I am not a professional but I think I found the cure?

Hi there everyone. I'd like to apologize in advance since I don't remember the details precisely to every detail, but I hope this will help some of you in your quest to recovering as I did. Well first, I'd like to tell my personal experience with sciatica and how it ruined most of my young adult life:

I first encountered sciatica 5 years ago when I was an Apple Care tech support for Apple. You know the person who sits behind a desk for nearly 8-10 hours daily helping clients with their technical issues. I loved the job and I enjoyed helping people, though one morning after moving my furniture around the house the night before, the next morning I could not stand up. I usually never cried to pain, but I had no choice. For 3 days, after I called in sick, I never moved from my bed. At first thoughts, I knew that maybe I pushed myself but that was impossible, I didn't feel weak at all. However, to keep the story short, I went to the hospital, they made a few tests with me, they confirmed it was not my spine. So being happy that the spine wasn't the problem, they gave me some morpheme and a shot of cortisone and told me I should be back to work in no time. However, that was not the case. I spent the entire week on my 4 feet. Going to the bathroom was like sitting on a nail and felt like my butt/leg was going to rip off. It was a nightmare. The week passed, and I unfortunately quit my job.

Luckily or coincidentally, I got called to an even better company (bonuses, pay, the works) and this involved me to move around much more. So I thought, because standing did not hurt me in anyway, I thought maybe this job would help stretch out the legs and take away the pain. Long story short, every morning as I put on my boots to go to work, my morning was a ritual of horror. It was take a deep breath, hold it, and put my socks on. The pain never left, it only gradually faded, but rushed right back as I did anything like bending down, going to the bathroom, forcing on the toilet also hurt me quite a bit, taking a shower was nearly an impossible feat, etc.

So as I got the position, I was working for a few months, the same thing happened the very first time it did when I went to the hospital, this time, I collapsed. I was already use to the pain by now that this was normal for me, in a way anyway but i managed to crawl to the phone and asked for the day off because I could no longer feel my left leg.

I went to the doctor the week after and asked for a checkup, my doctor told me I had sciatica and a herniated disc that needed scanning for more confirmation. So I did. I went to the hospital prior to meeting my doctor, and yes, they found a small herniation between my L4-L5 vertabrae, but everything else was normal. My doctor informed me that it was time to quit and find a job like the one I had before, just that I was in no position to going back after quitting and sitting would definitely not help me. He prescribed me acetaminophen , naproxen, and aleve for the duration of about 2 years. (I mean I took them for roughly 2 years) He also told me to visit the physiotherapists to help exercise the muscle. At first of course the muscles hurt but the pain/sting never really left. I spent nearly 6ooo$ on physio and it only made me feel stronger but didn't remove the stinging/stabbing/sudden pain. I did physio for 6 months and nothing helped. Eventually my doctor wanted to prescribe me blood thinners, but I rejected them. Something was bugging me that there was something more. I asked to get an echography, to verify the muscle, but he rejected it instantly. After every 2 weeks of visiting my doctor for the last few years, I knew I had to see a specialist or someone.

As a ray of hope, my mom found out about a chiropractor, not far from where my doctor was located and decided to make an appointment. He examined me and after nearly being there for about 1 hour, he told me to see a specialist nurse who could free some space for my nerve or a specialist in the spinal and nerve anatomy. First of course I went to see the nurse, she did in fact make me feel the burn as it felt as if she drilled her thumb to where my nerve was from buttock to ankle. I felt bruised, however the pain never subsided. I quit seeing her. Then after trying to wait for some kind of income, since I was already in debt from physio, I checked out the specialist. It didn't cost that much for a diagnostic but we after careful examination and verifying my spine fully, from the cervical to the lumbar, we realized the spine was leaning to my right. For fun, I asked to get an echography from him and he saw that my nerve was pressed upon my leg muscles. (from psoas to the IT band and etc) As I bent my leg up and down, the nerve rubbed. But funny enough, when my leg bent upwards, it did not hurt. He continued to say that my spine along with my leg muscles/nerve was twisted as well. He also told me to do a specific exercise that would help strengthen my nerve and that was to push from my feet up onto my toes and then go back down. Standing up of course. I don't have an image for it so to keep it simply, imagine trying to reach for the sky and you push with your feet up until you are on your toes. That was the exercise. But in the end, with the tilt I had, he proceeded to saying that I should get a lift for one of my shoes so that my spine could realign.

