Key takeaways

  • Pain that travels from the low back into the buttock, hip or leg is a recognized pattern of back pain, and it is worth an exam this week, not a wait-and-see.
  • Write down exactly where it goes, what it feels like and what sets it off. That is the most useful thing you can bring.
  • A typical exam tests how leg movement affects the pain, plus reflexes, strength and sensation.
  • Numbness that is spreading, a leg that is getting weaker, or any trouble with bladder or bowel control is an emergency room trip today.

You got rear-ended at the light on Lindbergh or pushed into the car ahead on I-55. The low back was sore the next day, which you half expected. Then on the third morning something new showed up: a hot line down the back of one thigh, or a buzzing in the foot when you stood at the line too long. This notice is about that. It does not diagnose anything. It tells you what to pay attention to and what to do with it.

What "running down the leg" can feel like

People describe it in a lot of ways, and all of them are worth saying out loud at an exam:

  • An ache or burning that starts in the low back or buttock and travels into the back or side of the thigh.
  • Pain that goes past the knee into the calf or foot.
  • Pins and needles, tingling or a "fell asleep" feeling in part of the leg or foot.
  • A patch of skin that feels numb or different to the touch.
  • A leg that feels weak or gives a little on the stairs or the step up into the truck.

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases lists pain that radiates away from the back into the buttocks, leg or hip among the ways back pain shows up. Missouri Injury Clinic, on its own auto injuries page, lists sciatica and numbness or tingling in the extremities among the crash injuries it treats. That is not a promise about your leg. It means you are describing something the lane is built to examine.

Keep a leg log for three days

Pain that moves is hard to describe from memory in an exam. Pain you wrote down on your break is easy. Keep it short, on your phone or on the back of a time card:

  1. Where. Draw the line with a finger and write it down: low back to the back of the right thigh, stops at the knee. Or: outside of the left calf into the top of the foot.
  2. What kind. Ache, burning, electric, tingling, numb, weak.
  3. What sets it off. Sitting in the cab, bending to a low shelf, coughing, standing on concrete, lying down.
  4. What eases it. Walking, changing position, lying on one side.
  5. Better, same or worse than yesterday.

That last line matters most. Same or slowly better is a clinic exam this week. Worse is the next section.

The line you do not cross at work

Some leg symptoms after a back injury are not a clinic appointment. They are an emergency room trip today, on shift or off:

  • Numbness or weakness that is spreading or getting worse, not settling.
  • A foot that drags or a leg that will not hold you.
  • Numbness in the groin, inner thighs or the area you would sit on a saddle.
  • Any new trouble controlling your bladder or bowels.

Tell your lead you are leaving and go. Do not finish the shift first. Do not drive yourself if the leg is weak.

What the exam checks

NIAMS describes a typical back exam as a medical history plus a physical exam that may include asking you to bend or lift your legs to see how movement affects the pain, and testing reflexes, muscle strength and sensation. In plain terms, expect to be asked about the crash, to lie down while a leg is raised, to push and pull against the clinician's hands, to have a knee or ankle tapped with a reflex hammer, and to say whether you can feel a light touch in different spots on both legs.

None of that is a test you can fail. It is how a clinician maps what is going on. The same NIAMS page says most people do not need additional testing, and that doctors sometimes order imaging to rule out or confirm a specific cause. If the clinician thinks you need imaging or a different specialist, that is the exam doing its job.

On shift until the exam

NIAMS advises avoiding bed rest and instead limiting the activities that cause pain, then building activity back up gradually. For a working person that means taking the leg log seriously. If sitting in the cab for three hours lights the leg up, get out and walk at every stop you can. If the low shelf does it, ask for help with the low shelf this week. The back on the floor notice covers lifting, driving and standing jobs in more detail.

Do not test the leg with a heavy lift to see if it is really that bad. It proves nothing and it can add a second problem to the first.

Punch in. Bring the leg log. Say it was a car crash, give the date, and say the pain goes into your leg. Get on the schedule this week, or call South County at (314) 530-5480.

Why this week

A leg symptom that is written down, dated and examined early gives every later visit something to compare against. If it is fading at the two-week re-check, that is on paper. If it is not, that is on paper too, and the plan can change. The get it in writing notice explains why the first dated exam is the one everyone asks for later.

Nothing posted here is medical advice or a diagnosis. It is a checklist so you walk into the exam with better information than "my leg feels weird."