When pain runs down your leg from your back or buttock, it usually means a nerve is being pinched in your lower spine, and the good news is we can almost always help. You do not need to know the medical name for it. At Foudy Chiropractic in Mission Viejo, you describe what you feel, and in one show-and-tell visit we find exactly which nerve and where, with a surface EMG and X-rays.
One unhurried visit tells you what is going on and whether Dr. Foudy can help. Thursday is afternoons only, 3:00 to 6:00 pm.
Patient receiving AccuSpina spinal decompression therapy in Mission Viejo
In your own words
Does one of these sound like you?
Most patients arrive describing how they feel, not naming a diagnosis. If one of these is yours, you are in the right place. One visit tells you where you stand.
When I get up from the car, this pain goes down into my butt and down my legIt's like an electric or burning line running down the back of my legMy leg or foot goes numb or tingly, like it is falling asleepMy foot feels heavy or weak when I walkI don't know what it is, I just know it should not run down my leg like this
What is actually going on
What is actually going on, in plain terms.
Here is the simple version. Pain that runs down your leg is almost never a leg problem. It is a nerve in your lower back getting pinched, and that nerve carries the signal all the way down. Picture the wiring like the circuit breakers in the back of your house. When one breaker trips, the lights in a whole room go out, and you do not fix it by standing in the dark room, you walk to the panel and pop the breaker back in. Your leg is the dark room. The breaker is in your spine. Most often the thing tripping it is a disc leaning on the nerve. The medical name for the most common version is sciatica, but the name matters less than finding the exact breaker. The longer a pinched nerve sits, the more the body works around it, so it rarely just goes away on its own.
Patient receiving AccuSpina spinal decompression therapy in Mission Viejo
Can you help me, what is it, how long, and how much.
These are the four questions I hear on every first call, so here they are answered in order. The honest version of each, with real numbers, not a sales pitch.
Can you help me?
Yes, here is the honest answer.
Almost always, yes. Pain running down the leg is one of the most common things I see, and most of it comes from the spine and responds well to non-surgical care. I am honest about the rare exceptions, a tumor, a fracture, a fast-failing nerve, those go to the right specialist. One visit tells us which one you are.
What is it?
What is actually going on.
It is a pinched nerve in your lower back, most often from a disc, sometimes from a joint or a tight muscle squeezing the nerve lower down. The exam shows me where. The surface EMG (an EKG of your nervous system) shows how the nerve is firing, and the X-rays show the structure. I name it for you and show you on your own films.
How long?
How long it usually takes.
It depends on the cause, and I will not guess before the exam. When it is a muscle or a joint, it often calms down in a few weeks. When a disc is pinching the nerve, the plan usually runs a course of care over several weeks, three times a week to start, then a taper. The exact length comes from your exam and your X-rays, not from a website.
How much?
What it costs, plainly.
The show-and-tell consultation that finds the exact cause is $90 and about 75 minutes. A standard adjustment visit is $90 and includes the traction, the vibration platform, and electric stim when you need them. If a disc is the driver and decompression is the right tool, the standard 20-visit program is $3,000 and a single session is $160. We walk through your exact plan in person.
Who this helps, and who it does not
Are you a candidate for care here?
You are a good fit if the pain down your leg is coming from your spine, a joint, or a muscle, which is the large majority of cases. When I refer out: if you have fast-worsening weakness or foot drop, numbness in the saddle area, or any loss of bladder or bowel control, that is a red flag and you go straight for imaging and a surgical opinion. Same if the exam points to something outside my lane, a vascular problem, a tumor, a fracture. I would rather point you down the street than treat the wrong thing.
Dr. Foudy reviewing a patient's own X-rays before recommending a plan.
When the disc is the problem
Where spinal decompression fits.
When the exam shows a disc in your lower back is the thing pinching the nerve, spinal decompression with added oscillation on the AccuSpina table is the tool built for it. It gently separates the bones to take pressure off the disc, and at the peak of each pull it oscillates, like a gentle pump. Laboratory and imaging studies suggest that easing the bones apart lowers the pressure inside the disc so it can draw fluid and nutrients back in. If the cause turns out to be a joint or a muscle instead, the adjustment and stretch work do the job, and I will tell you which one you are after the exam.
The AccuSpina is an FDA-cleared Class II device for non-surgical spinal decompression, and its oscillation is genuinely patented technology (USPTO US 7,717,870). Those are facts about the machine, not a promise about your case. Whether it fits you is exactly what the first visit screens for.
A patient set up for a decompression cycle on the AccuSpina table.
Straight talk
One visit tells you what is going on, and I will tell you straight.
The show-and-tell consultation is the full picture in one visit: the postural scales, the surface EMG (an EKG of your nervous system), the digital X-rays, and the hands-on exam, all in about 75 minutes. You will see your own scan and your own films, and you will leave with a straight answer about your pain down the leg.
If this is mine to fix, I will tell you the plan. If it is not, I will tell you that too, and point you to what actually helps. I would rather send you down the street than put you on a plan that was never going to help your case. The first visit is $90 and runs about 75 minutes.
Dr. Foudy reviewing a computerized nervous-system scan with a patient, like an EKG of the nervous system.
Good questions, asked often
Questions patients ask about pain down the leg
Because the nerves that run your leg start in your lower back. When a disc or a joint pinches one of those nerves at the spine, you feel it along the whole path of the nerve, down the buttock, the thigh, and sometimes into the foot. The problem is in your back, but the signal shows up in your leg.
Sciatica is the most common version of it, pain along the sciatic nerve from a pinched nerve root in the low back. But not every leg pain is sciatica. Some comes from a joint, a tight muscle like the piriformis, or rarely something outside the spine entirely. The exam is what tells us which one you have.
Most of the time it is a treatable pinched nerve, not an emergency. The signs that mean go now, not later, are fast-worsening leg weakness, numbness in the saddle area, or any change in bladder or bowel control. If you have those, get evaluated immediately. If you do not, this is exactly the kind of case we handle every week.
Sometimes a mild one settles, but a pinched nerve rarely sorts itself out cleanly, and the longer it sits, the more your body compensates around it. One visit tells you where you stand, which is a lot better than waiting and hoping in the dark.
That is fine, that is my job, not yours. You tell me what you feel and where, and the show-and-tell exam, the postural scales, the EMG, the reflex testing, and the X-rays, finds the cause and names it. You leave the first visit knowing exactly what is going on and what the plan is.
The show-and-tell consultation in Mission Viejo includes the exam, the surface EMG, and the X-rays, about $90 and 75 minutes. You will see your own scan and your own films, and you will leave with a straight answer. Patients come to us from Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita, and across Mission Viejo. Call Call (949) 365-0403 and ask for Carmen.
