# Experience with sciatica
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 15, 2023, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058 "2023-07-15T05:10:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/1 "2023-07-15T05:10:28Z")
So about a week ago I was doing deadlifts when I felt a painless little pop in my back. The next day my back twinged when I walked. Day after-real pain getting up or sitting back down (and foot numbness as well as a weird crampy feeling in my calf that comes and goes. I’m taking the fact that those are intermittent as a good sign.) Some personal research tells me it’s probably sciatica. Any tips on dealing with it?
Very frustrating because I just can’t do much. Sitting for more than a few minutes makes it ache (hence driving is tough) and painkillers don’t help me know if it’s getting better. I’ll think the pain is less or getting better then try to pick something up or get down to exercise and bam! No difference. And just resting is both boring and not what you’re supposed to do I guess.
I’ve been trying to walk to keep blood flowing, but that gets achy in the hip too.
Sorry, I suppose I’m just venting and irritated at being so limited right now. I know many have it worse.
And to follow up [my earlier thread about injury,](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-being-injured-usually-make-people-depressed/984716/12)yes I did get the toenail removed. Which ironically if I’d opted to have done the day I injured my back would likely have caused me to skip that workout and hence not be in this situation. Ah well.
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### Author:  [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/2 "2023-07-15T12:36:02Z")
I had sciatica in the mid-90s. I wasn’t doing anything as tough as weight-lifting; all I did was some light yardwork and the next day had the type of pain you’re describing.
I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The pain wasn’t in the classic area for back pain, the lower back. It wasn’t quite in my hip or hip joint, but nearby, and I could feel pain deep in my thigh, but not the muscle of the thigh. It was bad, and lying flat on my back in bed, with no pillow underneath my knees, was the only position that gave me a little relief.
When I finally gave up and went to the doctor, he showed me a medical poster that indicated the location of the sciatic nerve. It immediately made sense to me, as that image exactly traced the location of my pain. There was nothing really I could do about it except to rest and take ibuprofen.
It took awhile, but the pain eventually faded away, and it has never returned. I hope yours goes and stays away as well.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/3 "2023-07-15T12:47:15Z")
> [@teelabrown](#):
>
> It took awhile, but the pain eventually faded away, and it has never returned. I hope yours goes and stays away as well.
How long did yours take to go away? Mine seems to be centered just to the left of the spine.
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### Author:  [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/4 "2023-07-15T12:53:20Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#):
>
> How long did yours take to go away?
Seems to me it took a few months to be come non-severe, and a few months more to disappear completely. But it was a long time ago and I may be misremembering.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/5 "2023-07-15T12:55:27Z")
Ooo that’s awhile. I’m glad it did go away for you and for the replies!
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/6 "2023-07-15T13:37:55Z")
I’m interested in the replies you get here. Sciatica is no joke. The only thing that has ever relieved my flareups has been stretching, and that only help so much.
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### Author:  [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/7 "2023-07-15T13:59:19Z")
Anti-inflammatory meds and gentle stretching are the only things that help me. Once the pain dies down, physical therapy would be a very good idea, so you can learn how to adjust your workouts to prevent a recurrence.
We do love our self-diagnosis and DIY treatments here at the SDMB, but since it sounds like working out is important for you, it might be worth your while to get to an actual doctor (maybe even someone specializing in sports medicine) for a treatment plan tailored to you.
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/8 "2023-07-15T14:07:07Z")
This is the advice and stretching exercises suggested here (I believe they’re standard advice in the US as well):
> **[Sciatica](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sciatica/)**
>
> Read about sciatica, which is pain caused by irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve. Find out about the symptoms, what you can do to ease the pain, and when to get medical help.
> **[Exercises for sciatica problems](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/strength-and-flexibility-exercises/exercises-sciatica-problems/)**
>
> Series of videos showing exercises for problems associated with sciatica.
Coupled with a bit of gentle movement (floating around in the swimming pool and short walks), that seemed to relieve it, but there was quite a long period when it felt as though the problem was dead but wouldn’t lie down, so to speak. And I feel I need to be alert to leg muscles tightening up and potentially pulling things out of alignment enough to trap the nerve
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/9 "2023-07-15T15:48:22Z")
And something I’ve had to b aware of this time and from another time I had back pain was making sure I’m walking “normally” and not throwing things off or creating new problems by favoring a hurt area.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/10 "2023-07-15T16:05:36Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#):
>
> Some personal research tells me it’s probably sciatica
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#):
>
> Mine seems to be centered just to the left of the spine
In my experience, sciatic pain is felt in the leg, not the back. I wouldn’t land on sciatica as the default diagnosis here.
