Has anyone had a sciata nerve injury, or familiar with it ?

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tshile said:
It's alright. As the saying goes, I don't care if you're black, white or purple.
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is that your Michael Jackson impersonation :)

Elephant said:
The question should be...what is the cause of the sciatica?
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perhaps be from spending too much time on BGO, and that may not be far from the truth.... I have been sitting in a very un-healthy, anti-ergonomic position in front of the PC for long periods.

I really took one for the "team", on this one :)
 
This has been going on for almost 4 months.
Still in severe pain from Sciatica, and the foot pain is from another condition called Plantar Fasciitis.
The Doc just gave me anti-inflammatory meds, and told me to do more walking, jogging, and swimming, and it would go away on its own in 2 weeks. That was bull. It's been months

For the Plantar Fasciitis condition, he said I just needed a shoe, with better heel support. That was also bull. That only works as preventative, not to cure it.
I've tried everything, from ice packs, to stretching, to yoga, to professional neuro-muscular massage, to walking, jogging, swimming. And the pain just keeps getting worse. Gone through all kinds of yoga tutorials for pain relief.
The sciatic pain makes it unbearably painful to sit down, which puts pressure on the thigh and buttocks where the problem is centrally located.
While the Plantar Fasciitis pain, makes it unbearable to stand up and put weight on the heels.
So, in other words, it hurts like hell to sit OR stand.
I'm a wreck.
Absolute agony
 
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Fear, have you seen an Ortho for your back? It might be time to discover the origins of the back pain...MRI. If you have a herniated disc, you could be doing more damage by doing nothing. I dealt with as much pain as possible when I ruptured L5 until surgery was the only option...9 months later. It took nearly another year after the surgery to begin to get back to normal...or as close as I could get to it.

As for the Plantar Fasciitis, the only thing that will heal that is time. I had that 5-6 years ago and it took about a year to really get over it.
 
Actually, there is no pain in the back area at all.
The pain originates in the buttock or glutes area, then goes downward into my thigh.
I don't know if that changes anything.

It's hard for me to imagine that the Plantar Fasciitis will heal itself, because I feel like I'm doing more damage and pressure on it, by walking or standing on it, which seems like it would delay the healing. And most of the time, I have no choice but to put weight on it. Laying in bed is the only way to not put pressure on it, obviously, but I cannot survive by staying bed-ridden until the pain goes away.
 
That is the pain I was referencing with my back injury. It sounds like there is something pressing against the nerve to cause the pain down your leg. That is what happened with me, it was the disc that ruptured putting pressure on the nerve. It was so bad that when I would take a step with my left foot, it felt like someone driving a knife directly into my glutes. I lost feeling in my left foot, there was constant tingling in the back of my leg...almost like my leg was constantly asleep.

I'm not a doctor Fear, I only have my experience. You are experiencing much of the same symptoms I did, but that can be caused by different things. Mine was a ruptured disc, but a friend of mine had a mini bone spur that caused his. He had much less recovery time and a much simpler surgery. Unfortunately, you're going to have to find out the root cause.

As for the plantar fascitis, it wasn't that I did absolutely nothing, it was that I minimized the athletics. I had to stop running, I had to stop playing soccer, I had to stop the hiking. I just had to take about a year to go easy on the foot.

Sometimes, it sucks getting old...well, physically anyway.
 
I wouldn't recommend a chiropractor in many cases but I would at least consult one on this. The sciatic nerve is very susceptible to pressure from misalignment of vertebrae. It may be as simple as getting an adjustment.

I have a conjoined sciatic. Where it exits the spine and is supposed to split into two mine is still connected for a little while. Its a birth defect but when my L5 S1 disc is out of whack the sciatic pain shoots down both legs and is intolerable. Doesn't happen all that often but I been through it a dozen or so times in my life.

In my experience all chiros want to adjust you and all Orthopedists want to operate on you. I always looked for someone who respected and admitted to that opinion. I would have a chiro do the xrays and show you what's wrong with your alignment first. Then discuss what they would do to correct the situation. The same with an orthopedist.

