For the last year and a half, my fiance has been suffering with severe pain that radiates from her hip/buttock down her right leg. She has lately even been complaining about her right foot feeling cold. She has had multiple MRIs of her lumbar, pelvis, and hip that all have been inconclusive in finding any sort of problem. She has had nerve blocker injections that have not worked. She had an SI joint injection that helped for 3 weeks and then after physical therapy and another SI joint injection, the pain returned. Her pain management doctor even did a lumbar epidural on her which mimicked her pain and she felt fine after standing. But 3 hours later she was in terrible pain in her lower back. She went to see a neurosurgeon for a second opinion but this was unhelpful as her MRI shows nothing abnormal in the spine. Her symptoms are that of sciatica and piriformis syndrome. One of her MRIs says this:
Sciatic nerve: Symmetric size. Mildly asymmetrically increased T2/STIR signal intensity within the right-sided nerve just distal to the right ischium, likely artifactual. The posterior femoral cutaneous nerves are symmetric in size and signal intensity.
I don't really understand this, but her doctors don't seem to think it is of any concern. She has scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for yet another opinion, but she can't get in for 3 weeks and her pain has been increasingly worse lately. She cries on a daily basis. Can anyone lend any advice or point us in the right direction? Has anyone had a similar experience? This has affected every aspect of her life and mine.
I would greatly appreciate some advice on this.