Sciatica problem. Is there a fix for it? Or am I just screwed?

reply to post by TDawgRex


Well, it's a bit early to say as i've only done about 3 visits so far but I think that if the muscles are loosened and my core strength is greater then it certainly can't hurt!

I just don't want mine to progress any further than it already is. When it first happened to me, I couldn't stand still for less than a minute without some sort of pain. It's getting better but I think it's a long, slow road!

Hope you find some relief soon!

I feel for you Cousin, Sciatica hurts, when mine flares up I can barely walk.
Acupressure? had it only temporary relief, pain pills wont touch it so don't bother.

What works for me is an anti-inflammatory med called Voltaren® (diclofenac sodium).
Works like a charm (for me), usually knocks out the symptoms(excruciating pain) in a couple of days.

Talk to your doc, you might give it a try before getting sliced & diced.

K~

Originally posted by TDawgRex
I used to be a pretty active guy, but no longer due to sciatica and it does not pass the T&C smell test to tell you how I feel about that.

It’s been going on three months now. I had to quit my job (Which I loved!) and still experience daily pain. Mainly in my leg, but sometimes in my back as well.

Physical Therapy does not seem to be working and is draining my account. I’m leery of injections into my spine as well as back surgery, which thankfully has not been recommended yet.

Overall, I would say that I have been getting better but have seemed to have hit a plateau.

I have been told not to go to a chiropractor and am wondering if maybe a massage therapist would be in order.

If anyone who has had experience with this problem, I would appreciate your input. I’m getting desperate. I'm not taking any persription medications. I was on Percocet & Zanoflex for the first three weeks and did not like the side effects at all. But they did allow me to sleep at least. (Maybe to much as that was the side effect I did not like)

Thanks in advance.

My husband was told this is what he had by MD's. he finally went to a very good chiropractor and he was totally cured. INSTANTLY! one visit.

reply to post by Char-Lee


Wow. He must be very lucky indeed. I wish I could say the same but I had visited mine twice a week pretty much for about 4 months roughly and it still didn't go away.

OP, one other thing which i'm going to try is mega dosing on Vitamin C. I had read about this in the past but hadn't really tried it to be honest. I've just recently bought some liposomal Vit C sachets so i'm going to dose up on those and see how I go.

Here's a link about it...

Vitamin C Therapy

Well. The ATS medical team should have expert and professional advice for you shortly.......

Failing that you should do the next best thing and ask your doctor ?

reply to post by rimjaja


I appreciate your time and effort in providing that information--very helpful.

reply to post by zbrain75


And a lot less invasive...
Treatment runs around $100.00 without insurance, but most of us have treatment plans, that could drop the cost down to $50.00 a treatment. I have a 12 treatment pack for $600.00

Originally posted by Cruff
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

Wow. He must be very lucky indeed. I wish I could say the same but I had visited mine twice a week pretty much for about 4 months roughly and it still didn't go away.

OP, one other thing which i'm going to try is mega dosing on Vitamin C. I had read about this in the past but hadn't really tried it to be honest. I've just recently bought some liposomal Vit C sachets so i'm going to dose up on those and see how I go.

Here's a link about it...

Vitamin C Therapy

There are several methods of chiropractic, they are not all the same, some don't help at all, did you try more then one?

Originally posted by Cruff
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

Wow. He must be very lucky indeed. I wish I could say the same but I had visited mine twice a week pretty much for about 4 months roughly and it still didn't go away.

OP, one other thing which i'm going to try is mega dosing on Vitamin C. I had read about this in the past but hadn't really tried it to be honest. I've just recently bought some liposomal Vit C sachets so i'm going to dose up on those and see how I go.

Here's a link about it...

Vitamin C Therapy

I am going down the liposomal vit C route myself,I am approx 2 months in to the daily dose and it has helped me sleep better I believe.Also I have more energy to excersise,and I feel able to walk further than before I started on the vit c.
I put this down to the fact that Lipo Vit C helps you to digest your food more efficiently,thus helping the injured parts of the spine recover at a faster rate.

There is a mega thread about how to make your own Lipo Vit C here,which details all the bits you need to make your own,cheap and easy.I have been making it from the instructions in that thread,and its working I think.

Check it out:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Its a 90 plus page thread by now,but the first pages show you how to make the stuff.