Good luck brother, back pain has got to be the worst thing you can deal with that won't kill you.
 
well now. four years ago my system basically collapsed from one too many carrier landings and a bad golf swing. my L4 was progressively collapsing onto my L5 squeezing the sciatic bundle. the particular nerve trunk this impacted (I think five total run from the sciatic) traversed my right side. most excruciating pain I have ever incurred - at one point, it was so pervasive, I'd lie in bed and my ass felt like what I imagine it would be like being passed around every cell in a large male prison. I started with chiropractor - temporary relief that never lasted even a day. then went to a physical therapist - the clinic leader knew what she was doing. unfortunately, day to day you are paired with the newbie who is willing to come in at 0603. didn't help. after six mos the pain was worsening. so I went to an orthopedic surgeon. should have turned around and marched out the office when he passed "I used to be a surgeon." he wanted to verify which nerve bundle was impacted by shooting novocaine into the one we thought it was. (btw, this doctor was selected by the military healthcare system by someone 1000s of miles away pulling names from a dropdown list - gov't provided healthcare has its downsides). anywho, the novocaine test really screwed things up. next thing I knew I was on narcotics to stop the pain. finally, rolled out of bed one night, took one step and collapsed. couldn't walk. neighbor carried me to his car, threw me into the rear, and off we went to the local Naval Hospital. As luck would have it, an old flying mate of mine headed up the orthopedic dept. he hooked me with one of his best. bottom line came down to this -> they could operate or they could feed me steroids for 3 weeks which would calm down the adverse interactions occurring between my spinal chord and the thin vicious membrane that lines the spine (simplifying somewhat here). well, the doc says i'm not bad enough to warrant vertebrae fusion and that cutting was likely to rip more than a few muscles and other nice things to have. he recommended the steroid approach. I agreed having met quite a few folks for whom surgery was a repeat event 2-3 times before they got it right. Took 3 weeks before I was walking reasonably normally. I was told never to run again. I finally latched on to the right stretching exercises which keeps the L4/L5 gap stable. I play golf pretty regularly - doc said might as well since the back will likely worsen sometime in my mid 60s and golfing would not accelerate anything. It's funny, I tried just about everything - including the rack! they went medieval on me!

my takeaways: the back is one of those areas that is more art than science. each discipline (chiro, phys there, orthopedic) has their own outlook, are not very aware of the other disciplines, have their preferred set of drugs. in fact, if anything, what I learned from this is the medical profession is totally wrapped around drugs. dead money is correct: orthopedic surgeons have kids to put through college! find someone you trust and avoid surgery as best you can. if the pain is intolerable, run some searches and find out who the top surgeons are in your area.

good luck.
 
Back pain sucks the big one! My suggestion is to strengthen your core, especially the stabilizer muscles. Look up exercises for your TRAs in particular.
 
The gf says to try nerve gliding and nerve flossing, but to get imaging done and go to a PT.

Also try stretching your piriformis. That's usually the muscle that pinches it, if its muscular.
 
Been battling it for almost a month now and nothing was helping! Starts in upper glut/hip and radiates all the way to my foot. Definitely sciatica, which is typically caused by a bulging disc or some type of inflammation putting pressure on the sciatic nerve. First the Doc's tried the norm, Lortab and muscle relaxers; didn't even put a dent in it! Went back to and saw a different Doc and he put me on a steroid "blast"; 60mg of prodestrone for 5 days, increased the pain meds and gave me Valium to help me sleep and relax. After one day of the steroids it started to feel better, day two (today) it feels a thousand times better! Talk to your Doc and ask if it's possible to get this type of treatment.

One thing to keep an eye on; if the pain sciatic causes you to lose bladder or bowel control, get your ass to the Doc ASAP! There's a condition that deals with the sciatic that if not treated properly can cause permanent damage.

Good luck brother!
 
Fear The Spear said:
Thanks D&C. I have a feeling that I'm fortunate enough that it's not a disc putting the pressure on the nerve, but probably the periformis muscle. Which theoretically should be easier to treat.
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Scheduled an MRI, but the Doc is "guessing" since I have degenerative discs in my lower back. It sure does hurt like a bitch! Hopefully you get relief soon.

BTW, do you carry a wallet in your back pocket? If so, is the pain on that side? A good friend of mine had sciatica REALLY bad and the Doctor said it was brought on by sitting on his wallet during a road trip.
 
Dazed&Confused said:
BTW, do you carry a wallet in your back pocket? If so, is the pain on that side? A good friend of mine had sciatica REALLY bad and the Doctor said it was brought on by sitting on his wallet during a road trip.
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Just saw this. Yea, I used to carry the wallet in my back left pocket, and that's the area the pain started.
But I stopped doing that. Now I carry it in my back right pocket, since apparently my right buttock is stronger than my left :)
 
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