I don’t think this is technically asking medical advice. I’ve already been to the ER, received pain meds (and a morphine shot; man that was nice while it lasted!) and have an appointment with my doc on Tuesday to set up an MRI.
I merely want opinions or suggestions from those who have been through it on anything that might ease the pain a bit until they find out exactly whats causing it and tell me my options.
This initially started about six weeks ago. It was painful but bearable, and I thought I had maybe pulled a muscle. I bore through the pain and in about two weeks it went away. Wednesday evening it returned with a vengence. I couldn’t bear weight on my left leg, sitting was painful and trying to get up was damn near impossible. That’s where the trip to the ER came in, and where they told me I have sciatica. They put me off work for two days which was nice, but I’m worried about going back Monday because I am still pretty imobile. I’m not getting any sleep because I can’t get comfortable, and don’t even ask me about the agony of trying to sit on the toilet
The pain meds make me nice and woozy, but don’t do a whole lot for the actual hip/leg pain. From what I understand, they have to first diagnose what is causing it (slipped disc, abnormal growth on disc, etc) before thay can treat it.
Has anyone been through this and have any advice for me about exercises or postures that may ease the pain until I get my MRI? We are in the middle of buying a house, lots of packing and such going on and I feel pretty lousy not being able to help my husband with much of it
In my 15 year experience with sciatica, I’ve learned that the term is kind of a catch-all for undetermined back/leg pain. I got it from lifting a tire and turning wrong. I used to get many episodes per year. I’ve found that Vicodin helps some.
I feel your pain. Try alternating hot/cold pads, if you can’t get a script then some Motrin or Tylenol ES depending on the time of day. Motrin knocks me out for sleeping purposes. I would do floor exercises to stretch the muscle away from the nerve. Even had Hub pull on my leg really hard while holding tight to something. Anything to get the pressure off the nerve. Personally, it feels good to stretch kinda backwards, fold up your leg to the side and lay on your back, rotate until you feel the twinge and stretch it out.
I can only imagine how difficult packing/moving would be with a raging sciatica episode. Good luck!
For me it was a simple operation that cured it.
They put a tiny hole in your back and insert a tiny laser/camera and “evaporate” the part of the disc that is outside the bone and pressing on the nerve.
In and out procedure, Local anesthetic. No stitches, just a bandaid, so little chance of infection.
Find someone who does these and ask if you are a candidate.
I’ve found lots of good info on the web seaching Google with discectomy
Been there. I had my trip to the ER about six weeks ago. Strong doses of ibuprofen do help make it somewhat bearable. My doc suggested 600mg every six hours and percoset and cyclobenzaprine at night. I didn’t have a choice about going to work since we were in the middle of something important.
Other than that my doc didn’t have anything I could do while I was in the midst of the pain. I caught a lot of flack for this at work since I am in my early 30’s but I used a cane to walk and stand up. Putting the pressure of moving around on my arms and shoulders took a hell of a lot of the burden off my back.
I asked a therapist about this for my wife, but don’t know if it works. She said that some people get relief by lying on the opposite side, facing the edge of the bed, and sort of hanging the top (affected) leg over the other leg and the edge. So I guess you would be in sort of a scissors position.
Even strong prescription meds (for me) really don’t relieve the pain, they just make you care less about it.
I’ve only had a few sciatica bouts but they were so bad I had to walk with a cane in some cases. I saw docs and went the chiroprachter route to little effect. The only real solution, which I discovered by looking at a model of the spine and sciatic nerves in the chiropractor’s office, was very hard core intensive, near contortionist level stretching routine for my back and legs that moved the nerve sheath out from between the area where it was being pinched by the discs and popped it back into it’s proper position. It took about a week of this type of exercising before it went away.
They are the areas of skin on your back and leg that were supplied when you were a fetus by the same nerves that are coming out your spine. When the nerves hurt, if you or a loved one will “scritch” along the dermatome, often you will get a jumpy, St. Vitus’ dance like reaction, and the pain will subside.
Some have theorized that the relief from pain is a bit like what happens when you get a sharp blow to your arm, and you rub it, and the pain defuses. A vague theory that if you stimulate a lot of nerves related to the nerve carrying the pain, you confuse it, and it gives you a break.
