Siatica Nerve Pain

Not me, but my husband is a long term sufferer. He has just his first epidural steroids to treat his two herniated discs. Waiting to see how this goes as results are variable. When you get a weakness in the discs between your vertebrae, the disc bulges out and can impinge on nerves which leads to pain down your leg etc. If you haven't had an MRI scan and diagnosis, ask for one.

sciatica and back pain are hard things to 'fix'. its tricky. most people suffer some sort of back injury or problem.

the best advice is rest and take an anti inflammatory. specific stretches for me seems to help me recover from my sciatica faster, when it acts up. years ago i was lifting a patient and felt/heard a pop in my lower back..a few days later i was on the couch and in pain. i just rested and took ibuprofin and in a few days i was fine.

some sciatica is caused by a impingment of the nerve from inflammation, or some sort of muscle spasm. Some is caused by a herniated disk or other disk/spinal problem. but both involve some sort of inflammation that needs to be dealt with. there are many things that can be done, but none are fool proof will solve the problem. there are steriod (ESI) injections, surgery, rest, medications, physical therapy, TENS units etc.

mostly though i've found that most back pain will go away in time given proper rest. most, not all. sometimes it takes days, sometimes months. everyone deals with pain differently, and everyones degree of injury is different.

stop running or doing anything for a few days, take an anti inflammatory, apply heat and see if that helps. otherwise see your doctor for further evaluation.

my husband had the exact same symptoms as you, he had a herniated L5 S1 disc, he did the physical therapy and the steroid shots but neither one helped him. He just had surgery last week and he said he feels 100% better. The pain down the leg is now gone and he is ready to start back with his biking once the doctors gives him the OK. I know surgery does not always sound like the best option but in his situation he tried everything before making the big decision to have the surgery and now he is glad he did. Good luck I know how painful back problems can be.

Had the same in 2003, had the surgery and I created scar tissue right on the nerve. Because of the scar tissue that pain, numbness and weakness will never go away and it cannot be repaired. In 2006 I had to get the L5 fused and more scar tissue went on the nerve.

The pain is always there but I still do what I can as far as running. Bad days use a none impact machine. I was a rare case and most surgeries of that type are 100% successful. It takes adjusting, listen to your body and know the limitations but don't let it get you down.

what's the cause? herniated disc?

I don't do much cardio but that's because of my weight lifting goals (gaining weight) but soon I'll be starting to. It is a very difficult thing to live with but it can be done. I do squats, leg presses and even dead lifts. Won't lie I also manage with pain meds and some nerve meds ( Neurotin/Gabapentin) either of those two help with the nerve pain, numbness feeling.

My husband and I have both suffered from this. Unfortunately my disc herniated to the point it was compressing my sciatic, I ended up with surgery and nerve damage. The surgery took away the sciatic pain immediately, but here I am 11 months post- surgery and that leg is much weaker and my foot does not have full feeling in it.

My husband has been getting cortisone shots every 3-4 months for it, and going to physical therapy. He is hoping to avoid the problem I had.

Good luck and listen to your body! Physical therapy is a great tool to help, it really is helping my husband.