Sciatica Pain

Hi, I feel for you as I too have suffered from Sciatica pain off and on over the last year, at least the past 3 months I have only mild symptoms (if any) and I contribute this to every morning as soon as I get out of bed I spend about 15 minutes doing Pilates type exercises and stretches. I've also modified my sports and activities to not fully extend that area of my left butt/hammie e.g. When I take the dog for a walk, we used to have a few sprints through the parks that we went through, I am tall so have a long stride, now I take shorter strides and don't sprint, more of a fast jog now. Even when I do feel a little twinge, like yesterday when I started out on my walk, once I get going and and warmed up, I don't feel it. Try to keep exercising, just vary it up and see what works for you without causing you too much pain. Have the mind set that you won't let it hinder your life,
About 6 months ago, I went to a Chiropractor to try & get rid of this pain once and for all, after 10 visits, still no relief. Then tried a couple of remedial massage sessions - that was too painful.
Google "sciatica" if you haven't already and read up on different ideas on exercises etc.
One last thing, use a heated wheatbag or hot water bottle on the area when you are lying down or sitting, that should help.
Any long term pain is not nice to live with, you just have to adapt your life to minimize it and get back to enjoying life.
Take care & good luck

I used to get serious bouts of it, and sometimes still do. The best thing I did was to go to a physical therapy clinic. The PT had me lay flat on my back, and it turned out that one leg was longer than the other. He did a couple of moves on me...and all of a sudden my pain was gone and both legs were the same length! It was amazing. He showed my son how to "fix" me at home, and so when it acts up every once in a while, we do the therapy moves and I am back to normal.

These are two stretches that have helped me the most. It's a little painful while you're doing them, but it really relieves the pressure that's causing the pain.

Speaking from personal experience here, don't wait around with it. When it's that bad it's not going to go away by itself. Chances are you have a fully herniated disc. You need an X ray or MRI and your doc will determine whether surgery needs to be done from there.

I tried to "stretch" my sciatica away for 6 years. Some days it was so bad I'd drive to work with my eyes squeezed shut in pain and a frozen water bottle stuffed under my leg. Then one day I way cleaning up and bam, it blew out on me. I was on the floor and out of work for 8 weeks while waiting for surgery to fix it. Couldn't stand, couldn't walk, had to crawl on my belly to the bathroom and haul myself up onto the toilet when I needed it.

After surgery my pain was gone. Unfortunately so was all the feeling in my left leg... the doc said this was because I had waited on it so long that the nerve had gotten damaged. He also said I was lucky - much longer and I could have ended up in a wheelchair, or with a colostromy bag (yes, sciatic pressure can cause those things)

If your disc is fully herniated no amount of stretching or any of those other quack job physical therapy remedies like ultrasound are going to help it. Go to your doc, get it MRI'ed and go from there.

Speaking from personal experience here, don't wait around with it. When it's that bad it's not going to go away by itself. Chances are you have a fully herniated disc. You need an X ray or MRI and your doc will determine whether surgery needs to be done from there.

I tried to "stretch" my sciatica away for 6 years. Some days it was so bad I'd drive to work with my eyes squeezed shut in pain and a frozen water bottle stuffed under my leg. Then one day I way cleaning up and bam, it blew out on me. I was on the floor and out of work for 8 weeks while waiting for surgery to fix it. Couldn't stand, couldn't walk, had to crawl on my belly to the bathroom and haul myself up onto the toilet when I needed it.

After surgery my pain was gone. Unfortunately so was all the feeling in my left leg... the doc said this was because I had waited on it so long that the nerve had gotten damaged. He also said I was lucky - much longer and I could have ended up in a wheelchair, or with a colostromy bag (yes, sciatic pressure can cause those things)

If your disc is fully herniated no amount of stretching or any of those other quack job physical therapy remedies like ultrasound are going to help it. Go to your doc, get it MRI'ed and go from there.

just to add though, this is your personal experience. I get sciatica on and off and have done for 3 years, but mine is due to bad posture. I get less and less flare-ups now thanks to regular stretching and exercises and the occasional Pilates class. Surgery isn't the cure for everything so I wouldn't go to a doc demanding it, get an MRI done first and see if that shows any disc problems.

just to add though, this is your personal experience. I get sciatica on and off and have done for 3 years, but mine is due to bad posture. I get less and less flare-ups now thanks to regular stretching and exercises and the occasional Pilates class. Surgery isn't the cure for everything so I wouldn't go to a doc demanding it, get an MRI done first and see if that shows any disc problems.

I didn't tell her to demand surgery. I told her to go to the doc, get an MRI and go from there.

Ugh, I feel your pain! After a back injury in 2003 I lived with daily pain for five years due to herniated discs...I tried physical therapy at a couple different places, chiropractor sessions, sports medicine visits, and a daily regimen of muscle relaxers, ibuprofen and various pain killers (wouldn't recommend the high doses they had me taking). Eventually it got so bad that I couldn't walk to the cafeteria at work so I couldn't have lunch, and one morning I just couldn't get up to go to work. Long story short I finally had surgery in July 2008 (discectomy on L4/L5 and L5/S1). Since then I've had virtually no problems, and I can now work out--HARD--every day. Sciatic pain runs in my family, and swimming (even just walking laps in the pool) seems to have helped them, and it was ok for me occasionally...but there's a certain point where you need to see a good neurosurgeon to evaluate your options. Herniated/bulging/etc. discs don't usually go away on their own. I pray it doesn't come down to that for you!

just to add though, this is your personal experience. I get sciatica on and off and have done for 3 years, but mine is due to bad posture. I get less and less flare-ups now thanks to regular stretching and exercises and the occasional Pilates class. Surgery isn't the cure for everything so I wouldn't go to a doc demanding it, get an MRI done first and see if that shows any disc problems.

I didn't tell her to demand surgery. I told her to go to the doc, get an MRI and go from there.

^ completely agree with this...an MRI will let you know where you stand!

@Merimeaux - L4/L5, L5/S1 club! :drinker:

I have a few stretches and then highly recommend you see an Osteopath that does manipulation. After they get you all corrected you won't have those lock ups for years. Mine is due to short leg on one side. it has gone far enough to even lock up my jaw because I was so mis-aligned after an accident. One thing that is the worst thing you can do is lean forward. Do the opposite. If you get into a lunge position then lean back, make sure not to fall. Often we women build a ton of tension around our pelvic muscles that cause our pelvic to tilt and causes more pain. The other one that really helps is to stand straight in front of a table to something that is hip height. Pull up on leg onto the table as if just that leg was sitting indian style. I often have to bend at the knee at my straight leg to get more pull on my raised leg. When you're in a lot of pain, you may need to do this one often to get those muscles to finally let go. Let me know if these help or there are more stretches you can do if you have a partner.

I second (or third?) the recommendation for physical therapy. My hips are often out of alignment and my therapist has taught me a way to correct them myself (if they're off in a certain way) and given me exercises to strengthen some of the pelvic and core muscles. I also need to stretch my hamstrings and my IT band more so they don't pull me out of alignment as easily.

Today most of my pain was right in my tailbone and she said I was out of alignment in some other way. She did several other gentle adjustments on me (that can't be done on your own) and that pain immediately went away. I think it's well worth the money, especially if you have insurance and only need to deal with copayments.

I agree with all that have said to see a Dr. and get X-rays and/or an MRI.
I stretched through and lived with sciatic pain for 10 years. It got to the point where I had to have a spinal fusion, which put me out of commission for quite some time. Read my profile for more details.
Bottom line, I don't want you to go through what I had to live through. See your Dr. and find out what's really to blame.

Much luck and happy healing to you.