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I believe I have sciatica

Posted , 8 users are following.

neville91686
neville91686

Greetings forum readers from the Republic Of Ireland.

My name is Neville aged 56 and I came to Ireland in 1987 to with my wife who was born in Ireland but moved to New Zealand when she was 3 .

Ok , my mother passed away in New Zealand in August last year and I made the trip from Dublin to Auckland to attend her funeral .

I flew with Emirates and when I got to Dubai I had to change planes to fly to Sydney then onto Auckland.

My seat from Dubai to Sydney was a window seat .

I had 2 drunken Australians sitting next to me for the 12 hour flight to Sydney.

After a few hours they fell to sleep.

Although I felt I needed a pee I felt it was better to hold it in rather than wake them up and ask them to move .

After about 7 hours into the flight I started getting back pain and a sharp pain down my right buttock down to my calf muscle in my right leg.

When I got to Sydney I was in agony and could barely walk.

On I went and traveled to Auckland in absolute agony and felt like crying with the pain.

After a few days in New Zealand the pain completely disappeared .

On my return trip to Ireland I had no problems what-so-ever .

In early December 2015 I started experiencing the same pains and symptons as I experianced from Dubai to Auckland .

I tolerated them for as long as possible until mid December when the pain became to much and I decided to go and see my GP.

I was refered to the  A&E at my local hospital as my GP thought I may have a blood clot .

I was given a Ultra sound on my right leg and told I had an inflamed varicose vein and told to go back to my GP .

He prescibed 50mg tablets of a drug called Cataflam .

My situation deteriated over February and one morning I was in so much pain I called for a ambulance.

At A&E I was assigned a Indian doctor who sent me for another Ultra Sound , Blood tests , Xray on my right leg , Bood pressure.

I was told my blood pressure was extremely high and prescribed Cental-K and told that the Cataflam tablets cause high blood pressure.

My bloods were as normal as can be what-ever that means.

So I asked has my inflamed varicose vein got worse only to be told I don't have an inflamed varicose vein .

I explained that when I came to the hospital in mid December I was told I did and I can not understand why she was telling me I DON'T .

She said I need to go back to my GP and ask him to refer me to a specialist at the hospital which I did.

I have been told I have to wait at least 3-5 months before I could be seeen.

As I am off work I need a medical cert every month and I go and see my GP every month who still prescribes Cataflam and Cental-K and I am due to go and see him on the 12th April 2016 .

Today I had a visit from a neighbour of mine .

He asked how I was doing and I said I had good days and bad days.

I explained to him my symptons and he said he had seen me walking on crutches and it reminded him of himself a few years ago the way I was hunched forward when using the crutches .

He sked if I had heard of sciatica and I said no .

He said from what you explained to me about your symptons it is identical from what he went through and after 1 month his sciatica vanished .

Now just over 3 months have passed with me and I have good days and bad days and I feel if I sit with my feet on the floor it becomes agonizing but when I sit on the sofa with my legs up it feels so much better .

I also find when I go to the supermarket and I use a trolley to support myself I feel so much better when I get home for a few hours.

I decided to look up sciatica on the internet and looked at as many sites as possible.

All the symptons they describe are just what I am experiancing.

I am at a loss why my GP and the hospital have not mentioned sciatica .

I clearly have all the symptons of sciatica and have experianced everything the websites say.

Although I feel the pain is not as intense as in mid December I worry that it has gone on for so long and I worry if I will ever get back to work .

What sort of questions should I ask my GP when I see him next as I don't want to make a fool I myself ?

What advise can you give me believing it is sciatica I have ?

I am convinced I have sciatica but why has it gone on for so long ?

Any opinions good or bad I would welcome your comments as I am at my witts end and feel I am falling into depression as time goes on .

 

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • suzanne136
    suzanne136 neville91686

    Posted

    Hi Neville

    sorry to hear your suffering,I have had siatica for about a yr and a half nowThe pain i was in was horrendous and after 2 visits to a&e,it got so bad on the 3rd visit i was admitted to hospital for a wk and for 4 days i was inco-herent with the pain,i couldnt walk at all and,i ended up having steroid injections in my back ,,for the following 6 months i was still in an awful amount of pain ,on walking sticks and  on so much medication to this day still i dont know why they didn't do an opperation.An mri early last yr showed 3 herniated discs one pressing on my nerve.I have improved considerably after another lot of injections in september but have been left with a constant ache all down my right leg similar to a headache i suppose,i still have to take medication every 7 hrs to stop the ache and i have been left with permanant numbness on the bottom of my left foot.

    When talking to the Consultant he told me it can take up to 2 yrs for the discs to righten themselfs.....of cause this is if you dont have a relapse

    hope this helps and you get sorted as unless you have had this happen to you ,you can't comprehend the amount of pain you are in,i slept on the sofa for 6 months and use to have to crawl upstairs to go the toilet and at times i didn't want to carry on.

    I am only 45 and have 2 children age 12 and 14,1 of whom is disabled.I pray the pain doesn't come back again like it was

    Kind wishes

    Suzanne

  • neville91686
    neville91686

    Posted

    Hi suzanne136  and thank you for your reply .

