Anyone know about Sciatica?

[Wowbagger]

Another session with the osteopath this morning. I think I came out walking more freely than when i went in.

[Jurek]

 

[Wowbagger]

My buttock is a left pain in the arse.

[numbnuts]

My buttock is a left pain in the arse

mines in the right seeing doctor on the 10th

[Wowbagger]

Lots of pain today. Feeling thoroughly miserable. Diclofenac is a waste of space and merely serves to prevent me from drinking alcohol. Bollocks.

[hellymedic]

Hope it improves quickly. GWS!

[Jaded]

Yes, not nice WB. Best wishes.

[CrinklyLion]

Ah Wow, I'm really sorry to hear it's still so bad.  Look after yourself petal.

[Tail End Charlie]

Wow, as my previous post, be very careful with osteopaths and the like.
Try lying on your front, this may be painful at first but it's the position to be in. Then try to raise your head a little, you may only manage a cm or so. Then try to raise your shoulders off the floor and you should eventually get to a stage where you are like a sphinx with your weight being supported on your forearms. This may take a few days to build up to and will probably fell quite uncomfortable. Keep doing this as often as you can.

One thing I found really helpful whilst doing the above was to have someone else sitting astride you with a towel held firmly across your back. At first the towel is held quite high up your spine, and you try to raise the top half of your body. Then the towel is moved down a little and you try again. The point of this is to work each vertebra individually and it really helps to free up the spasms in your spine.

I hope this helps, ultimately it may take alot of time to go away and if the disc has burst then the above won't help. The only real way of finding this out is to have a scan. 

[Panoramix]

I've suffered from sciatica twice, I've even lost one week of my life to it.

Resting worked, I you can do some prevention ie make sure your back is strong and exercise it regularly, cycling is not so good IMO as it does not strengthen your upper body. My dad had the same issue (actually this is one of the first thing I remember!!!) and he has managed to keep it at bay from the age of 35 (he is now 64) by stretching every morning.

TBH, now that I know what it is like, I can feel when my upper body is becoming too weak. When I was rowing my back was so strong that I would never feel anything wrong, actually one of the reason why I felt in love with my fixed is that it make my upper body works.

I know how painful it is, GWS and stretch afterwards to avoid the issue reoccuring!

[Wowbagger]

This is a really insidious complaint. It seems to vary from hour to hour. What's almost as bad is that I get conflicting opinions from different people concerning what to do.

Osteopath: no cycling, limit walking to 20 minutes.
Alexander Technique lady: no cycling, walk as much as you can.
Brother (also qualified AT teacher): keep your toes pointing outwards slightly. Lie on your back with your head on some books and your knees pointing to the ceiling, feet flat. (ATL agrees with this and has told me to do it for at least 10 minutes at least 4 times a day. it is the only consistent way I've found of relieving the pain).
Doc: take diclofenac.
Tai chi teacher: sit pigeon-toes a fair bit.

When I described a donu (sp?) to the ATL, she was horrified. A donu is a tai chi warmup excercise which involves a squat from a standing position in which the knees do not move forward. It puts a lot of stress on the back muscles. I think it's no coincidence that the day my back started to play up I did quite a lot of these at tai chi.

The only point that most seem to be agreed upon is that it's likely to take months to clear up.

[Auntie Helen]

Sorry to hear that, Wow

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've done a lot of AT following a major car accident.

AT is brilliant, but IMO the technique focuses too much on a straight lengthened spine. AT teachers look at the body position on drop bars and faint in horror.

However if you adopt the position they recommend, it puts a great deal of stress on the tendons and ligaments in the pelvis, plus it puts the back in a poor position to absorb shock from arms and via the saddle.
    
The semi-supine position (on back, books under head, knees pointing at ceiling) is wonderful for allowing the back to relax and lengthen.

When osteopaths and AT teachers say 'no cycling', I don't think they understand much about riding positions. It's entirely possible to ride a bike with a lengthened, not cramped back.

[numbnuts]

I've just got back from the doctors as I now have sciatica and they want to send me to physio and pain management clinic and keep taking the tablets.

[Wowbagger]

There is a weird connection with the leg pain from the sciatic nerve and bladder evacuation.

By coincidence, one of my brothers has also been suffering from sciatica lately. We were comparing symptoms last week, and although it seems that his is not as bad as mine, one comment intrigued me: "It's at its worst when I'm having a slash. Just as I get to push out the last few drops, that's when the leg pain starts up."

I've had a pretty mixed day today. Having been at home all day, apart from a visit to the doc's, I've spent a good deal of time in the semi-supine position described by mrcharly above, and that has helped a good deal. At other times, I've had a wander round and my leg has become very painful. However for the last few hours I've been a lot better - until going for a slash a few minutes ago. I walked to the bog perfectly normally, no pain whatsoever. Had my slash and I was struggling again.

The doctor warned me about the possibility of not being able to empty the bladder under sciatic conditions and if that happened to go straight to A & E. It hasn't been that extreme, but there have been a few times in the past two or three days when I've been standing there waiting for the floodgates to open.

I really do hope I'm on the mend now because conditions such as this are really interesting when they don't hurt too much. When they do, a couple of times I've been reduced to tears.

