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Symptoms of Sciatic

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stevejohn121
stevejohn121

Hello Everyone,

I am pretty new to this Sciatic world...Need your suggestion/advice to understand root cause.

I have pain in the lower back last 3 weeks and mostly on left side (middle of left side buttock and I can feel the pain in left side buttock exactly when I do Cobra pose) and back of the calf on left side.

Pain is not so constant, I feel pain in calf (not lower back) when I stand for more than 15 minutes but when I sit I have pain in lower back(not calf)

Going by symptoms and trying to find answers with Dr. google., it looks like Sciatic symptoms.

Also going by various literature found that Sciatic can be caused by different reason, understanding root cause is more important for resolution.

  1. Herinated Disc
  2. Degenerated Disc
  3. Piliformis Syndrome

I tried going to two different chiropractor, both of them did my muscle/nerve analysis/x-rays and telling me that it could be Sciatic but they are not relieving on what's the root cause, but they are providing overall assessment of spinal cord (aligning towards left side more and left hip alignment) and providing spinal care package for 2 months with 3 adjustments/ week which they say even Sciatic will be addressed. Personally , I was not convinced with this approach and didn't opt for Chiro spinal care yet.

Now thinking to go for Ortho doc since I feel knowing the root cause is more important to cure the pain rather than just symptoms. Hoping Ortho doc would suggest MRI which can throw more light on my lumbar spine.

Is their any other suggestion to diagnose the issue as I mostly suspect it could be Herinated disc since I do desk job last 15 years and probably I may be wrong as well.

I do have doc appointment next week, in meantime doing some simple stretching exercise for hamstring.

Thanks in Advance.

Appreciate,

Steve

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  • stevejohn121
    stevejohn121

    Posted

    Hi All,

    I was contemplating treatment between chiro & PT for my sciatic pain, But I have to opt physiotherapy due to my insurance policy.

    Now its been 2nd week on Physiotherapy (Total of 6 weeks plan), so far it is going good, I still have pain when I stand for more than 20 minutes but overall pain seems to reduced when compared to what I had before Physiotherapy.

    When Pain occurs, it is predominately at ankle (early pain would be in left butt & calf), if we go with theory of Centralization/Pheriphilization in most articles, where pain needs to move towards spine, whereas in my case, it is moving other way round. However I still feel my overall pain is reduced than when I started where I get pain in upper ankle of left leg on these below two occasion :

    1. while standing more than 20 minutes, pain in ankle
    2. while doing specific excercise- Cobra excercise (Mckanzie method), pain in ankle and left butt.

    image

    Though I did check with my PT, they suggested to avoid any exercises which causes pain since they suspect some nerve is touching.

    Currently in terms of diagnosis - I have just done X-ray (x-ray remarks: disc degeneration between l5-s1) and I need to complete Physiotherapy session to get MRI , sadly this is how insurance protocol works and treatment option follows this protocol. I know x-ray doesn't provide details analysis unlike MRI.

    Is the pain relief from Sciatic necessary always follows Centralization of spine (moving the pain from bottom of leg to spine) or it can be in as in my case where overall pain is relatively reduced (pain is not constant through out the day but flares up 3-5 times) but pain shifted from calf to ankle).

    I am finding difficult to asses whether I am in progressing positively in recovery (overall pain is reduced relatively )or negatively with physiotherapy exercise since pain is shifting downwards.

    I am sure , they are many people who have been relieved with sciatic pain, would like to hear the journey how pain gets relieved.

    Appreciate,

    Steve

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