Sciatica help please

Hi there-
I am in a similar situation. I have been running for about a year and a half, and in November I started having this pain in my left buttock when I was laying flat in bed and the pain was intense any time I had to turn over. I didn't really do anything about it because the pain went away completely when I got out of bed and started moving around. Then because I was planning on having surgery (totally unrealated from this) I decided to agressivly treat this pain in my butt. At the beginning of March I went to an orthopedic doc and he had no clue, and ended up giving me a cortisone shot in my butt. It helped for about 4 days but then came back. I stopped exercising at the beginning of April and started taking Ibuprofen 800mg every 8 hours, using a heating pad at night when I went to bed, did 20 minutes of piriformis stretches every morning when I woke up and every night before going to bed, I was also taking muscle relaxers at night before bed and doing myofascial release using a tennis ball. None of this helped, in fact, after stopping my running it seemed to get worse. I can not lay flat on my back at all with my legs straight out in front of me or I get intense cramping pain in my left butt muscle, along with sciatic pain down the lateral part of my calf. I googled gluteaus minimus and medius pain and that seemed to explain the pseudo sciatic pain in my leg. It's for sure pinpoint in the middle of my butt however I am not sure what else I can do for this. I ended up canceling my surgery that I was planning for the last year, and I am so bummed. But without being able to lay flat there was no way I could recover from the surgery. I am scheduled to see my general doctor on Monday and I am hoping to get a referral to a massage therapist, possibly a sports physiotherapist and get more muscle relaxers. I hear that this is a common overuse injury amoung runners, so I am eager to see if anyone else has any opinions or things that they have tried and had sucess with.

I would quit the ripped and 30DS at once. I had it for years, got to the point were I was looking at surgery. Meet the surgeon(paid through the nose). Exercise especially anytihng intense would increase the pain of mine. Mine would start in my right foot arch, and work its way up.

The problem with Sciatica is there a many different causes, mine was due to a PARS Defect and incidental spina bifida occulta, yours could be due to a muscle strain, disc problem, tendons, hips.

GO TO YOUR PHYSIO OR GP.

I ended up having a series of xrays over 2years and MRI scan. Hit the PHYSIO or GP

Sometimes Sciatica is overdiagnosed there is something called pseudo sciatica and it's actually caused by a tight piriformis muscle, I would suggest massage or chiropractic care. I also find two stretches amazing for it, if you sit on a chair and cross one leg over the other then slightly fold forward keeping a straight back you will feel a stretch through the glutes, there is also the yoga pose called pigeon that is great (but a little more advanced). you could also sit and roll a tennis ball over your glutes

I don;t know if my pain is sciatica or the tight muscle described above, but going to the chiropractor and using this exact stretch (as above) always helps relieve the shotting pains I sometimes feel down my left hand side!

I had this last summer. I had to be careful even just standing or a shooting pain would go down my leg and it would collapse (and this was only a couple months before heading off the University on a cross country scholarship so I was pretty freaked out). If you're wondering what cardio you will be able to do the first thing I could do was biking, and later on walking. About a month later I could elliptical and a month after that I could run. I would definatly check with you doctor before excercising though, because you don't want to aggravate anything. Also, everyone is different so you might be able to do different things than I was.

I'm no doctor, but the pain in your butt sounds like it could be your piriformus (hope I spelled that correctly). I believe some people's sciatic nerve goes through thieir piriformus muscle and when the muscle gets too tight can cause sciatica. Again though, I'm no expert, but its something you might want to consider. Maybe some stretches?

Good luck. The hardest part was never knowing when/if the pain would go away but it does, and I'm sure you'll be back to running in no time.

Apparantly a good dose of the antioxidant cranberry supplements help with this. I have only heard from a few people that this works, but then they are the only people I now with sciatica! Might be worth a try.

Ok I went to the doctor again yesterday. He referred me to a neurologist and wants me to get a nerve conduction study and also an electromyogram and then he also wants me to do physical therapy. So I am still taking ibuprofen three times a day along with a muscle relaxer. But this pain is beginning to make me go insane. I am going to go try swimming today as I haven't had any cardiovascular activity in almost a month and I'm afraid of losing all that I worked so hard for. I'm starting to get depressed about it all. Summer is finally here and I can't do a damn thing.

Try glucosamine supplements. I take 1000 mg per day and it helps general stiffness and pain first thing in the morning. I'm not a flexible person and it has really helped me.

I have been doing my fitness pal since january 2013 lost 11 pounds. For exercise i was doing Jillian Michaels 30D shred yesterday I was on the floor in pain from a sciatic injury after looking through all these posts on sciatic problems it seems we all have one thing in common we were doing jillian's tape. I will never use the dvd again i think it caused my injury and i am sure everyone elses.