Sciatica No Fun

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's dealt with it. I know they say passing a stone is the worst pain besides birth. I'm certain Sciatica ranks up there as well.

Besides the normal self remedies ice, heat, advil, muscle relaxers, and some stretches. Anyone have a go to method that helps with this. The pain is unbearable at times, running down my leg to my foot. My knee caps and ankles hurt. HELP!!!!!

 

Unfortunately nothing works. Look into chiropractors and your doc may send you for imaging. For me a nerve block worked but I have friends who got nothing from it. Good luck! Nothing ever made me feel as old as my lower back does.

ETA: and careful with stretches. What works for one person may aggravate problems for another. I tried some that would incite spasms. Of course I had to do them a few times before I figured out NOT to do them...

 

Usually the result of pressure on the spine. Can be bone spurs, fractures, or other. Surgery can rebuild the fracture areas and/or remove spurs. Meds can block pain receptors and numb the nerves, usually having some negative side effects. I have a completely fused lower back locked into my hips with 4” bolts. Pain free (almost) but loss of flexibility.
Everything is a compromise. Wish I could offer more encouragement.

 

I have been dealing with it too the last month. Turns out I have a bulging disc. Started PT last week. Will try for next 4 weeks and if no relief headed for steroid injection. Crazy painful and cant walk or stand very long. Doc tells me to take it easy, dont aggrevate the nerve and give it time (3 to 6 months). I am opertaing at 25% compared to a month ago. Hoping I dont have to go the route @gosolo did as my only other options are to deal with the pain or head for fusion. I did buy a book that has some good info called Back Mechanic by stuart mcgill. I am follwing pt directions though before trying anything in the book other than posture and lifting corrections.

Might try getting into an Orthopedic group for diagnosis, especially if they have a physiatrist/pain mgt doc in the group.

 

My wife had suffered with sciatica for about 10 years. Early on, her sciatica was minor. When she would feel a flareup coming on, she would just take it easy for a few days and it would subside. However, over the years, it kept getting worse. Her home remedy attempts (ice, stretching, heating pads, etc..) were becoming less and less effective. Her bouts of sciatica were becoming more frequent and would last for days and then weeks and, eventually, it became debilitating. She couldn't even get out of bed. There were days that I had to carry her and hold her up so that she could move from room to room in the house. It was really bad.

Several years ago, I suffered a back injury (muscle/soft tissue) and I sought help through Airrosti:
https://www.airrosti.com/
After 3 visits (and doing all the exercises and therapies), my back was healed. Seriously, no joke, healed in 3 visits (2 weeks).

After my recovery, I urged her to go to Airrosti as well. She reluctantly went (she hates going to doctors) and began the treatment. Airrosti usually touts that they can resolve your issues in 3 visits, but my wife's sciatica was so bad that it took 7 visits (about 2 months) to get her to 100% again. In between visits, they had her doing specific stretching and strength training exercises as well as icing the problem areas. It has now been over 18 months as she has not had a single bout of sciatica.

I highly recommend Airrosti. My wife and I are firm believers in their methods.

 

Airrosti saved me from needing shoulder surgery. I couldn't life my arm past 90 degrees with body. It now works as it should. Airrosti is a good option to consider or call to see if they can help.
Other note, I have back issues (not sciatica) and would be in pain most days. Recently got a gel mattress topper from Costco and that has been a game changer.

 

Been there done that. I have rods, screws, cadaver bones & a spinal cord stimulator implant. I still have that left leg sciatica nerve pain. With the spinal cord stimulator implant the pain is less and bearable at times.
Try a portable tens machine, you would need a prescription for it. Voltaren Gel also helps.
Good luck.

 

Never heard of that, I am definitely going to look into this.

 

I have what must be a minor case of sciatica. It feels like an electrical shock down my leg. It comes and goes. What I find helps me is a Teeter inversion table. A few minutes hanging by my ankles and relaxing and the pain is gone.

 

Closest place is in Virginia or Ohio.

 

Google west side barbell and reverse hyper machine. The machines are expensive but there are alternatives. The biomechanics of the specific motion elicits active stretching of the lower spine and strengthening of the posterior chain.

 

yeah... i just realized that they are only in a few states.

 

Maybe NY one day.

 

Jim, it's like a cross between chiropractic and deep tissue massage. For my shoulder, my muscle plains had healed wrong. Had to break them free and then retrain them to work properly. I was in tears most visits but in 2 weeks I had almost full mobility.
They have to have them in NY... it's not some oddball voodoo magic lol

 

yeah.. the in-office therapy is extremely painful. For me, they were breaking up deep scar tissue. I was almost in tears too, but after it was over, I felt better than before I went into the office.

 

I had 3 visits, 30 minutes of each was not pleasant. But I would gladly take 1.5 hours or higher end pain to not have the daily constant discomfort that I was in. And I got mobility. So win win. Sorry for thread jacking and making this about Airostti...

