anyone have sciatica? How long did it last? What did you do for cure?

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Replies

  • mikhnpaitsmum
    mikhnpaitsmum Posts: 119 Member
    For relief, besides the stretches- and this is just me- a tennis ball placed just right under the butt cheek will to roll on. It massages and relieves pain. I keep one by my bedside at night as that's when it usually acts up.
    My pt recommended it. Sounds odd works great.
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
    I hope the physical therapy is helping you. As someone else mentioned “Bob and Brad” have a YouTube channel with lots of great info.

    I am also a runner and experienced low back pain last year. It took a few weeks of following their recommendations, but it really helped. Once I started feeling better, I started walking again, but I still occasionally had back spasms. I didn’t rebuild my running base miles until I could walk 5k without any pain at all. Then I rebuilt base running miles slowly to avoid injury.

  • sarah7591
    sarah7591 Posts: 415 Member
    Thank you so much for all your input. I will keep plugging away. I am hoping in 6 months this will all be a distant memory and I will be walking again. @emmamcgarity I like your approach. when I can walk 5k (please God soon!) I will start running again slowly. You all give me hope that this is something that should go away and not be permanent. I'll keep you posted. Thank you again.
  • Bridgie3
    Bridgie3 Posts: 139 Member
    sarah7591 wrote: »
    Hi all: I am a runner who would run 5 miles 4 x a week. In Dec/Jan I ran 3 half marathons and I think it was too much for my 64 year old body! I woke up on Dec 26 with bad lower back pain and pain going down my right leg. Waited two weeks and went to Dr. and they gave me muscle relaxants...did not help. Waited another three weeks and went to non surgical orthopedic and they put me on prednisone (ladder) for one week. Today is day 3 (steroids)and my back is better but still get pain down the leg. I have not run in over a month and miss it. Doing exercises for lower back and hips. (x rays just showed arthritis in hip & lower back). Has anyone dealt with this? How long did it take to heal? I would love to hear your experience. Thanks!

    God save us, they're feeding you pills for sciatica.

    Sciatica happens when your vertebrae get knocked out of alignment, often by exercise, and a nerve in the spine is pinched. There's more than one nerve that can be pinched, and a chiropractor will ask you where the sciatica ends before shoving your spine back into place. I get it either down to the front of my shin, or down to the back of my calf; these are two different problems.

    So... chiropractor. My chiro used to call me a crack junkie because I loved it so much. I have scoliosis, which is a sidways curvature of the spine that means the shock absorber that is the normal curve didn't work that well. I would go in with migraines, and numb fingers, and inability to walk - and come out smiling with a bounce in my step. I had a good chiro so the first thing they did was x-ray my spine and show me where the curves and bends and messes were; and then every year or 2 I'd get another x-ray and we'd compare and see how the spine had moved.

    Some people like osteopaths better, which is slower and more caring and sharing. yes, I like that too. Massage - totally. Another thing I learned was that my spine was too mobile. I had to get it into the right place with the crack junkie thing - and then ice it so it would shrink into position.

    I had a GREAT time when I worked in a packhouse, because when things went bad I'd go lie with my knees up on the coolstore floor. The chiro showed me how to twist myself on chocks in various places, so that my spine would naturally return to its correct alighment. :disappointed:

    It's all mechanics. There's no magic in it, it's simple mechanics.
  • roseym10
    roseym10 Posts: 101 Member
    Yoga helped, but then I had a massage and then it was gone and never came back.