Scaitica

Amy Steppe

Amy Steppe

Cathlete
What I thought was a muscle sprain turned out to be something more sinister - sciatica. After 3 days of pain I visited an orthopedist who told me I have sciatica. He gave me steriods, muscle relaxants and Tramadol and also suggested I use Aleve or Motrin. None of them really take away the pain.....it is always there. The pain relievers make my life barely tolerable.

All my life I have been so active and now I am excruciating pain, hardly able to walk more than a few yards. The pain begins at the very top of my left glute and radiates down my leg, numbing my toes.

I have never been in such pain in my life! I am afraid I will never work out again!

Has anybody else had severe sciatica and if so did you get better?

So far I have not had an MRI so I do not know what is wrong with my lower back. For several years I have had lower back issues. I have to modify lat rows up to a 45 degree angle.

I visit my orthopedist again on Dec 13th. I hope I can last that long - I am frustrated as I work out religiously.

Does anybody have advice for me? I am getting so scared I will turn into a couch potato.

Now I watch Cathe's videos knowing I may never be strong enough to work out again!
 
I've had sciatica 2 separate times. The pain is unrelenting. Hugs to you! The first time was when I was pregnant. The 2nd time was 6 years ago. I ended up getting a series of epidurals. I still have to be careful when I work out, but yes I can work out. I know it's hard to hang in there because the pain never stops. I hate ice but I learned to love it. Like with you, nothing touched the pain - except ice. I had an ice pack at work that I sat on & one at home. Healing thoughts coming your way!
 
Jane, I know what you mean about ice! It seems to be the only thing helping me right now. I spent two nights and days in fetal position to keep weight off my left side.

I really appreciate your encouragement. I am so scared I will never be able to walk normally, much less work out again.

Thank you again!
 
I've never had straight out sciatica, but I often have, including now, piriformis issues. When that happens, it presses on the sciatic nerve and owie!!!! I can't imagine it all the way down my leg. Aleve/Advil doesn't touch it. Flexeril will help relax that muscle which in turn helps the pain from that pressing on the nerve.

Ice, and try to sit on the other side of your butt. I find standing is much more comfortable, but again, mine is mostly in my butt, it doesn't radiate all the way down. I also sleep on my stomach, which helps. Lying on my right (the sore) side hurts, and I can't sleep on my back at any time. I've even gone so far as to walk around with an ice pack in my back pocket. It looks silly, but I don't care!!!

I try to workout through it, and for me, moving helps, but again my issue is not quite the same as yours.

Rest, ice, try the anti-inflammatories, but it may take a couple weeks to go away. You will be able to workout again, just don't push it too hard. It will get better, I promise.

Nan
 
Hi,

I had what I thought was sciatica, but ended up being a ruptured disk, which was only visable when I got an MRI. The pain was unbearable, like you are having, with it radiating down my leg, into my foot and sometimes just centered in my butt. I had it for 10 months, did physical therapy, an epidural, nothing helped. I actually begged to be referred to a surgeon and had a microdisectomy ( sp?) where they go in and shave off the part of the disk that is touching the nerve. The surgery was about 30 minutes, and it was done on an out-patient basis. It was the best thing I ever did. I only wish I could have talked them into it a lot sooner.

((Hugs)) I know what you are going through, I hope it gets better soon.
 
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Hi Amy, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. I have never had this problem, but my husband had a bout with it a couple of months ago. He said the same thing you did--that it was just excruciating, unrelenting pain which he thought would never go away. His doctor prescribed pain medication and sent him to a physical therapist. My husband is a very unmotivated, undisciplined person and it was a foregone conclusion that he would not follow through with any therapy. He did, however, go for one session. He insisted that he was worse afterward and refused to go back. The therapist sent him home with a few pages of exercises/stretches that he was supposed to do at home. One of them included a band. He did not do any of them. Eventually, the pain subsided and after a few weeks he stopped complaining about it altogether, and he seems fine now.

I don't know if physical therapy would help you or not, but you might want to ask your doctor about it. There may be things that you can do to help relieve the pain and maybe help prevent it from happening again. Either way, based on my husband's experience and others who commented here, I think you can expect to be back to normal. However long or short a time that takes, I'm sure it will seem like forever. Wish I had more help to offer. So sorry.
 