 

I’ve had 3 back surgeries ending in fusion with rods and screws. It’s better but pretty much guaranteed to have problems later on, fusion makes the disks above and below fail. Stem cell therapy wasn’t available at the time, but I really wish it was, avoiding the surgeries would of changed my life.

 

Been managing it for quite some time. Physical therapy, doing stretching, inversion table and tens device. On really bad days I take Meloxicam. One thing that has really helped a lot was losing weight.
I lost about 30lbs and have kept it off.

These are all things that my doctors and PTs have recommended for me. Everyone is different.

 

Yeah, closet one to me is in Richmond, 3.5 hours.

 

Thanks for the input guy's. Gotta grind it out to i go see my chiropractor. Me hope someone cancels soon

 

Mine started because of an extruded L7-S1 disc. I couldn't move my right leg forward to walk and the pain was excruciating. Trust me, I know how you feel. Unfortunately, surgery was the only way to address it. 12 years and 5 back surgeries later, I don't have to deal with it as much anymore, but it will come back on occasion. I'm not saying that it will take 5 back surgeries to fix it, but it did in my case. I have a 2 level lumbar fusion with 6 screws, 2 rods, and a huge plate on the front of my spine. I also lost 8 years of my life and work to chronic pain and peripheral neuropathy. Turns out that the opioids I was taking everyday were actually the cause of my pain. Opioid addiction with chronic pain is not something I would wish on my worst enemy. It sucks more than words can describe.
My advice is to get an MRI which will show where the compression is. There is an endoscopic surgery that can be done to remove a herniated disc and relieve the compression. This was my first surgery. Most people, like 90% if I remember, have a fast recovery and go on with their lives. I was unfortunately in the 10% category due to severe trauma to my sciatic nerve. I would also get the MRI sooner than later. The more sciatic trauma you incurr everyday equates to a longer recovery. Good luck with this. Hate to hear it when people have this issue because I've been there.

 

I strongly disagree with chiropractic treatment for major back issues. I have dealt with back problems for years. Chiropractors are a hit and miss operation and a bad one can screw you for life giving you only one option major surgery. If you can deal with pain the best things I have found are walking water and hot tubes. Decompression tables and pt seem to help as well. Stretching is a helpful tool but again you have to be careful.

 

The lady I go to did wonders last time. I've been pretty much pain free for 3 years until now, which was my fault lifting something I shouldn't have.

A friend mentioned to me about a procedure where they go in and cauterize the sciatica nerve. Supposed to last 10 years. Anyone hear of this?

 

Yeah the back stuff sucks. I’ve heard good things about chiropractic care and a lot of negative. Don’t get me wrong I know there are good ones out there it’s just a gamble which is very scary when talking about major issues. My pain doc back doc and surgeons all told me I had no choice but to get surgery and I did not. My back has been in good shape for the most part for 14 months now. All said it’s because of the exercise I do and getting my weight down. Everyone I know that has had surgery has had to do it again and that’s not the path I want to go down. Pain is a per person issue some deal with it better then others and I went through hell getting to where i am now but I’m very thankful. I know it will come back and each time it does it is worse then the last but I know there is no one size fits all solution to our issues.

 

The only thing I found helps with my sciatica is actually walking , it hurts a lot to begin with but after a little while the pain subsides . If I lay down or sit the pain gets worse for me .

 

Agreed, it does help loosen things up.

 

Yeah I'm not big on the surgery option, I need to loose some of that keg I'm carrying around, I know that would help.

 

I had a bulging disc that caused terrible sciatica pain from my butt cheek right down to the bottom of my calve. I know this terrible pain and how even many many weeks of PT did absolutely nothing, chiropractor did nothing, UNTIL one therapist tried a traction machine. After only one session I could feel the difference, it wasn’t long before I was pain free for most of the day. Eventually I was pain free. This led to me purchasing an inversion machine which I use every now and then when I am doing heavier lifting and I start to feel a little irritation. As I was healing with the traction therapy, the heating pad also helped this along. Also I believe that there is a bit of a science as to how much tension to start with and how long each pull should be but this does make a difference. I don’t think it should be too aggressive from the first session.Hope this helps someone. I thought my pain would never go away. I struggled for almost one year. But eventually I did make a full recovery.

 

You hit the nail on the head. My chiropractor put me through 3 step process. Traction, Deep Laser Therapy, and a manipulation table followed by her hand massage.

 

Traction!!! And I don’t mean that nanny nonsense from Toyota.

The reverse hyper is awesome! If strength isn’t a focus/concern then there is a much cheaper product on the market. It’s called “The Big Ray Strap” .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g7DfPx-vblM&feature=emb_rel_end

Now it’s important to to note that this is temporary relief but so are a lot of methods listed above. I have one and love it when my back starts acting up.