[Wowbagger]

I've been gradually improving this week, but it's a very "up & down" affair. At least I've mostly slept at night, which I wasn't doing at the beginning of this week.

When wandering around Waitrose this afternoon, everything suddenly seemed a lot freer. I had another couple of spasms when I got home so I thought I'd go to tai chi to see how it was.

Not good. When we do the warm-up exercises (they have a special Chinese name but I can't remember what it is) we are supposed to stand with our feet parallel, about a shoulder's width apart. After a few seconds of this I could feel the pain beginning across my saecrum. There's absolutely no way I could go though a set or do some of the more vigorous exercises, which involve bending from the waist.

To be honest, the thought of doing tai chi has been worrying me a fair bit. I'm wondering if I want to go back to it.

[Chris S]

To be honest, the thought of doing tai chi has been worrying me a fair bit. I'm wondering if I want to go back to it.

If you think it started the issue in the first place, why are you even having the debate?

[Wowbagger]

To be honest, the thought of doing tai chi has been worrying me a fair bit. I'm wondering if I want to go back to it.

If you think it started the issue in the first place, why are you even having the debate?

Well, I'm not certain that it did. We had the most vigorous session ever the same day that I gave my back a twinge by lifting my grand daughter into the car. I lasted 5 minutes this evening, on two very gentle exercises, both involving standing upright but doing different stuff with the arms.

Having said that, I've been doing tai chi for more than 2 years without any problems and it's helped a lot with suppleness.

I think any sort of exercise could have compounded the twinge I had which I think first started it.

[Tail End Charlie]

I remember it was explained to me (by the person I've mentioned previously) that if it takes 100 things to "put your back out" then most days we do perhaps 80 things, then one day we do 99 and then "lean down and pick up a paper clip" which puts our back out. The only one we remember is the picking up of the paper clip. The other 99 which are related to poor posture, your height/weight, etc. etc. we ignore. Yet these are the ones to concentrate on.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense but I've had a drink.

[bazzerp]

Wowbagger - you have my sympathy. I think you may need better diagnosis than what you appear to have at present.

Allow me to related my experiences.

August 2005 I had a job doing 12 hour shifts in a computer centre - sitting down virtually all the while - had been doing it for over 4 years. I was a regular runner & Orienteer. I started to get pains in my thighs on standing up. A month later it was getting worse with pain going down the outside of my leg. I visited an excellent local Chiropactor (the NHS doctor was useless - suggested stop running.).

The Chiro gave me a X-ray & said he thought I might have a slightly protruding Disc. Told me he could try stretching & manipulation, but if no better after 4 weeks, I should have an MRI scan. No improvement - intense pain down full leg. Problems sitting on loo because of pain.
NHS doctor said not emergency case so could not do anything as bowels & pee still working. Paid for my own MRI scan & still GP said nothing he could do except put me on a waiting list. So bloody painful by late November that I asked for a BUPA referral - 2 weeks later over £4000 poorer, had an op & instant pain removal. Chiro was excellent, but could not solve the problem

With hindsight I should have gone to A&E, as end of willy was tingling, & would have started going numb like foot.
I live with partially non-functioning right calf as a result of trying to jog for 10 mins on grass in mid October - 2 physios unable to improve function, & surgery way too expensive & uncertain, so be careful of cycling too much & pushing yourself.

Suggest you BADGER you GP for an MRI scan & tell them the pain is awful & unable to function; or firstly check with a GOOD Chiropractor (or Osteopath).


I am currently suffering from Priiformis syndrome as a result of too much cycling in the cold in UK shortly after return fom 2 months in South Africa, or overuse in some way. My lower back had a mild spasm getting out of a car last week after cycling 4 days , including a cold 100km Audax where my lower back felt noticeably cold. The next morning I was in agony with pain around buttocks & down leg.
Chiro diagnosed problem within a few minutes, much to my relief. It is now improving with ice & exercises - pain much subsided with partially numb foot & calf only.

Sorry to ramble on so much. Hope my experiences may be useful.

[bazzerp]

Alologies - should have said - PIRIFORMIS Syndrome, not Priiformis. Where the Piriformis muscle in you butt traps, or rubs on, your Sciatic nerve.

[Wowbagger]

That's very helpful, Bazzerp.

My pain has eased a great deal but still a large area of my left thigh is numb. I'm getting some pain in my buttock and foot but nothing like so bad as I was. Some days it's been bloody agony and I had a few nights just over a week ago when I couldn't lie in bed for more than about 15 minutes at a time because the pain was so great.

I had an x-ray last week and I'll phone my GP in a few minutes to try to get the results and see what happens next.

[bazzerp]

Sounds worse than I had Wowbagger - push your GP for an MRI scan NOW - only that will show what is really wrong.

Good luck & keep us updated.

Barry

[Wowbagger]

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=45460.0 refers.

I haven't seen the X-ray yet, but I spoke to the doc on the phone this morning. I will be seeing him in due course, although this issue might be dealt with by the rheumatology dept, with whom I have regular appointments.

[numbnuts]

I have just come back from the hospital for the results from my scan, I have a 10mm prolapsed disc at L5,and there is also narrowing on the spinal canal with is not helping (stenosis), I have two options epidural injection or surgery, I'm going for the epidural injection to see if that works first and if not it will mean surgery.