We could not be more excited to celebrate with this patient who has suffered for more than 20 years with severe pain in the right thigh. This pain plagued him for years. With seemingly no identifiable cause the pain started in the right thigh and radiated down to the top of the knee. Excruciating pain, worse with activity, shooting, electrical, and intense. In addition if that were not enough just touching one particular area was a major trigger. If you wanted to really get on this patient’s bad side – all you had to do was “push the magic button.” This “hot spot” was directly on the front of his thigh. The patient searched for causes for years, and even had many treatments to try to fix the problem. He even had a spinal cord stimulator and then a peripheral nerve stimulator placed on the femoral nerve. Unfortunately, despite being in place neither of these worked for him. They hardly touched the pain, so he simply did not use them. He came to our office and pointed to the area of pain. We placed an ultrasound on his leg and found a mass. This mass turned out to be a rare very painful tumor. Most frequently these are found in the finger, but in his case, it was sitting next to the anterior femoral cutaneous nerve. We knew this was the source of his pain, but we were not sure what it was until we explored and removed it. This is one of those rare moments when things all come together just perfectly and a wonderful ending results.
We are so pleased that we were able to participate in this journey to health! We are just so sorry it took so many years to find the answer. Then things like this happen, it really makes one stop and think. I think this is why as physicians we refer to “practicing medicine.” Because we can always learn more; we can always be better. Medicine is incredibly rewarding, but at the same time there is nothing more humbling than having to learn through “practice,” both learning from our successes, but more importantly learning from our failures. I can guarantee that not a single doctor who treated this gentleman for the past 20-30 years wanted to fail in curing or even improving his pain.
I thank the Lord, that others had already ruled out some many causes, that the patient was so clear in describing his pain, that we understood how to use ultrasound, and that we could actually see the lesion causing his pain, and a nerve block relieved his pain, and surgery to remove it cured his pain! This indeed is a cause to celebrate, to be thankful, and to continue to be encouraged to continue the quest to help others who have suffered for years on end with pain.
Thank you Lord for your guidance! We pray that the next 20 years will be full of blessings for our friend! Amen!