See a doctor.
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/11 "2023-07-15T17:05:39Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> In my experience, sciatic pain is felt in the leg, not the back.
Mine too. I’ve had pain in various parts of my legs, it depends on which nerve root is affected,
[ ](https://www.physio-pedia.com/images/thumb/1/19/Lower-dermatomes.jpg/300px-Lower-dermatomes.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/12 "2023-07-15T19:18:25Z")
I had pretty bad sciatica with some paralysis after massively herniating and extruding my L5S1 disk. The practice I was seeing for it insisted on conservative measures for half a year with little improvement. Then I went to a different practice. Surgeon there said I should have had immediate surgery when the injury happened, and he could still operate and improve the pain but not the paralysis. So he did, removing the extruded pulp, undercutting the disk outline by 15%, and opening the foramen. The pain improved quite a lot. He then put me on gabapentin for several months and most of the remaining pain went away. The whole ordeal took about 10 months. I still have daily pain but not constant and rarely severe. The paralysis is still about the same.
About the conservative measures, I really regret that. While it was going on I felt as though my hand had been slammed in a car door, and I was seeing people weekly for all sorts of treatments but nobody wanted to open the car door and let me pull the hand out. There is a lot that is mysterious and unpredictable about treating pain in the back itself, but treating pain in the extremities caused by a nerve being crushed in the back is much better understood. Back then, now 18 years ago, I learned that back surgery to fix extremity pain from a crushed nerve is about 80% effective.
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### Author:  [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/13 "2023-07-15T19:26:49Z")
I forgot one thing about the sciatica.
During and immediately after the bout, there was a hand-sized patch on the outside of the thigh on that side that was tender. It felt the way your skin feels when you’re feverish: sensitive and sore to the touch. It stayed that way long after the main sciatica went away, and then the patch gradually faded to numbness. It is numb to this very day, thirty years later.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/14 "2023-07-15T19:32:27Z")
Wow, I’m glad you’re feeling better. It all sounds like an arduous journey. It’s too bad you didn’t get full recovery, but at least you got some relief.
> [@teelabrown](#):
>
> During and immediately after the bout, there was a hand-sized patch on the outside of the thigh on that side that was tender. It felt the way your skin feels when you’re feverish: sensitive and sore to the touch. It stayed that way long after the main sciatica went away, and then the patch gradually faded to numbness. It is numb to this very day, thirty years later.
That’s weird! Sorry, not weird, but I can’t think of a better word right now. I don’t mean it as an insult.
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### Author:  [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/15 "2023-07-15T20:11:05Z")
I’m not a doctor, but it sounds similar to what happened to me a few years ago, and could be a bulging disk. Worth getting it looked at.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/16 "2023-07-16T22:52:16Z")
I got it in my early 20s from doing sit-ups wrong. What brought me to the doctor was that I would have a stripe of numbness down one leg that would either be hip to knee, or knee to ankle, sometimes neither but never both, and I never knew what would set it off.
I had several sessions of physical therapy and was given some correct exercises to do, and it went away after a few weeks and has never flared up again.
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### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/17 "2023-07-17T19:09:01Z")
I got it a couple of years ago. How? maybe from sitting for too long on some really uncomfortable garden furniture - who knows? Apart from the very beginning (felt oddly crampy late at night; literally in too much pain to get out of bed in the morning - which resolved rapidly and completely after 2 ibuprofen) I had no pain at all that I can recollect; but I had an ankle so weak that I could not walk, drive, anything. Simply could not push off at all - the foot would just collapse under me.
It gradually got better. I could limp pretty well in a few weeks. I guess it took most of a year to completely resolve.
j
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/18 "2023-07-18T12:49:43Z")
I did some yoga last night and it really seemed to help, but today it tightened up again I guess.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/19 "2023-07-18T13:00:05Z")
Mine comes and goes. I find if I sit with my feet on the edge of the coffee table and lean forward with my head on top of my knees for about 15 minutes it sometimes helps.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2023, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experience-with-sciatica/987058/20 "2023-07-18T13:38:02Z")
Someone posted in another thread that hoisting yourself up on your hands using a counter and leaving your legs and back hanging seems to help. It does for me somewhat. Makes me wonder if hanging from a chin-up bar would work too.
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