Last Monday morning started like any other. I went to work but as the morning grew on I started to get pain in my right hip, a mix of cramping and a fire burning in my hip. I ended up hobbling to my truck at 11am and going home. The pain worsened as the day went on and as the days went on. I went to the doctor’s office twice within the next few days being prescribed multiple anti-inflammatory’s and muscle relaxers, none of which seemed to be doung anything to help.
I was relegated to eating my meals on the floor of the kitchen, a few times writhing in pain enough to draw tears.
Finally, on Friday my girlfriend took me to the ER. Diagnosis is my Sciatic nerve is inflammed and being pinched. Four shots in my ass cheeks the last being morphine for the ride home. Still nothing for home pain management as the hospital said something to the fact that they’re only allowed to give out or prescribe so many pain meds a day.
I’m typically a healthy guy so I guess I was out of the loop on how bad our medical processes were so f’ed up going way to the other side, trying to combat the opiod epidemic so that a clean guy can’t get nothing more than over the counter tylenol for his pain.
Anyways, I need a mri next but have to get xrays of my back as part of the process to prove to the insurance companies that its needed. Meanwhile, i still can’t walk or sit. I’m hobbling around the house between laying on the floor on my side for any relief when I’m not bed ridden.
I guess it’s true that we take our health for granted until we don’t have it.
I’m not sure how I could have combated or prevented this happening from happening but I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.
Thinking of you buddy! Yes, sciatica is absolutely nothing to mess around with. Even if the condition isn’t life threatening, it can be life altering. Keep us updated on how you do!
Yeah, I’m not even sure where this road is going to lead. I believe they can grind the bone back to relieve it from pushing on the nerve bit other than that, if anyone has any advice on how to prevent this again (granted if I can get it to go away to begin with).
I dont eat much sugar or carbs to begin with and have an inversion machine to help decompress the spine.
I do wonder if it was somehow self induced since last sunday night my hips and hamstrings were already feeling tight so I used the massager …but thats nothing new as this usually relieve and loosen the hips and hammies but possibly I irritated the sciatic by driving the massager too hard into them???
Sorry to hear brother. My old man had that about 15 years ago. He was in incredible pain. He spent a lot of time in physiotherapy but eventually the nerve pain mostly went away. He was going to physio several times per week for about 3 or 4 months.
I’ve had it affect me twice, and yes it is no joke. I don’t even know what caused the first one, but it was so bad I couldn’t stand up straight. My whole right side was locked up. I had to be driven to the hospital and had no idea what was wrong. I was basically stuck in a fetal position, and the doctor said he could see the entire side of my leg was knotted up. I told him the pain was in my back. He had me straighten my leg as much as I could, and then turned my leg one direction and asked if it hurt. I said no, then he turned it not even a 1/4 inch the other direction and it felt like someone stabbed my entire side. He told me it was sciatia. Never heard of it until then. They also gave me shots and put me on complete bed rest for 3 days with oxy. He told me to take it on the regular intervals, even if it doesnt hurt, because it’s imperative that the muscle remain relaxed. For 2 days I couldn’t even stand up straight to pee, but by day 3 it did get better. I was pretty much fine after that.
The second time I had it, was caused from me bending over at the waist to pull weeds and standing up straight too often, and too fast. It was very similar to the first event. I have not had a recurrence since.
Definitely do what they tell you to do, and rest as much as possible. That nerve is an absolute beast when it gets pissed, but I have not had to have any surgery or anything to address it.
Had a family member who used to get it so bad that their leg would bruise all the way down the nerve. Their leg looked like they had been taken out back and beaten.
I pinched my L1 (lower back) vertebrae right side about 15 years ago, which led to bad inflamation/muscle weakining, which then lead to a pinched sciatica…worst pain/feeling ever, couldnt walk, drive, or really move for about two weeks, even after injections, over the counter pain meds and muscle relaxers (and yep, same with me back then, they wouldnt give me anything stronger/opiates). Had to do a 90 day physical therapy regiment and couldnt work that whole time. And to this day around once a year I get that same sciatica flare up that will put me down for 2-4 days of minimal walking and lots of ice and heat treatments…so it’s kind a of chronic issue I have to deal with, but at this point I can feel when it’s coming on with hip pain and back tightness…and I also get shooting, stabbing pain from my hip to my right nut, that’s when I shut myself down and treat it before it goes full sciatica rtard.
Anyway, I had a friend of mine suggest Kratom for pain in lieu of rx opiates. It does the job, 5-6 capsules of the red meang da strain, with some ibuprofen, feels straight up like vicoden and helps alot with the pain and relaxing. Kratom is legal (at this point still anyway), and is just a natural leaf powder, there’s no pharmaceuticals in it or anything. You can get it online or at most tobacco shops even. But like anything else, if you want to try it, treat it like an opiate and dont abuse it/use it when you dont need it. When I first used it, I took it daily for about month after I needed it and did have some opiate-like withdrawal symptoms when I stopped, not fun. But now I just keep it on hand for when I have a flare up and use for a few days for pain managent and it works great, and is all natural.
I go lower back/upper butt cheek for about 20 mins, and do it like every hour or two. The more you do it, the more it’s gonna work on that inflamation I’ve found. And I feel for ya, it ■■■■■■■ sucks and aint no joke. Just take it easy and dont even try to push yourself if you dont have to…the less strain you put on it, the quicker it will heal.
Have you tried the laying on a tennis ball yet? That can also help if you lay on the floor with it right on the lower mid back side of where the nerve is.
Agree. Try to lay as still as possible, and for me the sweet spot is right above the ass cheek and lower back, on the sore hip side. I have a lower back heating pad that has a velcro strap to help it stay in place. I find that and a few motrin often take a lot of the pain away. The biggest key is, avoid any sort of sudden movement at all, everything needs to be extremely deliberate. Find a comfortable position, lay straight and just avoid moving as much as possible.
One thing sciatica is fantastic at is revealing exactly how often you use your back to do things that you never even thought about. Those nerve twings are scary as hell.
