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Karl
Apr 28, 2009 - 9:31AM
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Sciatic Pain
Have been on this forum for a while and have now had another shift in my back pain.
Traditionally have suffered with tight/muscle pain from msucle imbalances.
However over the last month my back has felt better and has shifted to leg tightness. Originally i thought this was just tight muscle(s) but thinking about it is probably down to sciatic issues. Over the last week this has developed to what i would consider full on sciatica. Pain radiating into my right glute and down both legs. Very difficult to sit for more than 10 mins and in general lots of pain.
I am meant to be driving down to newquay this weekend for a break but its about a 5 hour drive and honestly not sure if i can cope with the pain.
Any ideas on my best approach for both short term (ie the long drive) and how i can beat the sciatica?
Any advice is much appreciated.
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awaq
Apr 30, 2009 - 6:08PM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
As Dave Hutchieson says, one muscle gets loosened up and then you move on to the next one. So you are making progress.
I lie on my back and work up to a hardball under all the soft tissue on my butt, piriformis muscle, and hips to get the muscles to relax (you can look these muscle location up by doing a Google search). This way you stretch the butt but put no stress on the back.
Once your butt loosens up more, you can also do the seated leg cross putting the outer ankle of the affected leg onto the knee of the unaffected leg.
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Karl
May 1, 2009 - 3:36AM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
Hi Awaq, have been doing most of that. I have a rubber band ball that i have been using in the glute area and seems to be helping.
It has eased of massively over the last few days.
In some ways I almost feel more positve as, with the sciatic pain i know exactly where to target but before with all the general tightness i never really knew where to start.
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Ann
May 1, 2009 - 3:46AM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
Hi Karl,
Have you decided if you are going to do the drive to Newquay? For a while i could not drive due to my back and sciatic pain so I understand it can be frustrating.
If you decide you can do the journey I just thought i could tell you a few things that helped me, though we are all different and it depends how much pain you are in, so you need to see what you think. Does heat help to alleviate your pain? If it does you could try getting a few heat pads (from the chemist-usually a pack of 3, you use one for a day then dispose of it. Bit expensive doing that regularly but Ok short term) which give out some heat for 8-12 hours and putting one on your back to see if that would help you.
Also maybe a good back support would help with your driving position. I find car seats very poor for my back (always aggravated any back or sciatic pain I had) and i now always use a back support. The one The Healthy Back institute sell -The freedom back- is I have to say excellent but you wont have time to get that for this journey, though it might be worth you looking into if a back support helps you. It has a massage facility as well as the support and its great. For now try out what you can get and see if it helps.
Whenever i had to drive with sciatic pain i had to keep taking short breaks at least every hour, so try to build that or whatever suits you into your journey, I wouldnt try to drive there without any breaks. When you stop get out walk around and do some stretching. Keep hydrated.
Do you have Lose the back pain system? If you do try to do a few of the stretches before you set off and in each break. You may find a warm bath or shower helps a bit before you set off on your journey as well-and another one when you get there.
For me lose the back pain system was the main thing that helped me with my sciatica long term. That and water therapy.
Can anyone share the driving with you? The most important thing is that you are safe driving and you do not want to be in too much pain or aggravate your condition. Is it possible to get train there at all? I know that might be difficult depending on where you are coming from -just a thought.
Take good care and I hope you do have a good weekend.
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Bob
May 1, 2009 - 11:56PM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
hey karl
Like the lady said, you need to stop and get out of the car at least every hour , stretch and walk around for at least 5 minutes before you return to the car and drive. I have a 4 hour trip to my son'd college in a couple of weeks and I'm in the same boat as you. I had a 8 hour surgery 4 months ago. Good Luck
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Karl
May 5, 2009 - 3:43AM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
Thanks for the replies. Drive down on Friday was ok, took about 6hours, was very stiff and painful after.
Drive home on Monday not too bad. Bought those heat pads and used my back support, actually feel ok today.
Justr frustrating as really wanted to learn to surf when down there but no chance at the moment!!!!!!
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babs
Jun 30, 2009 - 10:04PM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
I know what full-blast what sciatic pain is. I was referred to a good pain specialist by my physician. He gave me triger-point injections which helped with the pain, ultimately due to a herniated disc, L5S1. Sciatic pain is horrible and I don't know how you can make a 5-mile trip with that pain, even if the pain is off and on. I suggest finding a really good pain specialist who can greatly help, one who can get to the root of the problem.
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Bob
Jul 2, 2009 - 2:44AM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
The problem with that is, they can't always find the root of the problem. I have had about 30 trigger point injections, the nerve endings burnt off my spine at L4-L5. L5-S1. I live on pain killers everyday of my lfe. For all you people out there.... don't let your doctors tell you that it's ok to stop a medication cold and go on to a new one. I was told to stop taking Oxy 40mg taking twice a day and stop my Percocets taking 4 times a day. Start taking the F/Patch (Morphine) and Opana 10mg every 4 hours. I asked the drug store if it would be ok, they said , I should be fine! Well I was so sick for 5 days, lost 7 lbs. Was ready to check myself into a hospital. I went to my regular doctor , told him all about my change of meds and he told me to eat toast and stay away from milk. Well, I went home and told my wife lets see what happens. I took an Oxycontin and I swear on my mother's grave in 45 minutes I was good as new. Oh... I have also had 2 failed spine surgery's. The last one I was on the table for just under 9 hrs. They want to do a 3rd one to clean away scar tissue and coat the nerves with fat cells. Wish me luck!!!! I hope everyone that reads this gets the help they need to be as pain free as they can get. People should not have to suffer the way they do because doctors don't always know what the peoblem is. Thanks everyone for lending me your ears.
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Marie
Jul 15, 2009 - 1:27PM
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Re: Sciatic Pain
Hi,
I had sciatica for a long time: Dec 2008 to May 2009. My best treatment was from a chiropractor who performed the Cox flexion technique on my lower back to gently move the vertebrae away from the nerve. That relieved the pain. It is a very gentle treatment and does not hurt. The next step was to learn some core exercises to help strengthen the core muscles near the spine. Take a look at Stuart McGill's webpages and "fixYourOwnBack.com". Both of these websites identify the muscle groups and the correct ways to do the core exercises so that you protect your lower back. But fix the pain first so that the exercises do not hurt when you do them.
Thanks to my chiropractor I had no pain after the 2nd visit. The back pain was gone due to the Cox flexion technique. The chiropractor then focused on separating my vertebrae in my lumbar region to create space for the disc to move back between the vertebrae. I am still getting treatment on a bi-weekly basis to help flex my spine and keep my vertebrae from compressing.
I found the chirpractor online and made several calls before I decided to go for any treatment but I figured that I had exhausted all my remedies including steriod injections in March 09 which did not work!!
You might need to read up on the chiropractors in your area and find out if they can help you. The visits may be covered by insurance. But in the long run, if you have sciatica you probably will want to have some preventative treatment on all of your lumbar discs to maintain them and to prevent the compression of the vertebrae from causing the discs to lose their shape and bulge out to the spinal nerves. The chiropractor aligns your spine, separates the vertebrae from each other and helps the discs heal. This is called decompression. It really helped me.
Another treatment is an inversion table which works on the same principle: keep the vertebrae separated from each other and allow the discs to heal in their space. This is one treatment that I may look into for long-term care of my back because the inversion decompresses discs and then helps the vertebrae stay in place and not decompress onto the discs. I think this is also a reputable treatment that helps back discs heal.