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Random calf muscle spasm?

Calf has been hurting for months - what kind of doctor can help me?

  • What could be causing this pain in my calf and what kind of doctor should I see? It's not blood clots and I am not an athlete. I'm wondering if this is something I should be worried about, or if maybe I (unbeknownst to myself) changed the way I walk and that's caused it? Details inside. For literally months, I've had this intermittent and nagging pain in my right calf. It only appears when I am standing or walking (almost never sitting or laying) and it feels just like a pulled muscle. However, it's been going on for like four months and it doesn't happen everytime I stand/walk. It's an unmistakable pain, and it is about the intensity you might feel if you had a case of strong DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) the day after lifting weights. I'd say it affects me a few days a week and not all day. I did a venous doppler ultrasound and the technician told me my blood flow looked good, so that rules out deep vein thrombosis/clots. Since the test confirmed it's not blood clots, I've felt OK to massage and touch the calf more and it's hard to tell if there is anything there. I am right-footed/right-handed, so I assume my right calf muscle might be larger than my left naturally. (My right bicep, for instance, is way larger than my left and always has been.) The calf muscle feels lumpier on my right, but it's not like there's a hard mass fixed in place that makes me freak out that I have cancer or anything. It also feels like the rubbing and prodding it has made it a little tender. My mom felt it and said maybe it's a muscle knot, but is that a thing? My primary doctor really didn't seem to know what to make of my complaint. She had me get an ultrasound to rule out blood clots simply because I brought it up. I raised the possibly that when I hurt my right foot a many months ago kicking something barefoot, maybe my lingering foot pain (it lasted for months) made me change my gait, and maybe that's why my calf always feels sore. My foot doesn't hurt anymore though. I went to a foot doctor (podiatrist) and he said it seemed to be nearly healed -- a couple weeks after that my foot felt better and then sometime after that the calf pain started (not exactly sure how sooner after). She said she could send me to an orthopedic doctor, but she seemed to say it just to have some course of action for me to try. Anyone with similar leg problems or medical expertise, I ask: What kind of doctor could diagnose this problem? And what kind of doctors do athletes see when they have random muscle pains? I just want to know what it is. If it was a calf muscle strain, I feel like it should've healed itself months ago -- I haven't been exercising at all. The fact that it's lasted as long as it has concerns me.

  • Answer:

    AppleTurnover, an orthopedist will most likely get x-rays to rule out bony abnormality and, seeing nothing, will recommend PT and NSAIDs and send you on your way. Not that I'd discourage you from seeing one, but do keep your expectations in check.

AppleTurnover at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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This is orthopedist territory. (I'm not a doctor, but I do have problematically tight calves, and my orthopedist diagnosed them immediately and prescribed physical therapy which has helped a lot. Not the stupid exercises which never do anything; but manual working and release of the adhesions in the muscles.) The foot fascia and leg muscles all work together as a complicated pulley system - small changes or troubles in any part of it can wreak havoc with the rest.

fingersandtoes

Orthopedist for sure. I had calf problems that I was sure were Achilles tendon issues. They were not. I had an inflammation of the posterial tibial tendon. (Do not recommend, btw.) The doc diagnosed it immediately and prescribed some awesomely effective physical therapy; my (otherwise lovely) GP advised Advil and rest. (That did not work.) Non-US people always recommend "physios" or "physiotherapists," but that's not a category that exists in the US, ad far as I can tell.

purpleclover

Have you changed your shoes? When I go from heels to flats (or go flatter in heel angle in any type of shoe) I'll get terrible calf pain for a while because my tendons got used to the old angle and had to stretch more to accommodate the new shoes.

Jacqueline

I slightly tore the fascia holding together the two main muscles in my calf a while ago and that left a nagging pain that wouldn't go away. Meanwhile my father pulled and strained one of the actual muscles in his calf around the same time. For both of us it was a mild injury but the stretching of the calf every time we walked re-irritated it so it couldn't heal. In both cases the cure was the same, keeping the muscle shorter for a while so it could heal (for me this was easy, high heels for a week, for my Dad he had to buy a shoe lift thing to have the same effect). Chances are you're not really resting your leg enough or in the right way if you're still mobile at all. We were both diagnosed by a physiotherapist and that's who I'd always go see first if I had muscle pain or some kind of sports injury. GP aren't great at that kind of thing and a specialist doctor seems kind of over the top for a muscle strain or other soft tissue injury. This is the kind of thing physios do (they can also tell you if it's gait or movement related), so find a good one that deals with sports injuries and go see what they say.

shelleycat

Non-US people always recommend "physios" or "physiotherapists," but that's not a category that exists in the US, ad far as I can tell. If this is the case, AppleTurnover you might want to tell us where you live so we can give you more specific advice rather than just assuming you live near us. I also imagine the http://www.apta.org/ would be a bit surprised.

shelleycat

I live in the U.S. and my assumption is that I am supposed to see a doctor first, and then after they diagnose me, they can recommend me to a physical therapist if that is what I need. After all, physical therapists aren't doctors. I'll try calling an orthopedist. Thanks.

AppleTurnover

IANAD, but I had a similar condition a few years ago - I had pain in my leg, and my foot would be swollen by the end of the day. After going through all sorts of possibilities (including blood clots), my doctor ended up deciding that it was a form of tendonitis in my foot and up my leg. My theory is that it started when I wore (fairly low) heels to an event shortly before the pain started. I usually wear flats, and I've given up on heels ever since, but something about those shoes might have been enough to cause lingering problems. The treatment was a few weeks of anti-inflammatories, tapering to lower and lower doses, as well as a heating pad on my foot several times a day. I haven't had any issues since then.

LolaGeek

What killdevil described is what happened. They did an x-ray before I even realize what was happening. It showed nothing out of the ordinary and recommended physical therapy. The diagnosis was "gastroc strain." I am skeptical, but not sure what other kind of doctor to see. Haven't actually gotten a chance to start PT yet but I will + stretching + anti-inflammatory pain killers. If that doesn't work, I'll need to find a new doctor.

AppleTurnover

Just to follow up in case anyone ever finds this thread, I never did PT because it seemed stupid. What I've found is that my calf gets sore when I am inactive. As long as I walk around a bit everyday on a regular basis, it seems to be fine. When I do nothing all day, it gets sore. Strange, but at least it's another reason to not be a lazy ass.

AppleTurnover

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