Newbie and advice needed for Sciatica

[sexybutt]

Hello all. Just found this website be accident. My story is this. About 11 years ago i had 3 car accidents within a period of 2 years. All were rear or side shunts and i was not held accountable,infact all three happened whilst i was stationary. I have had mild lower back pain on and off from that point on, nothing that a few pain killers couldnt sort out. However about 4months ago i was floored (on my hands and knees) by the most excruciating pain in my lower back. My wife called for a paramedic who gave gas and air but in the end i was taken to the local hospital were an injection and suppository were given, They said it was sciatica.
I was then referred by my Occ Health department as my pain never really eased. I was seen by a consultant in a Sheffield Private Hospital who suggested an MRI scan. The next day i was told i had a bulge and L4/L5 degeneration. There was a proceedure called "Spinal Fusion" which in his opinion has a 50/50 chance of working. He suggested i see a pain consultant first to see if that helps.
On first meeting my consultant he immediately told me i needed to have Facet injections and an Epidural as he couldn't work with me in the condition i was in. After having those injections i felt some relief and managed to get back to work (Cabin Crew) for one flight. However over the last week the pain has come back and is almost as bad. It is down the left leg and something i never had before, pain in the right arm and pins/needles in the right hand. I have a tens machine and my consultant has said i may need another 2 injections. I am really down over this as it's affected me totally, with work my personal life, infact my wife has left me about 9 weeks ago. I am on Anti-Depressants and have been for about a year due to low mood. I want to help myself and have bought a pedal bike an enquied about yoga but not committed myself. I just dont know what to do. Do i approach the consultants again and tell them i'm not happy with the way things are, do i put up and shut up..

Sorry for the lonnnggg post.
Regards
Pete

 

[ShouldaKnownBetter]

Hi Pete and a warm welcome to HP.

So sorry to read of your back problem. I myself had sciatica, a couple of years ago now. My GP prescribed tablets which didn't actually do me any good, so I put up with the pain for ages until, in desperation, I decided to consult a chiropracter. Maybe I was lucky, but the treatment sorted me out in 6 weeks. Each treatment immediately relieved the tingling in my legs which was so awful, so at least I was free of it for a while after. Then eventually, all the pain and tingling went. It was a massive relief after having sciatica for about a year.

Therefore I wondered whether that sort of treatment might help you. IMHO, if you're in pain, like I was, it's certainly worth a try.

Hope this helps and please keep us posted as to how you get on. There are lots of friendly and helpful people here on HP, an a lot of them, even myself. forund this wonderful site by accident. It's been a great support to very many people and hope you will find this as well. Please stick around.


Best wishes
Moonfairy
c

 

[Disney Girl]

Hi Pete, and welcome. I believe you were guided to this site for help and that it was not an accident.

I am sorry to hear about your pain. I can empathise because I had sciatica and spd in some of my pregnancies.

If I were you, I would see an osteopath or chiropractor about your condition. You might even be able to be referred to one who is available on the NHS by your GP or hospital but if not, then go private if you can.

Other treatments that may work alongside this would be acupuncture, acupressure, aromatherapy or reflexology. Reiki might be good for a relief from the pain too.

Hope you get the help you need, and you feel better soon!!

Lots of love xxxx

 

[New in]

Also, if you go to the home page of this website, and click on the button that says directory, you can then choose Osteopathy or Chiropractic from the drop down menu to find a suitable therapist in your area. If there is no-one in your area and you cant get anyone by referral from your GP, then try doing a search on google or yahoo search page for a therapist in your area. xxx

 

[Fertility Q]

I just had another look on the directory and Cranio-Sacral Therapy might help too xxx

 

[shari_louise84]

I had really bad sciatica when I was carrying my first son. The result of which it returns every now and then. Generally it comes on if I do a lot of twisting to the right, which tends to happen in part of my job. The worst time was when I had pain transference, it transfered to the front of my thigh and my leg dragged. In fact I thought it was something unrelated so went to my doc. I have also been in the position where it has come on so unexpectedly that I was nearly on my knees getting out of the car. I was recently given a set of exercises by a concerened customer, who is a consultant. They do help but in general I try and avoid where possible twisting to the right. I do reiki whenever I can and that does help with the pain. Hopefully you will find a treatment that is right for you. As each person tends to have a different reason for sciatica it's hard to generalise with treatment.

 

[Restropjan]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have today woken up and have called my physio and pain consultant and i have told them how much pain i'm in. I'm having another epidural on Thursday at 1pm. I just cannot cope with the pain and it's bringing me down. I'll let you all know how i'm doing with an update.. thanks again for the advice and help you have all shown..
Regards
Pete

 

[Angelsky]

http://www.chiropractic-uk.co.uk/default.aspx?m=1&mi=1
best (IMO) site to find a chiropractor
http://www.osteopathy.org/ZMENNK2BAB
to find an osteopath

Go see one or the other, take your MRI scan with you if you can, consultant's report if that's all you can get hold of.
Both Chiro.s and Osteo.s should be able to deal with disc bulge and radiculopathy, though I'm concerned by symptoms in the right arm; something's not right there (probably 2 problems, though that's just an educated guess at this stage).

