All I’m getting for Christmas is Crippling Sciatica Again

[Joe (SoCal)]

Back’s been feeling Twingy the last few days, then last night my herniated disk decided let’s put pressure on that Sciatic nerve running down your left leg so you can scream when you walk. Won’t that be fun? I have an appointment tomorrow with my doctor. Hopefully you can shoot me with a lidocaine shot and I can be ambulatory again.

I couldn’t sleep at all last night couldn’t find a comfortable position, oddly, sitting in my car with the heated seats on, and some Biofreeze sprayed on the lower is the least Painful position. So that’s where I am. I had to actually get a cane to be able to walk well more like gimp around.

I’ve tried everything from specific stretches for this, to swimming it helped when the back was twingy but not when the Sciatica, Kicked in. A friend recommended a Chiropractor, but my orthopedic doctor looked at me last time, and I had to do that stupid MRI, which I will never do again, said, with my disc in my condition chiropractor can do some real damage.

Anyway I’m just miserable sitting in my car trying not to move the wrong way to avoid the white hot pain. This is no fun.

[Paul Pless]

have you tried the front pocket money clip wallet?

[Paul Pless]

i mean **** it says in the op that you've tried everything but i didnt see that one listed

[Paul Pless]

also, what a bout a korean massage with cbd oil

[Joe (SoCal)]

New Yorkers carry their wallets in there front right pocket, never anything in the rear pockets when sitting, phone in the back right only when walking.

What I need is DRUGS because a bottle of wine and an edible last night didn’t work.

[Paul Pless]

okay okay

i had it for years and it sucked ass
feel for ya man
i dont know why mine went away, living a more godly less stressful life helped
as did not flying coach probably

[Jim Bow]

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...the-lower-back

[JimD]

Sounds awful. My brother gets it too but from the sounds of it not nearly as bad as yours. I do hope that's not all you get for Christmas.

[Scrib]

Mine’s bad right now too, same white hot pain. It’s been a bout a week so far. And got to out & pickup the remains of the top half of a huge white pine this morning. Ain’t life grand. After 3 different back surgeries over the years I haven’t called the doctor and probably won’t until I’ve suffered appropriately. I’d step up from wine to Gray Goose.

[David W Pratt]

The gift that keeps on taking.

[CWSmith]

I had sciatica about this time some years ago. It's awful! I hope it gets better.

[JTA]

Damn Joe, that is tough.
Currently I am able to get relief with Yoga exercises, really sorry that stretching isn't working for you.
J

[Ted Hoppe]

You could try going for a swim every day in the cold ocean. would do wonders solving part of the flexibility and pain issues besides making you feel more fit, strong and great for skin..

[Stiletto]

You have my sympathy. I know you said you have done exercises in the past with little effect, but I would suggest lying on your back the floor with the back of your legs hooked over a chair or something that raises your bum off the ground, and just hang there. You arent going to be doing anything else anyway. A hot wheat bag can help too.

[skuthorp]

Try acupressure Joe, works for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI2UfzAeDOk
https://www.bluetree-massage.com/en/...eve-back-pain/


And I find these points (B48) particularly useful too.
Best of luck Joe, and merry xmas to you both.

[epoxyboy]

I can sympathize. This time last week I was damn near immobile with lower back pain. Luckily no permanent damage like ruptured discs, a couple of sessions with a PT worked wonders. Still not totally right, but 1000% better than I was.
Best of luck with getting a solution, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Pete

[Hugh MacD]

I can totally sympathize, Joe. Luckily mine seems to have subsided except for the occasional twinge. Perhaps your back will give you an ultimate Christmas present and do the same.

[Joe (SoCal)]

It took me 20 minutes to walk to my car just now with a cane, its only a few feet away. I nearly gave up but I left my phone in it.
I just got back to the couch to find that one position where I don’t want to blow my brains out. ( another reason I don't have a gun )

I’m spaying BioFreeze like spaying Febreze in a Port Authority Bathroom

THIS SUCKS

[Paul Pless]

and who among us couldnt use a good lap stretch from time to time?

[skuthorp]

Joe I damaged the sciatica nerve playing rugby, and there are positions I cannot take because it fires up the condition. But small rocking pressure on B48 with my thumb turns it off and I get a hot spot on my thigh instead. The treatment, and the subject are well worth exploration.

[skuthorp]

He needs to get out in a small sailboat more often……...

[wizbang 13]

Tumeric
It won’t fix your back but it will reduce inflammation which is often the cause of pain, with no side effects.

[doorstop]

Been there done that, still recurs occasionally but thanks to chiropractors and physiotherapists I can function pretty well

[Dave Wright]

It took me 20 minutes to walk to my car just now with a cane, its only a few feet away. I nearly gave up but I left my phone in it.
I just got back to the couch to find that one position where I don’t want to blow my brains out. ( another reason I don't have a gun )


I’m spaying BioFreeze like spaying Febreze in a Port Authority Bathroom

THIS SUCKS

I greatly sympathize. When it first hit me at age 37, upon getting out of a car I had to crawl on my gravel drive and up the steps to my house. I thought my life was over.

All I can say is that it's completely different for different people. There is no unique cause, just many possibilities. There is no unique solution, just many possibilities. What works for one person may not work for another, and often might make it worse.

My first bout lasted six months. Prior to it I was running liesurely 7 minute miles six days a week, cutting up trees for firewood and shot putting the rounds across my property. There was nothing I couldn't do physically I was invulnerable.

