Sciatic nerve - Holy buckets!!!
 

First time experience for me. Started with lower back pain then one day I pick up my 9 yr daughter in a game and all the wheels fall off. Going on 2 weeks now. I've been to my doc 3x (got ex-rays...no major damage) , a local acupuncture person 2x (I couldn't walk after the 2nd visit), and a highly recommended Chiropractor (1x). I left the chrio office today without pain and got 2 hrs of rest in the afternoon.

Tonight is a different matter. Complete (level 8) pain when I lay down starting in the right butt cheek down to my right ankle. I have been trying to get off the pain drugs (vicoden) and non prescriptive (vodka) but tonight at 4:00 am submitted to 3 500MG vicoden and 2 double vodka martinis. Here I am at 5:17 typing this post.

I'm at the verge of tears due to lack of sleep and constant pain. Advice?

Update. Forgot to mention that the Chiro person said no heat and lots of ice. That works during the day when pain is at level 3-4 but during night the pain goes to 8, ice makes it worse, and I get minimal relief in a hot bath. My entire right leg is numb, no motion in my big toe at all. Cannot walk on my right heal. Maybe I should consider buying a gun...

I always found hot showers worked for me. Of course the cause of my pinched sciatic might be different than yours. It relaxed my muscles which seemed to take pressure off.

Oh, and careful with the mixing of pain killers and alcohol.

I was prescribed the muscle relaxer Soma but that has done nothing to relieve the pain or source.

I get that if I lay in the wrong position. I have found that if I slowly and carefully stretch my lower back muscles by standing up and bending down to touch the floor a few times it goes away.

I could only put up with it for about a year, it all started with picking up one of my kids too. then my left leg started going dead, just kind of dragging it around, went in and had a lower disk blown out, pushing on a nerve, went under the knife and all has been well for over 15 years now.

my primary source of clients is back injury people. i never like to see anyone with that amount of back pain jump into chiro treatments without an MRI. x-rays are good for nothing. pain is shooting down your leg because a nerve is being compressed. i would demand an MRI and take it from there before you do more damage...with radicular pain, the doctor will not argue with you about an MRI

Similar experience once, Soma did nothing for me either, I asked for a different muscle relaxer, tried Skelaxin, Bingo - pain gone.

I went thru that about 10 years ago.

I kept thinking I could work thru it like every other injury but this is different. You have to get the bones aligned and also give the inflammation of the nerve time to subside. The more you stay off your feet the better. In the office I worked in a reclining office chair. I would ride a bike to the back of the building (it was about 50 yds there). If I walked, I would start out fine but be hobbling by the time I got there. I didn't do the drugs, just went a few times to a Chiropractor friend of mine, but he wasn't able to completely align it. I would try to do it myself after warming up the back muscles, I found a short bike ride would warm the body enough to have the muscles and joints more receptive to realignment.

My misalignment was way down near the end of the tailbone which was hard to get corrected. When it finally popped ( I did it myself) I knew immediately and it was such a relief!!! I could finally sleep again.

From the experience I have learned to align my low back myself by lying on the ground and crossing one leg over while pushing on the hip with my hand. I only do it when it feels 'out', and I can usually correct it myself now.

I hope that helps a little. I know it's not an easy time to go through.

The problem with staying off my feet is that's when it hurts the most. I absolutely cannot bear lying down. No position, no pillows, nothing feels good. Walking around house feels the best but does not provide any sleep. I feel like I'm on the toilet bowl spin down the drain...

Seriously lay off the booze and pain killers.

Your body can only process one narcotic at a time. It will default to alcohol processing first. So those time released pills will build up and get released into your system at a higher concentration than intended and that's what'll kill you or turn you into a vegetable.

Dude I tried! I HATE being on pain killers. They mess my mind and (in this case) don't relieve the pain. I tried to go cold turkey tonight but was nearly crying with pain. At 3:30 am the wife said "TAKE YOUR F**KING PILLS" This is not a kidney-stone level-event in the pain scale but I'm so tired and am grasping straws.

As I said, a reclining chair did it for me, rolled back about 45 deg. . YMMV

I think I also learned that sleeping on my side for long periods would make my back useless in the mornings, so I vary positions a lot when I sleep.

I feel your pain. I am no stranger to Vicodin either.

You need an MRI as mentioned above. You have to find out what is pressing on the nerve. I have 2 bulging discs causing my pain. My Chiro along with an exercise routine finally helped me.
I know the searing pain you are describing. 6-7 years of it.

This is what worked for me the last time it got real bad.

Constant supply of Vicodin - this is not the time to be a hero.
Chiro did his adjustments and put me on the 'rack'. It's a table you lay down on, straps hold down your waist and you hold onto bars over your head. Then a big roller presses upwards stretching your vertebra. The theory is to stretch the discs so they retract a little relieving pressure on the nerve.

Combine the above with weight loss, back stretching and strengthening.

Eventually I felt better.

were do you keep your wallet..
truckers get this allot..as they tend to carry a phone book in their back pockett.
long drives/ sitting + book = lack of circ. and in time = numb / pain

Rika

Oh yea, the kidney stones! makes the back pain feel like a tickle :eek:

you old farts are a hoot! :p

you got a pm

hey from somejuan who has literally CRAWLED out the door to my friend who helped me into car and into MAYO EMERGENCY.............. i can FEEL YER PAIN BIG TIME!

i have never in my life felt pain like what i experienced from my sciatic nerve.

heres a few tips from somejuan age 51.

1) soma aint worth POO! same damn thing and it was worthless.

2) drinking aint gonna help.

3) never ever rake anything.

4) never ever shovel anything

5) lifting? ya better be damn smart about it

6) remove wallet from rear pocket whenever driving

7) chiropracter. yep brilliant einstein mayo QUACKTER(doktor) when i asked should i see one, acted as if i had just run a bayonet up his gut when asked .

8) backcracker sessions took about 4-5 times going but first session did show wayyyyy more relief than the moron mayo docktor gave me. around 3rd session relief was in sight. lots of stretching helped alot.

9) sleep different than you have. reverse what yer doing. sleep with pillow on yer side btwn yer knees.

10) hope that helps. been in more crash and burns on dirty bikes/offroad race cars and trucks than i want to think about. im sure offroad racing didnt help juan bit pounding the hell outta my spine.

i honestly thought i was gonna FREEKING DIE when it hit me. how did i spawn this ???? shoveling 20 tons of granite by myself on my property!!!!

good luck.

Sorry to hear you are experiencing that pain.
I hope you feel better or at least get some relief soon.



KT