Does anyone have any experience with Sciatica?

[Thelma Sanders]

The exercise here with a tennis ball under your bum
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...eGXCodDIQ9BYZA

works for me

[hippychick253]

I have suffered for a year from sciatica in my right buttock/leg as a result of skiing, (well, as a result of falling over when I try to move around with planks of wood on my feet :-)) ) and have only recently been to an osteopath. I've had 3 sessions with him now, and he manages to pop and crack me back into the correct position. It's very sore for about 4 days afterwards, then when the pain has reduced a bit, I do yoga poses which help massively and also help strengthen the muscles whilst they are correctly aligned. I find any yoga positions for the lower back, or to open the hips to be the most beneficial.....but maybe visit to a gp, or better still an osteopath, would be best before attempting any yoga... best of luck.

[snohare]

I've had lots of very good help from osteopaths over the years, the one DIY which I was taught for sciatica was to hang from a stair landing with my feet dangling, and kick them gently - supposedly the weight no longer pressing structures together in the back enables movement of trapped nerves/misaligned discs and muscles, back to where they should be. But I certainly wouldn't do it if I wasn't 100% sure that it was sciatica, as everyone says the back is too complex to muck about with !
(Probably why GPs won't do much without an MRI scan, and apparently they can be useless sometimes, latest thing is MRI scanners that scan you standing up which is shedding light on all sorts of undiagnosable back injuries previously rejected as malingering.)
Very interesting thread. My back seems to be getting dodgier all the time, and I don't know what to put on my ESA assessment form - still, one thing you can say about ESA assessment by Atos Healthcare, it really doesn't matter what your health is doing as they ignore all medical findings anyway !

[taff]

I have it or have had it on and off, the best thing I found for mine was to do callanetics. It stretched all the muscles and built them all up so everything was as it was supposed ot be if that makes sense.
My partner has it quite bady some times, his leg collapses under him, the doctor gave him some excercises to do, but the ast time it was really bad, he gave him diazepam, which was useless.

[Squizz]

I've a degenerative disc which causes sciatica on and off. Last May it got very painful so my Consultant did a Facet Joint RFA (Radiofrequency Ablation) procedure. I am amazed how well it's worked and I'm still pain free today but it's likely the nerve will heal itself and the pain will return.

[blue411]

I've suffered with this for 5 years now after some bad turbulance in a small aircraft, i saw an osteopath, and he was amazing, i had a follow up session a week later and told him about some pins and needles i was having in my right hand, he asked which fingers and then counted the discs in my back and worked his magic.... no more pins and needles, i now have very sparodic attacks mainly in my lower back and thighs, i tend to walk through the pain and that helps relieve it.

[solway cropper]

Not sure I'd be enthusiastic about the 'ordinary' medical profession either. All too many GPs etc will either just offer painkillers, or recommend surgery (or some combination). Painkillers don't solve the cause, and surgery isn't always the best way of correcting things (apart from the possibility of it going wrong).

GPs may not be the fount of all knowledge that they sometimes think they are but I'd rather put my faith in them than some healy-feely rubbing quartz crystals on my buttocks.

I have a chronic incurable rheumatic condition which has seriously affected my spine and puts pressure on the spinal cord. This can result in either my right leg going dead or searing pains down my left leg into my foot. Because of the nature of the condition it took years to get an accurate diagnosis but I got one in the end. Had I gone to a chiropractor I could easily have ended up paralysed. SEE A DOCTOR

[salome2001]

I don't have sciatica but I did have pretty bad sacroiliac displacement when i was pregnant. Just wanted to comment that although you were "only" 5 months pregnant, it's the hormones loosening the joint that causes SPD, not the baby, though of course the increasing weight and bulk of the pregnancy worsens it as you go.

Secondly, before you need any treatment, you need a DIAGNOSIS and that means you need to see a doctor, as solway cropper.

After that you can request drug and/or manipulative therapy. You can get physiotherapy on the NHS. I was sent for physio for the SPD and Pilates-based exercises were really helpful.

[Jax]

Thanks guys you have all been great. I dont want to self diagnose and I would have to get an actual diagnosis to get some help etc. However my circumstances are such that I have to research for myself and to an extent self diagnose then speak to the doctor and he will say yay or nay. I have spoken to hubby and as I havent left his side for 4 years it hadnt been an option but now the pain is getting so bad I have said that now we have to work on me going out. He has agreed (reluctantly, still abit moody about it) that as of next week we can start doing some gradual exposure therapy to me being away from him. So fingers crossed it wont be long before I can get a diagnosis. He thought I was overacting it and it was just abit sore until he found me crying last night. I have found if I forget myself and sit on the floor it flares it up but in that instance I have found that by jiggling my hips I find a position that eases it. I have started sleeping with a cushion between my knees aswell. Sucks, I am 24 and struggling so much but who knows this could be what makes everything better. Mayb if I can start going out it will entice him out with me aswell. That would make everything worth it Maybe hopeful thinking but I dont care hehe. Hopeful thinking has gotten me this far!

[janeyo]

I get it (from teaching - a lot of people who stand for long periods get it like hairdressers and teachers etc), and it feel like someone has stabbed a poker up your bum. My mum and nanna also have it so there may be a hereditary factor?

I did some pilates a couple of years ago and that did help a lot with managing it, something to do with strangthening the posture and the core muscles of the back, I think

I had an attack of it recently (yesterday in town, got some right funny look as I was screaching in pain) but am putting this down to the extreme cold weather an the fact that the ice is making me walk funny and forgetting all I have learnt!

Hope you get some relief from it - it sucks xxx

[salome2001]

I'm not sure of the reasons why you can't get out (and I'm not asking), but if things are that way, why can't a doctor do a house call to you?

[morverngirl]

As a retired physio I am concerned that you may try some of the suggestions given. Depending on the site and type of problem some actions may improve things others can make it a whole lot worse. Many physio Departments operate a self referral system so you don't have to go to GP.

[Jax]

morverngirl, I will pm you.

Salome, my husband is housebound and in a wierd long complicating story it therefore means I cant leave the house. although hopefully that will change soon. The doctor refuses to come out as he deems me able bodied, which technically I am but I cant leave my husband.

[salome2001]

get a new doctor!!!! or else contact your husband's care team and get some help from them.
(like a size eleven up your GP's derriere!)

[Jax]

hehe, I like your thinking. Hubby doesnt have a care team anymore. I am going through to the patient and liason service as they helped with him before. Am looking for a new GP as we speak.