After the visit, I went to buy the lift but it didn't help me anymore than I thought it could.

Keep in mind that during the time I spent exercising, I was drinking lots of powerade and eating lots of salads and healthy foods so I wouldn't become overweight, I thought the boost of vitamins would help since I noticed after taking 2 years of pills, I stopped for 2 reasons. First, because I knew it was not helping whatsoever, and the second because I started having really dry skin on my feet, that never happened before.

Anyway back to my story, I went to see the chiropractor since we really had no idea what was going on, but this time I explained to him the degree of my pain and what was wrong with my spine, he managed to place it back and it helped a whole lot, but the occasional pain was still there. Before I left to go home, he told me to not wear the lift anymore, to prevent realigning the spine back to it's original "poor" posture.

Anywho, this is how I found my true calling, not going to lie, the chiropractor and the specialist did help a whole lot. And I thank them for the realignment. I AM IN NO WAY A PROFESSIONAL SO PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE IF THE PAIN WORSENS PLEASE. I know how hell feels like, i've been there and done that. So first, seek a healthcare professional and check if your spine needs aligning (preferably scan the entire spine top side down and to see if it is not curved from left to right) Secondly, once the spine, if possible is aligned correctly, start taking vitamin b12 supplements with Omega 3 fish oil pills, they will help boost your bodies scarce supply after taking so many antibiotics you're body needs to be able to recover. Now, here is the more interesting part, I noticed that my bed could be the problem when in fact it was not. And believe me I tried everything, pillow between knees, neck, leaving the leg up etc. But I thought to myself, what happens when someone strains their ankle or arm? They keep it bent and close, most of the time right? So I tried it. So I would lay down on the side that did not hurt of course (I really don't know how to help if both sides hurt, but to me I would think that would be a very rare occasion and believe me, I've been researching this problem for 5 years, I know what I am kinda doing, but I am no professional) and I would bend below my knee and bring it up to my bum, kinda like if I were to sit at a japanese table. But In this form, lay sideways with the knee bent back and place a pillow or cushion between your bed and waist (stomach side), your knee that is suspended over your other leg (if youre right leg hurts, lay on your left left and bend the right leg to your bum and same goes with the opposite) and something under your neck to keep it straight. Now, I have had a hard time trying to keep my knee bent under my bum for longer than an hour so I just try to lean towards a wall and hold it there. You want to try to pull it as far back as you can to your bum, sideways and laying down of course. It's hard to hold longer than an hour for me, maybe it will be different for you. But after 1 night sleep with my knee bent back and my dog helping me, 😛 , I felt like the pain just went away the next day. For the fun of it I tried putting my socks on, it stung very gently but of course I didn't want to test my strength just yet. So instead of pushing myself, like I always loved doing, I slept with my left leg tug as close to my butt and held it there. And that's it really. I hope that this will help many patients out there that you can in fact cure this SOB, pardon my french, and get on with your life. I finally can bend and put my socks on and it feels amazing. For those wondering how long I've been doing this for, I've done it for about 1 week. What equipment to I have at home, I have an inversion table, an exercise/walking machine, exercise balls, you name it, I tried it. But ultimately, if you are still in bed with that pain and cannot move, my personal recommendation would be to make sure you have no inflammation, and if you don't to stop taking Antibiotics and take vitamin B complex pills/ supplements. Yes, don't be afraid that your urine will change color, it's only natural. In my opinion, you cannot really get OD on these but for those wondering how I did it. For the first week I took 3 Vitamin B pills (I weigh roughly 240lbs) and after that I went down to 2 for the next week, and then 1 every day to recover. I only recently found that this really helped and I no longer feel the side-effects of sciatica, I am so happy, you have no idea.

Cheers to everyone, and I wish the best for you're future endeavors!

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