    Thank God I live in a bungalow ( No up stairs ) , I can tell you from Mid December until the end of February I had a few occasions when I thought I would not make it to the toilet on time due to the excruciating pain I was in and believe me I only just made it in time  and the toilet is no more than 20 feet from my sofa .

    I  have made the sofa my bed for the mean time .

    It is frightning at the amount of time you have endured in pain.

    Reading all I could on the sciatica I believed no more than 6 months at the most  and I would be cured .

    Wow I feel for you with your children , it must be so hard for you

    .My wife passed away about 10 years ago so I live alone .

    Dealing with every day challenges in this condition is a nightmare .

    I have learnt that no matter how bad I think I am that there is some-one else with sciatica worse off .

     

  • melissa91009
    melissa91009 neville91686

    Posted

    Dear Neville

    It does sound very like sciatica. You may well have had an inflamed vein that has been treated with the medication as well.

    I had a type of sciatica where it was stuck between my pelvis and the little nobble on the femur. I had a large hip surgery in Aug 2013 to have it released and ended up with nerve damage in my left leg which resulted in constant excruciating pain. Was terrible. I ended up have four lots of steroid injections into my spine to 'turn off' the nerve to give me some relief as the pain was too much. I was 31 at the time.

    Sciatica is a symptom not a cause... A resulting bunch of symptoms from the nerve usually being compressed by a disc in the spine bulging or becoming herniated or various other underlying spinal processes that cause irritation or damage to the nerve. It can then result in muscle spasms which heat packs are good for, numbness, tingling, sometimes colour changes and pain. The questions you need to ask your dr are can you be checked for nerve damage/compression, (physical tests etc), under go a scan such as MRI and nerve conduction studies, if the dr thinks it is your sciatic nerve. Is the pain in the same place as your inflamed vein? Does the pain radiate? Steroid injections are good for reducing pain but do not always cure the problem.

    Hope this helps

    Melissa

  • richard99844
    richard99844 neville91686

    Posted

    hi,i had sciatica and feet going numb for 2 years,playing guitar sat down it went completely within 6 months,let me know if you want more in depth with this because there is alot more to tell.
  • charles54091
    charles54091 neville91686

    Posted

    Unfortunately sciatica can recur, and has in my case, and each time it came up for 8 weeks at a time, and after 8 weeks my body seems to miraculously heal itself, to my relief for sure.  My pain was constant and unremitting for that time, and I have described it elsewhere.  It just seems that once a large nerve is traumatized it takes weeks to restore it.
  • neville91686
    neville91686

    Posted

    Hi Charles ,

    Now nearly 15 weeks have passed and only in the last few days have I felt that my condition is taking course for the better.

    My employer will not let me back to work until I am 100% fit for work and it scares me to think the siatica could return at any time .

     

    • charles54091
      charles54091 neville91686

      Posted

      Yes, I know those feelings.....  When suddenly within a few days the pain completely disappears I thought, be careful, be very careful as the pain will be right back, but there were long gaps between my cases.  First was in 1985, then the second wasn't until the nineties and again in the late nineties.  And the last time I was simply reading some guages on the water treatment equipment and twisted around to read one more, and felt a little something in my back. 

      But within a few weeks of the pain relief the sciatica was out of my mind and I was living life again.

      Best wishes to you

  • tilly01401
    tilly01401 neville91686

    Posted

    Hey Neville.

    It sounds to me like you have Sciatica. Let me tell you some of my story that I have gone through so you can get an idea of why the drs haven’t mentioned it to you.

    3.5 years ago (when I was 18) I started to get similar pains as you. The sides of my legs were hurting and it felt much better to lay than to sit. It came and went over a period of 2 years and then it was there every day from then on, it stopped me from doing sport or sitting and even studying for uni. I went to many many different people to see what was wrong with me and how it can be fixed. I went to multiple GPs, physios, chiropractors, I got acupuncher, I went to orthopedic to see if it was my feet, I went to many others over the period of these 3 years.

    I finally found a GP who told me to get an MRI which showed a bulging disc in my L5/S1, he referred me to a spinal surgeon. Within 4 months the Specialist suggested that I get an operation because I have already exhausted all other avenues. The operation was 7 months ago (I am now 21) and I haven’t gotten any better.

    But I have heard of people having successful operations for sciatic!

    The moral to this story is that you may very well have sciatic; you just need to find the right medical person that understands it. I would suggest that you talk to your GP directly about it and possibly see a spinal specialist or get a 2nd or 3rd opinion about this because it can be dangerous if you have a bulging disc and it is left for some time (Mine was left for 3 years so the bludging disc attached itself to the nerve, you don’t want that to happen).

    Also the pain could be going on for a long time because there could be something like bone or your disc that is pushing on the nerve in your spine that creates the pain. 

    I suggest that you stretch your legs as often as possible, do a few nerve glides (Google them).

    You need to be firm with GPs, I have found that many start small and unless you push to get something rectified then they wont seek out other avenues of treatment.

    Good luck with your pain, know that there are other people going through this too.

    Definitely look into seeing a spinal specialist.

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