It won't be a miracle cure for sciatica,but it can be a help in some respects IMO.
Worth a try along with exercise etc.

Originally posted by TDawgRex

Originally posted by thePharaoh
CBD

What is CBD? Chronic Back disorder?

Or a treatment? Or is it a reference to that which we cannot discuss? If so, those days are thirty years in the past for me.

you know you can get it as drops... pure cbd..and nothing else.... its medicine

this is only for reference, i am suggesting nothing

heres a quote

"CBD oral drops work so well for chronic pain I may never vape again. I would highly suggest trying this product and as a person with serious nerve damage, my symptoms were reduced by 75% with an hour of trying Hindu Kush Drops.....I have freedom from most of the pain and I can function. Thanks to Chris at Canna Pi for his professionalism and concern for his patients."
thclist.com...

interesting right

ahh well

reply to post by Char-Lee


I've tried several different types of Chiro over the years for my back - Gonstead etc as well as Osteo's and physio's. Since the disc issue though, I was going to just one chiro.

Anyway, i'm glad that your husband's problem was fixed quickly, it's crap stuff to live with.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Yeah, I read a fair few pages about making your own stuff. It's very interesting - I wanted to try some store bought stuff first off to see what it's like and if I notice any improvements in my life. I was going to start megadosing today but I left the stuff at home. Bah humbug!

Originally posted by Cruff
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

I've tried several different types of Chiro over the years for my back - Gonstead etc as well as Osteo's and physio's. Since the disc issue though, I was going to just one chiro.

Anyway, i'm glad that your husband's problem was fixed quickly, it's crap stuff to live with.

My thought was he had a wrong diagnosis in the first place. Hope you feel better and find something that helps.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Greetings friend,

I had a bad bout with Sciatica when I was younger - bad enough that I nedd a cane to walk and the pain could be unbearable to the point where I was immobilized.

First off, if you keep a wallet in your back pocket it's time to change that and keep it in your front pocket or somewhere else. This could be key if this is something you do especially if you spend a good amount of time in a car or anywhere where you are sitting on your wallet for a lengthy amount of time.

Ibuprophen was the best medicine I could legally get -Prescription strengh 800mg or just take a few excdrin or any other pain medicine with Ibuprophen. Nowadays although my sciatica barely ever exposes itself anymore, Naprosyn is a great anti-inflammatory for back pain including Sciatica.

Think about your diet and what nutrition you may be lacking if any. You may want to add a viatamin or just try to eat some more fruits and veggies if you don't already. If your not big on veggies soup usually masks the taste and has all the nutrition from whatever the ingredients.

As far as your sleeping hours, the hard mattress never worked for me. A brand nw firm mattress didn't help. A piece of plywood under the mattress also was of no help and maybe mad matters worse. A soft pillow top mattress is like magic for me - also I forget the name but that material that forms to your body the mattress with the Nasa technology is very comfortable and takes the prssure off of all your joints and allows you to sleep painlessly. Try these things out first though as everyone is different and it may not work for you. But I think it would from my own experiences.

Don't do any heavy lifting for a while until you get a handle on this. Rest may help but it could also not help. You have to see if you feel worse when being idle or worse when you are moving around. Sometimes you have to be active to prevent the back joints from fusing which may be an indicator of another back issue. Although Sciatica is a condition due to a pinched (Sciatic) nerve it could b pinched due to a number of things (including the wallet).

Lastly if you live somewhere that MJ is legal, I heard it works wonders on the inflammation - just saying.

I wish you luck my friend - stay positive - you will get through it.

I treat people with this problem all the time. Myself included. More often than not your pain is caused by the joint where your pelvis connects with your spine. This is you sacral illiac joint or SI joint. The muscle called piriformas attaches to your sacrum and your femur. As it tries to pull you sacrum back into place it pinches your Sciatic nerve. Thus you have "Sciatica". Stretch out your piriformas with a stretch like pigeon pose in yoga. Do fast air squats. Provides almost instantaneous relief. It's cause by your posture. Either anterior rotation of your pelvis or slouching while you sit. Fear not friend, you are not alone, but you don't have to suffer either.

reply to post by TDawgRex


I have been suffering from Sciatica and ruptured lumbar discs since last 9-10 years... was advised surgery in late 2011. Decided against it and tried some alternative terapies. Yoga helped a lot in easing the pain. I am not sure where you are located, but in India, we have a therapy called Neurotherapy which worked wonders for me. You can check it out at www.neurotherapyindia.com...