My husband suffers from this on a rare occasion and there are many reasons this happens, lots of times its the way the muscles are aligned with nerves and tendons, etc. Anyway, google Compex Sport and sciatica and you will come up with a number of articles and posts. I'm NOT trying to get you to buy something, but my husband has one, and I have my own also. I use it before racing for a thorough warm-up, but mostly for active recovery, which also works as a deep muscle massage. When my husband's sciatica flares, he will place the pads appropriately, set the device and let it go. He'll walk around with that hooked up to him for hours and eventually it lessons the sciatica. Please do a lot of reading on that though, they are expensive and it may not be worth the price (or work for you in the long run). Just saying, its what has worked for him. I'm sorry you are feeling this way, and hopefully it will just go *poof* and you'll wake up and its gone!
 
pain

Hi, I am really sorry to hear that. I have something very similiar to sciatica in my right arm. I get epidural shots in my neck from a pain management doctor. I have 4 herniated discs in my neck. I also find that running very hot water on my neck & arm helps the pain a little bit. I know with sciatica that eventually the pain does go away.
Good luck to you


Karen
 
Ugh, sciatica, it's the worst. I had a horrible flare up after the birth of my first baby. I know it feels like you will never be normal and pain-free again, but you will. Unfortunately, you just have to ride the wave and wait for it to subside. I didn't get relief from meds...BTW~ Tramadol is the devil for me. For me, acupuncture was the answer. I got almost immediate relief and I have never had another flare up since (that was 20 years ago). Hang in there.
 
Oh Amy, I'm so sorry. I've been there and I know you think you will never do anything normal again! It's awful and as everyone else has said, pain relievers and even muscle relaxers don't do more than just take the edge off.
I want to try an inversion table, a chiropractor suggested it to help take pressure off that nerve. My problem is that I don't want to fork over the money without trying it somewhere first, I'll let you know if I go through with it.
 
I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this. It was such a bummer for me when I could not workout for basically 3 months because of breaking my shoulder and arm in a serious bike accident. It was really hard and and a total bummer. I feel your pain. I tried to use the time the best I could.
 
My uncle had this problem for a few months, he was in agony. He had acupuncture and within a few treatments it got better. Now it's completely gone. I also have gone through acupuncture and was amazed at the results it gave me with my lower back pain and headaches. Hope this helps a bit :)
 
So sorry Amy!

I know exactly what you are going through, and it is NOT fun. 9 years ago I experienced the same thing. I had a ruptured disc and a piece of it was on my nerve. I delt with it for a long time, some days I could not walk to the mail box, other days I could function. I even put my Cathe's on e-bay, thankfully they did not sell! I ended up having surgery, the dr just went in and removed the disc that was on the nerve. I can't tell you the elation I felt to wake up with no pain in my leg!!!

I was able to slowly get back into my workouts. I did purchase an eliptical and rebounder and those were a lifesaver! There are still a few moves I don't do, tuck jumps for example,(use the rebounder) and for a long time I did not do jumping jacks on the floor, but now I can. I even do Insanity and Cathe's HiiT, with a few moves on the rebounder.

I know it is so hard now, but you will get your life back. I still have low back pain, (yoga has helped with that) but it is managable.

Hang in there and big hugs to you!

Susan
 
Amy, I'm so sorry you are dealing with this pain. I recently hurt my back, not nearly as badly as you have, but for a few weeks it has been at times quite painful and was making just everyday normal activity difficult to impossible.

I did finally go to a chiropractor, so the relief could be in part to the first treatment I had, but after I went to the chiropractor I started one night doing back, hip and side stretches for about 30-40 minutes that I could tolerate (found them online from googling lower back pain) and then read on another board about a series called Classical Stretch. After my own stretching and a couple days of the CS, I barely have any pain left. I found the Classical Stretch series on my cable on PBS and just set up my DVR to record as many as they have listed, there is also a sale on their website to buy the different series on dvd.

I also saw a back pain specific dvd on classicalstretch.com that I will likely buy too, in addition because I was getting desperate to find anything that would help me, I also ordered the "Total Body Solution" from Debbie Siebers, it's supposed to be a physical therapy type thing on dvd that you do every other day for 15 minutes, I should be receiving it tomorrow, so I can't give any personal opinions on that one yet.

