>Then there were the nights when I had to sleep on the living room floor with my legs (from the knees down) on the sofa.
Yeah, I spent a few nights where I could only do three things. I could sit on a tall, narrow stool in the kitchen and lean hard on my left elbow on the microwave oven cart. And I could walk counterclockwise around the round dining table, leaning on it and dragging my dead right foot. And I could kneel on the bedroom floor with my torso lying on the bed. But I could only do any of these things for about 20 or 30 minutes, and would then have to go do another one. I had managed to forget how dark those days and nights were. Wow.
>Yeah, avoid surgery, use as a last effort.
Uncommon, you say this as if you’re agreeing with me, but I don’t actually think this. I wish I’d done the surgery earlier. My GP sent me to a physiatrist (notice that’s a specialist in noninvasive methods, not a psychiatrist). She kept saying she thought she’d fix me, until she was out of gas, then she said go see a surgeon. So the surgeon says if I’d have come to him first he would have released my crushed nerve root half a year ago, and I might have gotten all the ability to move my foot back. As it turned out all his predictions came true, whereas none of hers did, so I guess surgery “as a last effort” wasn’t the best strategy. It’s actually pretty hard to figure out what to do.
So over a month later and I’m nearly back to normal. Back in work about two weeks now. Still on mild painkillers but I have to take them only once a day now when I feel the pain rising in the leg. Still got a bit of a limp as I’ve still got a weak calf muscle.
So if you get a outbreak of this bastard and it seems like it’s not going to end just stay with it and it will go. Do the exercises the doc gives you and take whatever pain relief they offer.
What a cunt of a thing to get.
A MRI showed a good bit of damage i.e. the doc upon looking at the results said I “was in a very bad way”. He said the operation for the damage I have is basically to remove the disc. This is a 50.50 operation though and only really performed on chronic cases so hopefully I’ll never be there.
So months down the line and hopefully relief is near. I’ll be going in for back surgery next Wed. Doctor says that he had had 95+ success rate with the type of op.
The surgeon looked at my MRI and said “ouch, you’re back is in a very bad way”. He said he couldn’t do much to help my back but the OP should remove the pain from my leg which will be a great relief as I’ve been in pain now for ~ 9 months and it’s getting old in a very big way.
The funny part of my sad sciatica tale (when I was 22, I was showing off for a girl by picking up a heavy barbell I’d never tried to lift before, and caused myself six months of misery) is that after my six-month sentence to agony was over, and it was no longer painful to sit down in a chair, I kept grunting every time I did so anyway out of habit.
I had a very strange case of sciatica. I was in the hospital for an unrelated issue and needed a shot of demerol. Evidently they hit my sciatic nerve with the needle and it felt like I had a flaming arrow lodged in my ass for six weeks. I was truly amazed at how off I was on imagining what sciatica feels like. I wasn’t even in the ballpark.
I hope your surgery helps. I’m having a mild-ish attack right now. I’ve been ill this week, and doing a lot of lying around, which always seems to bring it on (I get all kinda stove up.) I will be going home and doing my stretching exercises like a good little girl. Hurts to do 'em, but it really helps.
Good luck on the surgery. It is very likely to help. Back surgery to fix back pain is a pretty uncertain business, but back surgery to fix limb pain caused by crushing a nerve has a high success rate overall. If I had it to do over, I’d want the surgery quickly - but of course didn’t know then that the less aggressive treatments wouldn’t work.
Having sciatica from a spinal problem like disks or bony growths is like having your hand slammed in a car door. People offer painkillers and ice and physical therapy and whatnot, and all you want is to please please please just open the car door!
Still a bit weak on my feet, just did a 15min walking session in my house and that tired me out. Early days though as they told me there would be about a month recovery so I’m not rushing anything.
Starting to feel a bit stir crazy but I’m being spoiled rotten by me Ma. Hope to go back to me apt. in a few days.
About five years ago I pulled a muscle and it completely immobilized me. I was getting up from my home office desk and that’s when it hit. They gave me an MRI and Xrays at the hospital and told me that although I had a bulging disc, it wasn’t causing me the pain. It was the muscle. Took muscle relaxers, healed mostly, but back never the same.
Fast forward to the last few months. Discovered that the bulging disc is indeed causing me pain. It’s the lowest one and it is deginerating. It has gotten progressively worse over the last few months to where I cannot stand for more than a minute before the pain is unbearable and walking any further than 50 feet starts to double me over like a monkey. the bulge is pressing against the sciatic nerve. So I have the back pain on the left side way at the bottom and the pain shooting down my leg.
Screw that, I’m having surgery on the 9th of July. I got to get back to tennis as soon as I can.
I only had it done on Thurs so am still out. Lying in bed right now. The hospital gave me a cert for 3 weeks but said I’d almost certainly need another week on top of that for which I need to go to my doctor as they’ll only certify you for a max of three weeks here without seeing a doctor again.
My GF just had this flare up in the last couple of weeks…she has started weight training with me just this week, so I’m hoping that plus Advil will take care of it…hers is pretty mild, but she has no insurance, so she is resisting a trip to a doctor. If it’s not better in another week or two I guess I might have to try the puppy/vet trick and tell her we’re going shopping for shoes but drive to my doctor’s office.
