Sorry about the long post, but my mom is in daily, non-stop, horrific pain for 3 years and we've tried everything we can think of. With every new doctor, her hopes get up, only to be let down time after time. Needless to say, she has been very depressed, suicidal, which we have addressed through counseling and medication.


Bottom line is back and buttock pain, but worst is shooting pain down her right leg. It never subsides and only seems to be getting worse. Over the years, she has seen every type of specialist and has had every type of test. She has tried chiropractors, physical therapy, acupuncture and even healing crystals out of desperation (not something she would normally try, just an act of desperation).


She was going to a pain management specialist who gave her (in my opinion) too many epidurals and facet joint injections. I think she had 12 of these procedures. None of them worked. After one single procedure, she had a small amount of relief for a few days then it came back again full force.


We suspected rsd for a while because she was experiencing burning pain in her legs and I even drove her hours away to a supposed leader in the field. He gave her two injections to help diagnose her. After the second one, her pain worsened to the level it is at now. We wonder if a nerve was hit that caused her current condition.


A neurologist diagnosed her with sciatica but we recently visited a very highly recommended (by the chairman of the board of our hospital who is a friend) neurosurgeon who performed a new emg test as well as a traditional x ray with her leaning forward and backward. He said that she has a back issue which was explained that two of her disks are not aligned properly and move back and forward on a horizontal plane. But the emg test didn't show this area to be pressing against the sciatic nerve.


So, here we are 3 years later. Her last hope was a back surgery to fix the discs from rubbing against the sciatic nerve. The neurosurgeon says this is not an option as it appears that this is not the cause. This is what is driving us crazy. What else causes back pain with shooting pain down one leg? We're out of options and she is out of hope. Please, any help, suggestions or similar stories would be greatly appreciated. Thank you