few incidents and the leg feels abused (muscle spasms, fatigue, etc.), I will feel nerve pain (small jolts) throughout the night.

I have not done any other investigation at this time. I have been taking X-rays and MRIs for years, starting from 1995, for the herniated disc. The medication that I take is Nexium for GERD. I was on antibiotics after my sinus surgery, but that ended yesterday. Also, I take herbal B6, B12, D, C, etc., but not consistently.

Other associated Medical Problem- the right foot is sore, and it is bruised for about four months now. It could have been due to some wrong shoes that I used to walk for 3 kilometers or somehow injured it. But it does not seem to go away. Other than that, I have the usual aches and pains. I am 65 years old, and I am reasonably active at the moment. I do hiking, golf, and walking, but I am overweight, about 30 lbs.

My main questions are, will my nerve pain slowly go away? What is going on in the hamstring area? Since it seems localized, is it a torn muscle in that area or deep in the muscle? Is that area inflamed, and if so, how do I get an anti-inflammatory solution down in there to relieve it? How do I fix this? Should I stretch until I feel the nerve pain, or should I avoid producing it?

How can my skin become so hypersensitive that just running my hand across it will produce nerve pain? Is there a nerve attached to the inflamed area connected to a nerve on my skin?

Will the usual ice or heat physical therapy work in this case? I have read that massaging, etc., is not good in cases like this (bursitis). If I get an MRI done of the area in question, would you be able to pinpoint the inflamed location and give a solution? I might be also open for video consultation for some more profound research into my symptoms. Thank you.

Hi doctor,

I had a visit with the physiotherapist. I have very tight back muscles. In the leg lift protocol (where we lay on our back, the physiotherapist lifts the leg straight gently to see how far up it will go until we feel the pain of stretch) I can only go up about 20 percent instead of the usual 70 percent or more, which means my sciatic nerve or the muscle is quite short. I am starting with exercises to loosen my tight back muscles and then will proceed to lengthen the leg muscles gently.

I can go out for a walk, golf, and hike for two hours without nerve pain. I can stretch, lift heavy things, use those muscles to crouch and other movements, but when I lay down later on my right side with my left leg on a pillow and at rest, nothing touching it, I will spontaneously have shooting nerve pain or burning sensation. What is the reason and physiology behind this? These nerve pains are very intense. Am I compressing the nerve?