I started getting bad pains in my leg a couple months ago. Left leg would be numb and tingling plus shooting pain to the calf and ankle.
Went to the doctor who xrayed and diagnosed radiculopathy and a bone spur.
He gave me Mobic and a list of stretching exercises. Then he tried to get me to get and MRI done after I told him I couldnt afford it. He insisted it would be covered and I almost did it then decided to find out exactly how much it would cost. Turns out it was NOT covered and he knew that it would be denied as he hadnt given me enough other treatments first.
On top off that, I just switched jobs and havent gotten the COBRA paperwork yet.
Im currently taking maximum tylenol and Aleve per day. It doesnt do much. I had a bottle of vicodin left over from dental work in 2010. I have been taking either a half of one or a full one and that has really helped. I only have three left and I dont know what Im going to replace them with.
Any ideas? Cant go to the doctor till COBRA kicks in and he is just going to tell me to get an MRI which I cannot afford.
Ive heard that claritin can help. At this point im willing to try anything, hell Id even try weed.
I’m not a doctor. I’m just a guy with shooting pains and numbness in my leg, so take the following with a grain of salt, do not rely on it, and find the cash to pay your doctor to do what needs to be done (or relocate to a first world country where there is real health care via universal coverage).
If a nerve is pinched inside your spinal column, the trick is to loosen up the muscles that are pushing the column out of place, so pain killers (e.g. acetaminophen), muscle relaxants (e.g. methocarbomol) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (e.g. naxproxin sodium or meloxicam which your doctor prescribed) help get things moving again. The next step is to get those muscles in shape (e.g. physical therapy) so that they can hold your spinal column together well, rather than let things get out of place again.
The big question is what caused the nerve pinch in the first place, for that will affect the treatment. Perhaps lower back muscles are too out of shape or are challenged by a big belly (physical therapy and diet will help). Perhaps a disk is out of place from moving the wrong way (therapy or an operation may help – e.g. nip the disk or fuse the spine). Perhaps a bone spur inside the spinal column is pinching a nerve (stenosis) (a major operation might help – grind the spur down while trying not to harm the nerves – scary stuff). Deciding which treatment would require a diagnosis, which would require information gained from tests, such as an MRI.
Radicular pain often responds to tricyclics like nortriptylene. Gabapentin and pregabalin are also effective. Unfortunately all those are prescription meds. The first two are not controlled substances, however. A focused visit to a primary care doc with a specific request for nortriptylene (which is very, very cheap) could result in a low-cost effective treatment. I’ve been willing to prescribe that and similar meds in such situations, without waiting for an MRI. If the clinical picture is radiculopathy, I’m just getting the MRI for confirmation anyway (and to guide the anesthesiologist when he injects the epidural meds.)
Otherwise, opioids like hydrocodone (aka vicodin) can be effective, but unfortunately the dose necessary to reduce the pain tends to rise with time. This may be less of a problem for a very specific localized pain such as your radiculopathy.
Meanwhile, consider trying a different class of NSAID than aleve. Ibuprofen may work better for you, or it may not. Never take more than 2400 mg of Ibuprofen in a single day, and always take it with food. Stop if GI symptoms develop.
Orudis (ketoprofen) is also another OTC NSAID you could consider trying. No NSAID has been shown overall to be better than any other NSAID for pain relief, but different individuals respond differently.
And watch the tylenol intake; do NOT exceed 4 grams a day, and be aware that lots of other meds sneak tylenol (acetaminophen) into their ingredients. Vicodin has 325 mg of tylenol or more in each tablet. Cold meds may have it added. And beware of adding alcohol into the mix. That raises tylenol’s potential to kill you.
Antihistamines like benadryl and claritin do have some reputation for potentiating or increasing the effect of certain pain-killers such as opioids, making them more effective. But otherwise the studies on their effects with other pain-killers are less clear. They may help you sleep better. Or not.
Ketoprofen is no longer OTC,I forgot about that. You could try aspirin instead of naproxen (aleve) or ibuprofen. Same cautions about the GI tract apply, and stop taking aspirin if your ears start ringing.
I had crippling sciatica to the point I was walking with a cane about 15 years ago. The docs gave me some pain killers but they really didn’t help all that much. The pain was utterly debilitating. It was like a river of fire running up my leg. Was getting ready to go the x-rays and surgery route when one evening I needed to move a large piece of furniture. I live by myself so this involved hoisting and moving the entire piece by myself.
After doing this a miracle happened and my pain simply washed away. It was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had. I’m in real estate and I told a martial arts client this a few months alter and he told me “you adjusted yourself like a chiropractor would”. Hmm… interesting good to know.
Ok so three years later pain comes back getting worse so I go to chiropractor and pay lots of money and he takes X-rays, does electro stimulation, “adjusts” me so my back cracks and it was all just a useless, ineffective pile.
But… because I went to him I found the answer. He left me alone in a room for a while as he attended to another patient. In that room was small life sized model of a section of the spine with the nerves running through it and I studied it. It showed sciatic pinching where the nerves get clamped between two discs. It was obvious now what I had done in moving the furniture and twisting to re-position the furniture was to pull those nerves back out of the pinch.
