What Causes Pain Radiating From Lower Back To Legs Despite Taking Medications?

Posted on Tue, 16 Jun 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 Answered on

Tue, 7 Jul 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Female 47 years old . I started riding with my husband on his tractor trailer runs and I week or 2 later I noticed having pain in my right hip and down my upper outer thigh area and sometimes in the crease of the butt and leg so I stopped riding with him and its been like 6-7 weeks and I still have the pain. I take 400mg of ibuprofen and 1 extra strength Tylenol in morning around 7am, again around 2 pm and again before bed around 9-10 pm. this usually takes the pain away till a half hour till next dose. What could this be? every thing I search comes up bone cancer..

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (20 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Spine MRI should be done.

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Thank you for the query.

Bone cancer is NOT the thing you should be worried at first. Your symptoms rather point to spine disc problem which has caused nerve compression. This nerve travels from the spine, through buttock, thigh and downward to lower leg.
You may have tingling or warm and cold feeling with this issue as well.
The pain can get more intense after physical activity or long sitting.

I suggest you to consult orthopedist and have spine MRI done at first.

Bone cancer gives constantly aggravating bone pain which does not go away with regular pain killers.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar