How Back Pain At Night and Restless Leg Syndrome Were Finally Diagnosed

For over two years my daughter Alissa had suffered from pain in her legs and back as she went to bed.  She would spend up to an hour turning over and over again trying (without success) to find a comfortable position.

Whenever she travelled by car, after less than five minutes she would have to re-position herself to try and find a more comfortable position.  Any journeys of more than an hour would be really painful and we'd try and stop so that she could have a short walk and stretch of her legs during the journey.

Once she started University at the age of 18, she wanted to find out more so went online and discovered a number of articles on restless legs which she read and wondered if this might apply to her.  She was beginning to think that she might have restless leg syndrom but couldn't find any mention of a cure or treatment for her problem.  She considered taking additional vitamins and supplements, as mentioned in some of the articles she read, but concluded that there was something deeper going on that wouldn't be cured so simply.

Eventually it got to the point where she was concerned about long car journeys and starting to bother her.

For a few weeks she joined me, her mother, on some "power walking" as part of a new fitness regime that I was following.  We walked fast and hard for around 45 minutes over undulating ground.  The idea was to get fitter, but it had an unexpected outcome that was to be the key to discovering what was causing the nightly pain that Alissa was going through.

One weekend when I was away and we'd really been doing some great "power walking", Alissa had the most excruciating pain and found it almost impossible to go to sleep. 

On my return, we decided that it was time to seek medical advice, but not via the doctor, but through my own osteopath who I visited regularly to prevent a recurrence of my own back pain and sciatica problems.

Whilst the osteopath said that there was nothing that he could do, he did notice a marked difference in the length of Alissa's legs, something which we had failed to notice in all her 19 years!  Although he said he couldn't be certain, he felt that this was very likely to be the cause of Alissa's nightly pain and discomfort.

Thankfully, as part of his own practice, he had a podiatrist (or foot doctor) and we were able to make an appointment with her to see what we could do. 

Just one week later, we met with the female podiatrist who recommended and measured Alissa for an orthotic foot support, which would ensure that her frame put the weight on the foot and that the parts of her body which had been stretched and were causing pain each night would be back in balance.  Apparently Alissa was particularly flat footed and so her weight was not being balanced evenly on her foot, causing stretching of her calf muscles, which complained when they were finally "put to bed" each night.

It's now just a few weeks since Alissa has been using her orthotics insert in her shoes and she's already starting to feel the benefit.

So, no more "restless legs syndrome" or RLS, no more pain at night.

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