But how was I going to get the perfect movement to un pinch the nerve? Did I just get lucky before? I’m pretty flexible for a man and I’m guessing you may be as well as that flexibility or ligament looseness may have contributed to the nerves slopping around and moving in the first place. What I did to mimic that movement and what worked was super intensive stretching exercises on my back on a mat in my living room while trying to pull my legs back over my head one at a time, both at once, making a bridge with my back with a ball underneath etc. The point was to try and pull the sciatic nerve back out of the pinch.
And just so we’re clear I’m not talking about workout warm up type stretching. I’m talking about pushing yourself so hard you are bent in two like a pretzel or your leg is practically back past your head and you scream and yell. About 10 or so minutes at a shot of this stretching was all I could stand. After 3-5 sessions over the course of a week of this the sciatic pain started to subside and finally went away. I had moved the nerve back out of the pinch.
I’m not saying this is a cure all but it worked for me in moving the nerve back out of the pinch. Weightlifting and back and core strengthening exercises have worked to keep it out. I’ve had to do this twice since over the years and the exercises have worked every time. I’ve found I’m much more prone to it happening if I’m not exercising.
I obtained sudden relief like that from dangling upside down from a chairlift in my living room while stretching. Although not complete relief, things went from severe pain, numbness and weakness to some pain, some numbness and less weakness, which then improved over a few months thanks to meds and physio. Not that I’m advocating inversion therapy for anyone (wouldn’t want to make things worse) – just pointing out that it made a big difference for me given my particular matter.
I have suffered from sciatica and lumbago since quite young. I have wondered if it was related to several times where I fell on my tailbone and was in serious pain. That can’t be good for the spine.
I remember being on a transatlatic flight many years ago where I was in pain and could not sit or stand or anything. And I thought to myself “And this will only get worse with age so the rest of my life will be miserable”.
Well, it hasn’t totally gone away but I am much better than I was. It seems to get worse after the summer, with the cold weather (I think).
Many years ago an elderly aunt on mine told me I got it from her side of the family and she took a vitamin B complex and it helped. Since then, when it hurts, I start taking vitamin B complex capsules and they seem to help. I have no idea if it is real or placebo or I just get better on my own. Even if vitamin B does nothing for my back it can’t be bad and it might help grow hair, or get stronger erections, or better memory, or smoother skin… or something, it must be good for something.
I have had issues with this for some years. I went to a physio and she taught me some exercises. When the pain becomes an issue I do the exercises and the pain goes away (after approx 1-2 weeks)
A Doctor once gave me some stretching exercises for this problem that helped a lot. From your hands and knees, stretch your back as high up as you can, then down as low as you can.
The other advise he gave was to alternate heat and cold in twenty minute intervals, a couple times a day. This causes the muscle to loosen and then tighten, which seems to help.
Regarding the Cobra, lack of paperwork does not mean you don’t have coverage.
The doctor had one thing right: he was attempting to relieve you of your wallet ;).
I’m not joking, actually (not entirely, anyway). Where do you keep your wallet? In a back pocket? And if so, on the same side as your pain?
I read about this decades ago, jokingly called “credit card sciatica”. A guy carries a thickish wallet, in his back pocket, and spends a good bit of the day sitting (office work, driving, etc.) - and that puts just enough pressure in just the right way, to cause significant sciatica.
So in all seriousness, if you keep your wallet in that back pocket, try keeping it somewhere else and see if that helps.
Check your posture while sitting, make sure you have lumbar support.
Pain meds help but not much. Advil and muscle relaxers did a better job for me.
Inversion therapy helps a lot. Stretching, walking.
Not at all common. I live in a ski chalet (originally built for visiting ski jumping teams), and I am a hard core skier with quite a few skis cluttering up the place in the winter. One of the nearby hills replaced the chairs on their chairlift, so I placed an old one in my living room with its 15 foot ceiling. A few folks have them on their lawns. Think of it this way: some folks have an old dentist’s chair, I have an old chairlift.
I’ve found that I can “reset” my back by sleeping on the floor or other hard, flat surface. Sleeping can be uncomfortable, but when I get up after a night on the floor, my back pain is gone after an hour or so, which is the time it takes for me to limber up in the morning.
The last time this happened to me, I relied on bourbon as my primary pain killer. The trouble is, I would wake up around 2:00-2:30 and have to re-medicate to get back to sleep.
Massage therapy helps me in the long run. She can’t do anything about the bulging disc, but she can keep the piriformis (sp?) muscle from spasming and strangling the sciatic nerve, which makes everything worse.
I feel for you. Did mine 4 years ago just by putting on my shorts, felt a click, three days later down for the count. Pain radiated down the outside of leg basically ending on the lateral side of my knee. Since I have had several knee surgeries I thought lets get a shot. Saw my orthopod who shot the knee up, instant relief that last less a day. Then the real fun began, slowly like a building wave by groin muscle would begin to spasm and there was nothing I could do to stop it, just hold on until it passed. It happened while at the pharmacy after visiting my dermatod and so debilitating was the pain I had to ask for a wheel chair to wheel myself to my car.
I tried pain meds, muscle relaxers, cold press hot press in between press, doc was right, it ran its course in about three months despite all my efforts to hasten the process. My sister just went through her own bout, she claimed massage therapy helped but her spell lasted about the same as mine.