Sciatica Pain

[harrry]

Never - EVER use heat ... use the frozen gel packs on the crack of the butt area -- at your waist line ... If you are having serious leg pains - cramps -- use ice there too. This problem is INFLAMMATION -- your Sciatic nerve at the junction of the spine is red - raw and inflamed and is sending sporadic signals down your buttocks to your thighs around to your knee area - down to your calves and foot... Your muscles cannot deal with the rapid nerve firing and go into a serious cramp - lock up..

Take Paracetamol - Tylenol for the Pain ... it does not do anything for the inflammation -- but helps end the pain cycle -- You should also consider Tramadol - 50 to 100 mg .. it is not going to make you an addict ... so do not listen to the naysayers who do not have the excruciating pain you do ... Tell them to shut up and go away .

You must reduce the inflammation -- COLD gel packs, as often as you can stand ... take Naproxen Sodium - Aleve - to reduce the pain -- AFTER MEALS to reduce the stomach problems it may cause -- acid ... EVEN apply hydrocortisone creams to your waist line butt crack area - where the origin of the problem is ... your disc is near gone ... or bulging seriously

Long Term - natural anti-inflammatories -- Omega 3 Fatty Acid Fish Oils -- -lots of it ... and Turmeric - Curcumin powder in a capsule -- take lots of it ...

Good Doctors can inject hydrocortisone into the Sciatic space near the Spinal cord... Make sure they know what they are doing ... This method can give near Instant relief... but must be repeated two or three times.. .

Finally when better -- do not do dumb things - Fulcrum Lifting is not something you can ever do again -- stoop -- or use knees to lift with legs -- never bend ...

Hydro Therapy - Water Jets on the back -- NEVER HOT WATER.. . just lukewarm or cold as you can stand...

I know this from first hand education - training and personal experience.

It seems some disagree

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/sciatica/sciatica-treatment

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sciatica/page6_em.htm

http://umm.edu/health/medical/ency/articles/sciatica

[FolkGuitar]

Never - EVER use heat ... use the frozen gel packs on the crack of the butt area -- at your waist line ... If you are having serious leg pains - cramps -- use ice there too. This problem is INFLAMMATION -- your Sciatic nerve at the junction of the spine is red - raw and inflamed and is sending sporadic signals down your buttocks to your thighs around to your knee area - down to your calves and foot... Your muscles cannot deal with the rapid nerve firing and go into a serious cramp - lock up..

Take Paracetamol - Tylenol for the Pain ... it does not do anything for the inflammation -- but helps end the pain cycle -- You should also consider Tramadol - 50 to 100 mg .. it is not going to make you an addict ... so do not listen to the naysayers who do not have the excruciating pain you do ... Tell them to shut up and go away .

You must reduce the inflammation -- COLD gel packs, as often as you can stand ... take Naproxen Sodium - Aleve - to reduce the pain -- AFTER MEALS to reduce the stomach problems it may cause -- acid ... EVEN apply hydrocortisone creams to your waist line butt crack area - where the origin of the problem is ... your disc is near gone ... or bulging seriously

Long Term - natural anti-inflammatories -- Omega 3 Fatty Acid Fish Oils -- -lots of it ... and Turmeric - Curcumin powder in a capsule -- take lots of it ...

Good Doctors can inject hydrocortisone into the Sciatic space near the Spinal cord... Make sure they know what they are doing ... This method can give near Instant relief... but must be repeated two or three times.. .

Finally when better -- do not do dumb things - Fulcrum Lifting is not something you can ever do again -- stoop -- or use knees to lift with legs -- never bend ...

Hydro Therapy - Water Jets on the back -- NEVER HOT WATER.. . just lukewarm or cold as you can stand...

I know this from first hand education - training and personal experience.

It seems some disagree

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/sciatica/sciatica-treatment

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sciatica/page6_em.htm

http://umm.edu/health/medical/ency/articles/sciatica

Of course there is going to be disagreement. For every problem there are often several different solutions, especially when it comes to the human body and its various ailments. As you have already seen, there have been a handful of people who treated this same problem with different protocols. In Post # 26, two of us have had wonderful success with by treating the cause of the same problem from two very different directions. There are many more directions that can be followed, and most of them will work... just not for every single case. People are different. We respond to different treatments in different ways.

Right now, I'm considering asking my physician to increase the dosage of my placebo...

[chingmai331]

Many of us here think we are all talking about the same problem. This might not be so. There are possible numerous causes of this pain related to injury, normal aging, genetic variability, gender, body size, life history, etc.