Or something like that.
Pretty decent map of them at this site (scroll down to picture 4). Google Image gives you dozens of others.
My husband’s pain is mostly L5-S1, and I can tell which set of nerves are getting pressed on more by discovering if the big reaction to scritching is going on across the top of the butt and down the side of the leg, or down the back of the leg.
Yes, from what I understand, it is not a diagnosis, rather a symtom of the real diagnosis, which is where the MRI comes in.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
I am glad some of you above mentioned using a cane, as I was thinking that or crutches would take the pressure off, but was afraid I would look over-dramatic if I used them. But at this point I could care less what I look like, I just want some relief! And like others mentioned painkillers don’t do much for it. The Morphine they shot me up with iniatially made me happy enough to forget the pain, but it was still there and the Vicoprofin they sent home with me don’t do diddily. :rolleyes:
Standing and walking, while painful, are much more comfortable than sitting or laying down. I get especially anxious when I realize I need to go to the bahroom. Lowering myself to a sitting position that low brings out a primal scream that probably scares the neighbors :eek:
I did find a few exercises on various web pages that I will try. I really need it to calm down at least a little before I return to work Monday, I spend all day on my feet and walking.
Well, I love a good hot shower to relax the muscles, and I just pee in the shower. Crapping on the other hand in a pain phase is agony
Whatever you do, don’t soak in a basic in house size bath tub. it took mrAru to help me get out of the damned tub the first time I tried and the struggle made the nice relaxed muscles flare up again. A nice roomy hot tub where you are more reclining in a seat, and supported by a lot deeper water is much better. I like to gently twist in the water and flex to stretch out muscle groups, sort of like micro aqua aerobics with lots of relaxing hot water adnd floatation support.
I don’t have sciatica, but I do have leg pain from an aggravated nerve root in my back. I take oxycodone, but the major pain relief comes from a nerve block via a needle in my back every 3 months. Blocks are expensive but man do they reduce the pain.
I printed out the exercises on THIS site. Left hand side of the page, click the links for illustrations. I was scared to try some of them, they looked painful considering my condition. But I bit the bullet and did them all. Wow. I went from agony to minor discomfort in 30 minutes. I’d urge anyone with this type of pain to try them.
Too late! That happened last night, hubby had to help me out. Not exactly a romantic scene :smack:
On the upside, our new house (we haven’t got possesion yet) has a double shower with built in seats, those would have come in very handy for me this week.
no, not exactly romantic is (spoilered for TMI) having to have hubby go spelunking for your diva cup because you threw out your back and you cant sit and bend enough to be able to get it out yourself
Funny thing is, I worried about the possibility of something like that happening during a pain episode, but luckily it wasn’t an issue. You poor poor thing…
My boss has recently had a bout of sciatica, and what gave her some quick relief was to sit on her leg. Tuck the painful leg under your butt as you sit in a chair for a few minutes. Well, your foot under your butt, and your leg folded back on itself…oh, you know what I mean! Anyhow, she said it gave her great relief for a while.
I’ve been doing that a bit this evening while on the computer. I couldn’t have done it the last day or two though, raising my foot more than an inch off the floor was impossible. Those exercises I did earlier tonight really seemed to loosen things up, I’m going to do them again before bed.
1: Laying on your back or side (whichever allows greater range of motion) and slowly but repetitively trying to pull my right leg as far back toward (roughly) my left ear/shoulder as possible and vice versa for the left leg. This is the most effective exercise for re-positioning the nerve.
2: Doing back arches with as much curvature as possible. From a back flat on mat lying down position arch your back up off the mat as much as possible. Some people like to put a medicine or exercise ball under the back to support it while doing this.
3: Curl up into a ball as tight as possible.
4: Basic pull back quadricep and calf stretches
5: Standing flat footed bend over and try to put palms flat on floor
The main purpose of these exercises is to both maximize stretching of the sciatic nerves and opening of the vertebrae to get the nerve bundle to loosen and pop out from the “pinched” location they are in. They are a PITA to do (esp #1) but they do work (for me).
