worst pain ever!! Anyone ever had a Sciatic nerve issue?

Make sure you stretch your hamstringx....regularly. Does your chiropractor adjust your hips when you see him? For me, that's more crucial than any other adjustment.

 

wow...thanks for all the suggestions. You guys are great. Going for a MRI today. I have a inversion table so I'll give that a test this morning.

 

How does it compare to stepping on a Lego?

 

And your hip flexor.

 

Same pain....just doesn't go away.

 

Herniated disc L4-L5 is a common cause for sciatica and it SUCKS! Every surgeon wanted to operate on me when I was 26. I ended up going to the Cleveland Clinic for a 2nd opinion and they offered pain management. After my 3rd treatment (epidural), I had zero pain. That was 11 years ago and I'm still all good. I hear success for epidural is around 50%, but I had great success without surgery.

 

Small world. I went to the Cleveland Clinic 11 years ago for a crushed L5. My sciatic pain was caused by bone squeezing into the spinal column. It eventually mostly went away as the bone reshaped itself. It still flares up occasionally.

 

Stretching the piriformis muscle can help greatly. In a certain percentage of the population, the sciatic nerve travels through this muscle, instead of around it. Regardless, the piriformis muscle plays a role and is tight in numerous people. Stretching it would help. Many chiropractors miss that one and dont inform or educate the patient on how to stretch that muscle.

 

have had this several times. each time it would be worse and last longer. just last year I slipped a disc (my hips actually have a difference of a 1in height between the left and right and literally point in another direction than my upper body - I get crooked as hell). as things went back into place after several weeks, the sciatic pain started and lasted several months, and it was SEVERE! I would hobble to work and home and then be bed ridden for the rest of the day/ weekend. I tried chiro - nothing. they wanted to charge me 3k for decompression - which MIGHT work temporarily. some get nothing. screw that. tried other chiro's, no go. went to dr. (bad move in the end) he gave me prednisone - THAT SUCKED!!! temp fixed my back pain, but came with a whole host of other issues and I wouldn't take that again, PLUS the pain relief was temporary, it came back. plus when I went to look for private disability ins - I was denied because of that visit!

Norco and other pain killers I had didn't do much. many many sleepless nights and I thought surgery was my only option, but without disability ins, it wasn't one at all. cort shots have issues too that I didn't want, and usually need to be repeated, and with tendon weakening from them, that wasn't an option because of my weight lifting. at this point I walked with a severe limp as well. it sucked! then I went through a period of a month or so where I would wake up at night several times like I had a cattle prod hitting my legs. could barely breath. this whole ordeal really sucked!

and then, after several months...it went away. now I feel fine, but I am very careful about what I do. I fear the next time I damage my back will be the last time. my advice to you is research what medical options they give you and see what you think is best and have your ins in place before hand, but I think that horse has left the gate as you have already seen a dr.

 

I herniated my L3/L4 disc about 8 weeks ago. The back pain was horrible, but by some stroke of luck (near impossible according to my chiro) it didn't aggravate my sciatic nerve very much. I had a few days of tingling/numbness in my butt cheek, and some sharp pain in my hip, but it went away with a lot of stretching.

My recovery/therapy has included inversion, reverse hyper, chiro adjustments, electric stim, massage, and continuing to do a lot of core work. I also kept working out (against doctors orders), but I really felt I could do it safely without causing further damage.

None of it may be for you because we're all different, but I'd ask your doc about all of the above.

I thought chiropractic was utter nonsense until I found a really good doctor. She really knows her stuff, and no doubt has helped me heal more quickly than I could have on my own.

 

The inversion table should help a lot. Basic yoga also if you don't already have a stretch routine. Advil at night.

 

:up: Had the exact same problem. I thought I was really messed up because of the pain. Went to PT, they stretched me out focusing on the piriformus, and in a couple weeks was back to normal. A huge relief considering the other sciatica stories you hear about.

 

Since he doesn't have kids, we can only assume that Broome still plays with legos Do you get in trouble for not picking up your toys when play time is over?

 

Aging sucks. Yoga works for me.

 

My mom is all into that shizz and I never got into it. That being said, there are two stretches she taught me that I will always do when my back/sciatica act up (stupid marathon!). That and laying with a tennis ball under my ass cheek on the offending side. Life savers...

Google will be your friend.

 

Id stay as far away from an inversion table and chiro as possible until things settle down--get the MRI--listen to the neurosurgeon/ortho and do what he says. I did the spinal injections--seemed to work pretty well when nothing else did. Not even the dilaudin injections helped much--it sucks but it will get better. Long term swimming has helped alot

 

Boccarp, I've been dealing with this kind of issue for the past 60 years on and off. A close friend and neighbor of mine (until he died) was an orthopedic surgeon that offered some real good advice on this kind of affection. He told me that the way the human body has developed we should really still be on all fours to get around unless we keep our ab and core muscles in good shape. Those are the muscles that keep our frame (skeletal structure) aligned and working properly. For some of us it's a full time job doing that.

I first hurt myself when I was 15 years old and only when I worked those mentioned muscles did I stay completely pain free. All during my Army years and my motox years was I in good shape and had no problem. Now that I've gotten older I now have a bit of a spinal stenosis problem that I have to deal with. I still don't have the sciatic pain but I will in a few short years. My problem now is that I can just barely lean over (like working under the hood of my car) and it will feel like someone has stabbed me with the same knife that they used on you.

I don't know if people like us are lucky or not. A lot of people are classed as having a strong back and a weak mind. With us we have a weak back and a strong mind.

Did the Doctors do an MRI on your lower spine to see if stenosis is becoming a problem? It might be.

 

Inversion table FTW

 

Again many thanks to you all for your suggestions and direction. I truly appreciate it. The pain is still close to unbearable. The only pain free position is basically with knees on the ground and head between legs. WTF! Anyway I have a MRI this morning. I tried many stretches but mostly they only relieve pain for about a minute. Hopefully the MRI will expose the site of the problem and I can then execute a path to comfort. I am in the gym everyday so it's not a physical fitness issue. My core is strong, I pound the weights and I do a ton of aerobic exercise like rowing and cycling. The orthopedic surgeon will review and at least give me a couple options. I didn't want to go to a chiropractor and have them paralyze me with a adjustment until I got a better handle on what the damage looks like. Funny thing though. I got on the R1M last night and went down the end of the road and back. The riding position is almost painfree! So maybe the actual answer to my recovery is track day...everyday! Ride on!!!!!

 

You got my sympathy Boccarp. I've dealt with sciatica problems since I was about 17 years old due to a work injury. Chiropractic definitely helped a lot when I saw a good one and not so much when I was seeing a dud. Knowing which is which is something of a crap shoot.

When the pain just won't stop no matter what position you get in it seems like you'll never feel relief and it definitely hurts like a bitch.