General Sciatica

Edd

It’s all in the reflexes
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Anyone have experience with this? I’m self diagnosed but had 3 flare-ups in the last 2 years. First one got me admitted to a hospital overnight, with unbearable hip pain. Ive always got a general glute and leg numbness which doesn’t interfere with activities but the hip takes me out.

Not being able to exercise is unacceptable to me. I’ve got a doc appointment for it soon but the treatments I’ve read about look weak so I think it’ll be up to me. YouTube vids on stretches and such look promising but if anyone has advice I’m all ears.
 

Clix Pix

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The worst pain I ever experienced in my life was when I sustained a herniated disc at L5/S1 on the left side and the pain -- definitely from the sciatic nerve -- was extremely unpleasant, to put it mildly. I could hardly wait to get some relief. Surgery for the herniated disc took care of it pretty much, but from time to time through the years I still experienced twinges every now and then. At this point in my life, though, as I am getting older, I am noticing more discomfort again from time to time and suspect that my spinal discs are shifting and shrinking, whatever, and that in addition there is some nerve impingement. A couple of toes on the left foot are partly numb, but thankfully this does not interfere with walking or other activities. It's more annoying than anything.
 

Runs For Fun

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I’ve found foam rolling works great on aches and pains. I always end my workouts with a good foam rolling session and really hit any areas that are tight or sore. It really feels good in that glute area if there’s some sciatic pain there.
 

Edd

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I’ve found foam rolling works great on aches and pains. I always end my workouts with a good foam rolling session and really hit any areas that are tight or sore. It really feels good in that glute area if there’s some sciatic pain there.
Yeah, rolling is a thing for me. Need to buy some tennis balls.
 
U

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Anyone have experience with this? I’m self diagnosed but had 3 flare-ups in the last 2 years. First one got me admitted to a hospital overnight, with unbearable hip pain. Ive always got a general glute and leg numbness which doesn’t interfere with activities but the hip takes me out.

Not being able to exercise is unacceptable to me. I’ve got a doc appointment for it soon but the treatments I’ve read about look weak so I think it’ll be up to me. YouTube vids on stretches and such look promising but if anyone has advice I’m all ears.
shoot me a DM.

(awkwardly, I'm an expert on the topic, but more context is needed)
 
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Edd

It’s all in the reflexes
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The worst pain I ever experienced in my life was when I sustained a herniated disc at L5/S1 on the left side and the pain -- definitely from the sciatic nerve -- was extremely unpleasant, to put it mildly. I could hardly wait to get some relief. Surgery for the herniated disc took care of it pretty much, but from time to time through the years I still experienced twinges every now and then. At this point in my life, though, as I am getting older, I am noticing more discomfort again from time to time and suspect that my spinal discs are shifting and shrinking, whatever, and that in addition there is some nerve impingement. A couple of toes on the left foot are partly numb, but thankfully this does not interfere with walking or other activities. It's more annoying than anything.
Did the pain present itself in your hip at all?
 

Clix Pix

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Lower back, left buttocks, all the way down the left leg. At the time the disc actually ruptured I was in bed, and went to move my leg up-and-over so I wouldn't disturb the cat who was sleeping with me and lying between my legs. I felt a "ping!" and drowsily thought, "oh, I pulled a muscle," and went back to sleep. The next morning when I got up there was pain in the left buttocks area and over the next two days it progressed down the leg. When the toes went numb I realized this wasn't any pulled muscle, it was obviously more serious, so called for an appointment with my doctor. She did the usual leg-lift test and referred me for an MRI. Sure enough, it was pretty clear on the MRI that it was a ruptured/herniated disc. I tried physical therapy for a couple of weeks but that didn't help, only made the pain worse. I didn't like taking the muscle relaxants that were prescribed, as they knocked me right out and I had Things to Do, Life to Live. I instead popped Aleve, the OTC version of Naprosyn. That helped, at least enough that I could do what I needed to do, such as go to work.

Eight weeks after the initial herniation I had surgery, which took care of the problem for many, many years, and that was such a relief!

What led up to this was that I had spent the previous couple of months getting ready to move, which involved a lot of pushing, pulling, lifting, moving things around, including furniture, packing stuff, transporting some to a storage facility, etc. It was about a week after I moved into this condo unit that the disc finally had sustained enough and that lifting the leg at apparently just the right angle added insult to injury and the disc ruptured. This was some years ago now -- back in 1994.
 

Alli

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I had one experience with sciatica. Fortunately, (unfortunately?), it was man-made. When I had surgery for something else (I don’t remember if it was the hysterectomy or the cervical cancer), they were not careful with how they positioned my legs. It was absolute agony to walk for several weeks. I hope I never have to experience that again.
 
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I had one experience with sciatica. Fortunately, (unfortunately?), it was man-made. When I had surgery for something else (I don’t remember if it was the hysterectomy or the cervical cancer), they were not careful with how they positioned my legs. It was absolute agony to walk for several weeks. I hope I never have to experience that again.
was it sciatica, or meralgia paresthetica? (the latter is a heavily under diagnosed compression neuropathy)
 

Alli

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was it sciatica, or meralgia paresthetica? (the latter is a heavily under diagnosed compression neuropathy)
I suppose it well could have been. I suppose since I've never experienced it again that's probably more likely.
 
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