Good luck with it

 

[lovenichkhun]

How are you feeling now?

 

[Anna nicole]

Hello all. Have had the 2nd Epidural and although it was similar to the 1st the consultant only put it in the L5 disc this time. I have to say it's a marked improvement on it's condition before. Whilst still getting pain it's more managable with Co-Codamol and it never felt like this after the 1st epidural 6 weeks ago. Could this be as a result of the 1st one reacting with the 2nd epidural or would the 1st epidural have expired so to speak. My return to work is at 50% at the moment and i'm next seeing my Consultant/Physio next week.

Regards

Pete

 

[~NeoVictorian~]

Oh I am glad you are feeling a bit better! I dont know anything about epidurals but maybe someone else on here would. Have you thought about asking your doctor if you could maybe get acupuncture on the NHS?

 

[Dr. Natural]

BIA i came across an old school DR who called himself an Neural Orthopeadic Specialist who said through his yrs of working with back problems he had found it very common for a disk to go in the lower back and neck at the same time. he called in 2 and 2 for some reason

any thoughts on this or was he just full of B/S? can't find any refernces of his on the net anywhere although he claimed to of worked closely with Dr James Cyiax who was the "founder" of orthopeadic medicine

 

[talefairy]

I've not come across anyone yet where I would even consider that as an option. It certainly can, but I wouldn't call it frequent by any stretch of the imagination.
If you've got Neuro SSx in both upper and lower body, you start looking towards the spinal chord/brainstem/brain 1st up.

If it's double crush, then that's not all that uncommon. Basically it states that when you injure a nerve, you're more likely to then receive another nerve injury (usually the same nerve, but not always). I don't think I'm explaining it very well, but I'm sure you get the gist.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Hi
I had a similar problem to you after the birth of my first child (some 30yrs ago) and it caused my leg to give way sometimes. I went to a chiro who used a wooden hammer and mallet - it did work! But I wouldn't recommend it nowadays. It does come back sometimes when I twist or aggrevate it in some way and a while a go it felt as though my back was seizing up and I was becoming stiff in that area. I started doing Yoga but it was a special kind of deep stretching yoga called Yin and that has worked wonders for me because it opens up the spine (a little bit like traction I suppose)but I can say that I have never looked back and the yoga is very relaxing and closing down. you relax into the posture and when you are first doing them you think it is going to be really painful in the morning but because you are relaxed, you feel like a rag doll at the end of the session but there are no bad effect the next day as there would be with normal Yoga.
I don't know if there is a Yin class near to you - there are not many around

 

[David S]

My sciatica has ranged from just annoying to crippling and I have suffered with it for nearly 5 months. Mine is due to a prolapsed disc.

My osteopath says there is no alternative but to have the disc removed - and no alternative treatments will work despite what anyone says.

I have tried simply everything to help with the pain - and the combination that enables me to get up in the morning and at least function is simply this: 2 x Anadin Extra and 2 x Nurofen Plus, 2 or 3 times a day. Added to this I try to lie down on a hard floor with legs bent (knees to the ceiling) and a book under my head for up to an hour every day (from Alexander Technique).

This may work for you and I hope it helps.

 

[sc4bbedwing]

Before you go the route of surgery, I would advise getting an MRI to get a better picture of what's going on in the back. Disc removal doesn't always clear up the problem. In some cases, such as my brother (who ruptured a disc) they remove the ejected material and seal the disc.

 

[Sarah Shinn]

Hi Pete

I experienced sciatica for six months. I was flat out so i know how it feels. I had degenerate discs, sciatica, hyper mobility, Sherman's disease, repetitive injury. I not only recovered using Bioenergy Healing but i can now do full contact martial arts, rock climbing and running!

In hindsight i realised that these weren't just physical ailments.

When you experience pain in the body it is important to understand its origin.

Consider the following:- Each region of the brain is linked to a different part of the body via the neurological system. When you experience emotional trauma it is stored in a specific region of the brain. That region of the brain is connected to in your case the sciatic nerve/leg. For the duration that the emotional trauma is stored in your brain may it be on a conscious or sub-conscious level it causes a breakdown in communication and dis-order along the whole pathway from the brain to this area of the symptom. Then the loop kicks in because the pain and frustrations cause further psychological and emotional trauma in another part of the brain that connects to another physical part of the body and so on.

It is possible to break the loop as i did and most importantly without having to address it on a cognitive level.

I hope you are getting the picture.

Injections and surgery may need to be an option for some people but you should satisfy yourself that you have tried the least invasive options in the first place.



Best wishes


Michael Cohen