sciatic pain

You have my sympathy......I was in my doc's office Jan 2 with the worst

pain I think I've ever had.....and I've had three kids and several

operations in my life (I'm 78)  I was mostly in bed for the month of Jan

unable to put any weight on my right leg.  My doc gave me the

weakest strength of Percocet and I cut them in half and took one half

three times a day.  Didn't make all the pain go away but made it

bearable.  I understand about codeine, makes me sick.  As soon as you can move you probably will need some therapy.  I've had two

rounds and still feel the burning in my butt.  Put some ice on the

painful spot and see if that helps....It's August 2 and I still feel some

burning.   My sister-in-law had it and I asked her how long it took

to go away and she said a year......depressing isn't it?

You do need to see a doc or call one if you can.  If you are in the

states check with some of the thrift shops and see if they have some

used walkers.  My daughter-in-law got me one for $5.  You will

need it......makes walking bearable.  Good luck and hope it

soon goes away for you......

Hi - this could well be PMR as I have had the same problem intermittently since being diagnosed...sometimes it is because I have been holding my body badly when trying to get around and it goes with a massage and with my aromatherapist re-aligning my hips...could be worth a try.   I have also had sciatica many years ago and would say the pain is much the same.   Hope perhaps this helps - good luck

Sciatica is a dreadfully painful thing. I have artritis in most of my joints [polyarthritis] The sciatica kicks in when I have waked any distance, possibly because of missalignment of my knees & hips & probably my feet as I have gout also. I got the first attack of sciatica at age 27 while driving home from work. I was in rush hour traffic going at a crawl, but I had to stop the car & get out to stretch the leg, much to the annoyance of the folk behind me. I am now 65 & still get it. It feels like a rat gnawing through the nerve.

I, also am experiencing this "pain in the butt" going first left side, Dr gave injection, relief fo about 3 weeks, when lo and behold, now right side!  Same pain, butt and down leg to knee. Hard to walk at times. Ibuprofen helped THEN, DR SAYS NOOOOO IBUPROFEN!  Tramodol helps but cannot take near bed time as cannot sleep. I sure miss my very active life, and my daily walks!  Appt with Rheumy soon and am hoping for additional help/relief. Think mybGP began my cutting back on Pred too soon. Back to original dose, 20 mg daily some improvement this week!

Hello Jaydy

Horrible thing is sciatica. You really do need to see your doctor to get a confirmed diagnosis so that you know exactly what you are dealing with. I started experiencing sciatica months ago. For me the pain was excruciating. CT scan showed disc problems with nerve entrapment. My GP started me on Lyrica (pregabalin) this has been a help. There would be exercises that may help as well. A Physiotherapist could help you with those. Steroid Injections into the spine have helped some. It may take some time to improve and in some cases if there is a disc protrusion back surgery may be indicated. Lying on your side with a pillow between your legs is good too.

Having both PMR and sciatica is a real bummer. Each requires different courses of treatment. 

Go see your GP, get sorted and hopefully your sciatica will resolve quickly.

Take Care

Kathy

 

I had that same pain just before PMR took hold. I was chipping weeds and put it down to that, however it was probably both the chipping and PMR just starting to make itself felt and week later classic symptoms of PMR so I would suggest you see a Dr and he may up your dose of Pred quickly so it doesn't get even worse.  Good luck and hope it is not a flare starting.

It sounds like either piriformis syndrome or myofascial pain syndrome affecting your lower back. Both are often found alongside PMR and do respond a bit with higher doses of pred but then reappear at lower doses. In either of them a muscle is tight or even in spasm and trapping the sciatic nerve, causing irritation and pain which then refers down into the leg.

Rather than increase your pred dose there is physical therapy that can relieve the muscle spasm and so there is less irritation of the nerve and that eventually means less pain. There are exercises to stretch the piriformis muscle and manual mobilisation will also help to release the tight trigger points which are concentrations of the same substances, cytokines, that cause the inflammation in PMR. Somethimes this can appear to make the PMR worse for a few days but it soon clears.

Personally I have had a lot of benefit from something called Bowen therapy - and so have a lot of others on the forums. It is well worth looking for a local therapist - if it is going to help you will see an improvement in under 3 sessions - you may need more and more sessions if it recurrs at a later date but if it hasn't helped in 3 it probably won't.