OP was concerned with his sciatica, a general term of symptoms resulting from some kind of trouble with large nerve branching out from spine, the sciatic nerve.

Makes sense that if there are some possible causes then there can also be some possible solutions.

Can recommend this informative web site which discusses all kinds of back/spine troubles and possible remedies.

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/sciatica

An aside to FolkGuitar, i can't see how exercise can have any effect if a nerve is being pinched against the bone by a protruding, bulging disc. The disc cannot go back into place, it's ruptured and now a permanent feature of life. Agree that degree of bulge may vary day to day and cause more or less pain, even recede greatly. And I don't say that you did not benefit from your treatments, but in your case it's possible that the nerve was being pinched by the piriformis muscle, not the disc.

Everyone who has a sciatica history has a story. Mine basically was that after the MRI, CT scans, etc the doc said to me 'live with the pain but if in a car accident or bad fall the nerve may be rudely severed and then you will be in a wheelchair-forever. Or we can fix it in the hospital under controlled conditions."

Best wishes, OP.

[FolkGuitar]

An aside to FolkGuitar, i can't see how exercise can have any effect if a nerve is being pinched against the bone by a protruding, bulging disc. The disc cannot go back into place, it's ruptured and now a permanent feature of life. Agree that degree of bulge may vary day to day and cause more or less pain, even recede greatly. And I don't say that you did not benefit from your treatments, but in your case it's possible that the nerve was being pinched by the piriformis muscle, not the disc.

First, disks generally don't actually rupture, although the term is often used. They become inflamed, or they 'leak' and loose fluid. Inflammation can be reduced, and the fluid DOES regenerate... providing the conditions for healing are present.

According to the Head of Orthopedic Medicine at Chiang Mai Ram Hospital, who after a through examination complete with MRI diagnosed my problem as a disk allowing pressure against the Sciatic nerve, thus causing severe pain, and recommended as the only course of action being surgery, curettage of the space inside the spinal column to increase the area for the disk, thus relieving the pressure in the nerve. He wasn't 'incorrect' in his suggested treatment. He was just limiting it to 'his field' ... surgery.

Surgery is what Orthopedic surgeons generally suggest for this problem. Without surgery a surgeon doesn't make a living.

If your only tool is a hammer, you try to fix every problem with a nail.

However, thousands of people have been effectively treated for this condition simply by eliminating the cause of the inflamed disk, that being the incorrect use of the spine itself, though exercise and proper posture. Fortunately, the human body usually has the wonderful ability to heal itself once the source of the problem has been removed. As long as I don't bend from the waist instead of bending from the knees, reach with my shoulders instead of reaching by arching my back, and a few other common sense normal body movements that keep my spine in its proper alignment, I have no problems, and haven't had in the past almost 15 years. Yes, it 'could' come back if I return to the same poor postural habits I had that caused the problem in the first place, but that's one of the nice things about knowledge... It keeps me from doing the things that caused the problem long ago.

Edited July 18, 2015 by FolkGuitar

[JXXXL]

As a loooonng time sufferer of chronic back pain, including many years of sciatica, I'd like to add some thoughts.

Exercise worked for me and while it didn't cure the problem, it got it under control. Look for core strengthening exercises and mild stretching. Avoid aggressive stretching of the hamstrings, it will only make it worse.

Be aware that MRIs and xrays can be unproductive as the value is in the skill of the person reading the pictures. Back pain can be triggered by many different factors, some of which aren't obvious from reading an xrays and MRIs. Doctors feel compelled to give you an answer and can mis-diagnose.

Back pain can be a cascade of problems. The source can be swelling of soft tissue which then inflames nerves which then causes muscle spasms e.g. sciatica. Once you get to this stage, you need to deal with the problem at several levels simultaneously. For example, I take anti-inflamatories and get massage to sooth the muscle spasms and then do exercises. One great thing about Thailand is massage is something you can do every day.

You should get checked for Spondylitis. This is what I have, it's a form of arthritis and affects the soft tissue in your spine. They can find the marker with a blood test if they look for it. I went to numerous doctors, physical therapists and chiropractors for years and no one thought to test for it.

Surgery should be a last resort and I recommend you completely exhaust your other options even if it takes a couple of years. Back pain is extremely depressing and people get desperate. Being proactive (i.e., getting fit) will help keep you in a positive mental state while you recover.

Be wary of chiropractors, there are a lot of quacks in this field. I'm sure some are effective, but their field of study is very limited. They can't prescribe drugs either so you should at least visit a doctor to rule out conditions like Spondylitis.

Good luck with your recovery.