When that first bout went away after six horrible months I assumed that I was invulnerable again. Within one week I helped a friend do concrete work and the sciatica came back and really hit me hard physically and mentally. Another six months of agony, doctors didn't help and I don't do drugs.

I took it easy after that. Almost any physical activity resulted in a nasty pain in my right butt cheek. I learned to do physical activity only up to the butt pain. Any further activity brought on the excruciating down the leg pain.

Nothing really helped. The final diagnosis was that the opening in my spinal canal was on the low side of average. Inevitably my nerve sheath would make contact and the condition would occur.

I don't know how much time I wasted explaining to physical therapists that their techniques were exacerbating the condition. I only went to one chiropractor and that was sufficient for me to decide that chiropractors are not suitable for my particular condition.

So, is there any hope? Yes there is, or was for me. It got better over the years and I could do more and more physically before the pain started, and the pain would only last a few days.

I'm 76 now and I just did three weeks of volunteer work on a Christmas tree lot for a charity. Lifting and moving heavy trees, dragging them up on car tops and into trucks. A couple of nights I felt the butt pain, and a slight down the leg pain, but only for a couple of hours, and I kept at the work without any issues.

So, it may very well get better for you, there is hope. But you're just going to have to find out what might work for you. It's depressing and frightening to experience the kind of pain that can occur, and hard not to think that your life is over. But in all likelihood it will get better either with or without medical help. You may learn how much you can do withot bringing on the pain. Who knows, there might be a medical solution for your particular unique condition.

I'm rooting for you and hoping for the best for you.

[epoxyboy]

Amish Rob, there were some good suggestions there.....while they lasted.

Pete

[Besserwisser]

Tumeric
It won’t fix your back but it will reduce inflammation which is often the cause of pain, with no side effects.

Right track but why bother with the hippie version. Get real anti-inflammatory pills, like Celebrex 200mg. Take double the dose initially, then as directed for a few days max. Works every time.


Sent from my MI MAX 3 using Tapatalk

[wizbang 13]

Side effects is why
cost is why
safety is why

[George Jung]

Interesting thread - I'm always curious, the different approaches. Of course, this is the ultimate 'YMMV'. With time, that bulging disc MIGHT shrink enough to provide relief - but they don't really 'heal'. Sometimes a burst of steroids (MEDROL DP) will help - but again, no 'cure'. At some point, you may be reduced to surgery as the only option - but, that's 'last chance', and I wouldn't hurry into that.

Re: heavy lifting, etc. - give it up for Lent, regardless how 'able' you were as a youngster. No upside to it.

And re: teds suggestion to swim in the cold ocean. No, ted; just.... no! I'd suggest Cancun, instead.

[Ted Hoppe]

You could try going for a swim every day in the cold ocean. would do wonders solving part of the flexibility and pain issues besides making you feel more fit, strong and great for skin..

I know I am Ted but if you really want relief and healing - it is swimming and floating, better in cold water in the ocean. You only live a few minutes from the beach and have time during the day. You don't need much but a few minutes. That putting your legs raised on the wall with your back and butt on the floor for blood circulation and nerve relief in addition to simple basic yoga moves.

I have noticed that hanging for 5 sets of 30 seconds from a bar has helped with my arm, shoulder, spine and hip issues.

[George Jung]

Couldn't hurt (well.... maybe.... YMMV)!

But I'd still go for Cancun.

[Gerarddm]

Very unfun. i hope you get some relief soon.

I had a disc go in my early 30s, at S1L5, but thankfully no sciatica involvement. Half a year's worth of stretching exercise slowly ameliorated it, but every once in a while, it acts up still.

[dutchpp]

A lot of physiotherapists use dry needling for sciatica related pains in the Netherlands, with fairly good results

[John Smith]

Time brings various aches, pains, and other problems.

I wish all that none are too bad, but seems impossible to avoid all of them.

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday in spite of whatever health problems kick up. I woke up to a touch of diarrhea which is likely to change my plans.

[Joe (SoCal)]

Good morning morning everyone after a mostly painful night with little sleep and some screaming I'm up and I have to crawl on all fours to the bathroom to climb reverse cowgirl style just to take my morning piss. Then God knows how, but I'm going to attempt to get to the car and I promised to pick up my buddy and drive him to the airport ( for whatever reason sitting in the car I have no pain and the heated seats sooth me )

What the good Dr. Jung said is what my orthopedic doctor has said after looking at my MRI.

Interesting thread - I'm always curious, the different approaches. Of course, this is the ultimate 'YMMV'. With time, that bulging disc MIGHT shrink enough to provide relief - but they don't really 'heal'. Sometimes a burst of steroids (MEDROL DP) will help - but again, no 'cure'. At some point, you may be reduced to surgery as the only option - but, that's 'last chance', and I wouldn't hurry into that.

Re: heavy lifting, etc. - give it up for Lent, regardless how 'able' you were as a youngster. No upside to it.

And re: teds suggestion to swim in the cold ocean. No, ted; just.... no! I'd suggest Cancun, instead.

You see its really not a sore muscle back pain kind of thing, it's not something acupuncture, swimming or other remedies can solve.
The bulging disk just happens to be the disk where the sciatic nerve goes through a tiny hole in your pelvis and continues down your leg. Think of a Double Stuff Oreo where the cream in the middle is the stuff between the two disks and the cream is bursting out one side and pinching that little hole where the nerve goes through. So no amount of exercise, as a matter of fact he agrees with Dr. Jung I should curtail any lifting, he is OK with swimming but only after the bit of Oreo cream that burst out wears away and the pain subsides.

[Joe (SoCal)]

At the doctors I couldn’t walk from the car so they got a wheelchair

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