I had stopped my workouts completely for a while, but finally just started again VERY slowly with a Leslie Sansone walking dvd, but I could not have even done this with the pain I had before I started the stretching workouts. My plan for now to make sure I don't re-injure anything is to do the CS in the mornings, add in the total body solution workout (only 15 minutes) and do the walking dvds to get me back in the swing of things. Hopefully soon I will start back with light weight workouts, but for sure will not be doing any weighted lower back work for a while.

Again, just want to be clear I don't have exactly what you have, but I was so amazed at the results from following these stretching shows, so I'm hoping it can help you too.
 
Last year I was having very slight discomfort on the left side of my lower back while training for a marathon in September. Then, in November, I fell down my stairs at home. The next day I was unable to walk because of excrutiating sciatic pain. My physician ordered an MRI which revealed a herniated disc at my L5/S1. I was referred to a neurosurgeon who wanted me to try other options first. I tried Chiropractic care, cortisone shots, muscle relaxers, Gabapentin, etc. to no avail. Finally, about 3 weeks later I went back to the neurosurgeon who said I needed surgery because the disc had herniated right where the sciatic nerve was. On January 13, 2011 I had a microdiscectomy. I woke up completely pain free. I was running by mid-April and lifting heavy weights again by May. I just completed a Tough Mudder last month without any trouble.

FYI- my neurosurgeon says it isn't the size of the herniation that is important, it is the location because if the herniation is blocking the pathway of the nerve your pain will be much more severe than if it's not.

I have also had piriformis pain which felt similar to sciatic pain but wasn't as severe (for me, anyway but everyone is different).

The first thing you need to do is get an MRI and just go from there. Good luck.

I forgot to mention that I, too, had numbness in my 3 smaller toes and the outside of my calf which I still have but at least it's not pain.
 
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I too suffered with sciatic nerve pain but it was due to two ruptured discs. The pain was excrutiating! I was in fetal positions alot trying to relieve the pressure and rid the numbness going down my leg.
My mom and brother had the same issues - both had surgeries to fix and neither were better because of it. I decided to do everything BUT surgery. Chiropractor and physical therapy helped. I have now been pain free for 15 years.
Good luck to you and I'm praying for a speedy recovery for you - talk to your doctor and make the best decision based on your gut feeling. All the advice you get here is great for reference but ultimately the decision on treatment is yours to figure out.
 
Amy Steppe said:
What I thought was a muscle sprain turned out to be something more sinister - sciatica. After 3 days of pain I visited an orthopedist who told me I have sciatica. He gave me steriods, muscle relaxants and Tramadol and also suggested I use Aleve or Motrin. None of them really take away the pain.....it is always there. The pain relievers make my life barely tolerable.

All my life I have been so active and now I am excruciating pain, hardly able to walk more than a few yards. The pain begins at the very top of my left glute and radiates down my leg, numbing my toes.

I have never been in such pain in my life! I am afraid I will never work out again!

Has anybody else had severe sciatica and if so did you get better?

So far I have not had an MRI so I do not know what is wrong with my lower back. For several years I have had lower back issues. I have to modify lat rows up to a 45 degree angle.

I visit my orthopedist again on Dec 13th. I hope I can last that long - I am frustrated as I work out religiously.

Does anybody have advice for me? I am getting so scared I will turn into a couch potato.

Now I watch Cathe's videos knowing I may never be strong enough to work out again!
Click to expand...

Big healing hugs to you, Amy!! I will pray for relief for you and the others with similar issues!

Pam
 
Mine has gotten worse with the birth of each of my 3 kids. I have pretty significant spinal curvature. It certainly would be smart to make sure it's not a disc problem or something, but I've been going to a chiropractor who uses the activator method for 10 years and it really helps. And I have heard wonderful things about acupuncture. And yes - my freezer has several icepacks in there. A runner's best friend :)
 
Me, too

Amy - I've had it for a year now - always been healthy, was doing dead lifts one day and thought 'hmm that didn't feel right' and it went downhill from there. Depending on what has caused it will depend on how you treat it. I didn't get any relief from my chiro (actually think he made it worse), but had tons of relief with acupuncture. And of course, the hot/cold cycle for 20 minutes each a couple of times a day. Biofreeze help me, too, along with stretching exercises specific to what caused the pain. I became a big fan of 'Rebuild your Back' - no, not saying go buy it, just that it helped me.

Every day is a little better! I started out not being able to sit down to drive, or sit down to work, or stand up for any length of time, to almost normal.

Be patient with yourself! :)

Elle
 
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