I took the treatment in early 2012 and have felt no sciatica pain ever since. I am back to hectic life style and going to the gym and lifting 20kgs weights regularly...Only drawback is I have to take an hr treatment everyday...but my wife was taught how to give it...and hence not a problem for me.

reply to post by butcherguy

Yes.
I have 4 cervical vertabrae fused. It was done in two separate operations. I have one
thoracic disc that can't be operated on because it lies behind my heart and lungs.
Before I had my second fusion, I was unable to raise my right arm above shoulder
level. I had immediate relief after both operations.

Just so you know, surgery techniques have changed dramatically in the last two years, especially. I was lucky that my surgeon pursues education in the newest techniques.

I had a T7-T8 thoracic fusion, two levels. It was a technique known as Radical TLIF, transforaminal lateral interbody fusion.

I was placed on my left side on the table. A 1 1/2 incision was made below my right arm, between the ribs, and over the lung. The disc material and some bone was removed to allow implantation of a cage with donor bone at each level.

No chest tube required, but I wore a TLSO brace for two months post op. I was out of bed the day of surgery, and home in less than 48 hours on minimal pain meds.

I had dramatic improvement post op, though now almost 3 years later, I have developed a bone spur right on a nerve at T6.

Still, I was having trouble breathing due to the pain just from chest expansion, and the pain got to be unbearable.

I will always postpone surgery until the pain is intolerable. I too, need an additional cervical fusion, but what a lot of people don't know is that once you have a fusion, it offsets the delicate balance of the spine, and degeneration will progress above and below a fusion site.

Expect revisions or further surgeries every 5-7 years in MOST cases. This is one reason I put off surgery as long as I can.

I currently am in need of a 3-5 level lumbar fusion, with a large annular tear at L4 where the original decompression/lami was done. I will wait it out as long as possible, then most likely have the Radical XLIF for that, too.

Currently, 4mg Dilaudid every 6 hours keeps life mostly manageable. I also take Advil, because it is superb for nerve pain.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Libertygal

 

Thanks for the advice, maybe I'm just being impatient. I have been to a pain management clinic and they did talk about a floroscope (I think that was what the doc called it) but they wanted to see where Physical therapy went first.

I gotta admit. This makes me nervous. The spine is not nothing to mess with casually.

Nervous is the polite way of saying that I am scared Snipless.

I can understand fully. Even if someone recommends surgery, you can opt out for now or forever.

One more bit of advice, and like I said, advice is free, take it or don't.

Be very careful with the acupuncture. Many people are not aware, but those needles have delicate tips on them, and may break off in your skin. They are so tiny, chances are you will not ever notice, however, they can be highly dangerous, and even rule you out from ever having any MRI again.

I have seen a CT of an Asian person that had a stroke. More than one, but anyway. They apparently practiced in acupuncture often, and on the CT of the brain, it was almost illegible because of the needle points in the tissue. Each one produced what looked like a beam of light on the CT. Multiply that by hundreds, and well, you can only imagine.

Metal fragments, of any kind, rule out future MRI, so just a cautionary bit of advice.

reply to post by TDawgRex
I run into this all the time, it takes only few minutes to fix , stand up to wall with ass, backk and feet touching the wall, do a pelvic tilt like you are having sex.
This fixes it all the time , they call me Doc because of this.
Do your exercises, most the time it fixes it in one day, some people are just lazy'

The problem is you hip leg joint is rolling out of socket, you need to strength your butt musles and pull you hip joint back into place.

Even if you are just walking titen your ass and over extent your gate, this is such simple fix I have been doing it for about 40 years and fix people along the way.

Make sure you get enough minerals strengthen your bones joints.

reply to post by TDawgRex

My brother had this problem and his solution was an "Inversion Table" where he would lay upside down for a while to relieve all the pressure on the vertebra and then find an angle where he could relax comfortably and sleep with a pillow and blanket thrown over him...he'd lay there for hours. Then gradually begin doing exercise to strengthen the back. He also was taken some supplements to deal with inflammation and replace/lubricate the fluid/muscle between the vertebra. He was a defensive linebacker for the Cowboys and got a lot of help but the Inversion Table was his life saver.


Good Luck