sciatica help

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Hi all,

I am in my 9th week of absolutley unbareable pain in my lower back. i have suffered for years with a bad back and after having an mri scan, was diagnosed with degenertive disc disease.

My current flare howevere is unlike anything i have ever experienced. I literally cannot sit, lie down, stand or walk for longer than 2 minutes. The pain travels right down to my foot and have nagging dull shock like pain in my buttocks, thigh and calf. Unbareable agony, and worse at night resting in no sleep.

I am taking the highest dosage of gabapentin,along with naproxen but again they dont seem to be even touching the sides, and have terrible side affects.

I have seen a physiotheripitst who has given me stretches to do, which arent helping, or too difficult and painful.

I am on a waiting list for the hospital to get another scan to see what is going on, but this can take upto 8 weeks. I have no way of life at the minute.

Does anyone have any advice, im starting to worry this will never get better.

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1 Reply

  • Posted

    perhaps see if there is a different medication that can be prescribed. I was on Nortriptyline for a while, it didn't work for me but Gabapentin has done for my severe sciatica. Its different for different people I think. See what you can get out of your Dr perhaps but be tactful and polite with it as opposed to demanding. There is also Pregabalin as well which is meant to be similar for nerve pain.

    I've massively found it's about getting on top of the pain first. I went through weeks of insomnia through the pain and side effect of Nortriptyline and its a right b!tch. Again though, these things work differently for different people, it might help you, it also might not, but if Gabapentin isn't doing anything for you anyway...

    The muscle pain I had was muscles cramping up around a 'perceived' injury site. If you can get on top of the pain hopefully that'll stop. stretching helped relive the cramp once it had cramped, but it didn't stop it from happening. Its stopped for me now though, being on top of the pain, hopefully it will for you when you can.

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