Struggling with sciatica

[Sameold23]

Hi, so I started with this 10 days ago. Horrendous pain with numb leg and foot. Ended up in A&E. I've mainly been in bed as could not move. The last few days I've cut my painkillers and have been moving about more. I've managed the stairs a few times. Now my pain is back, but I thought I was supposed to be moving around. Basically I can't sleep as the pain is annoying and I'm freaking out that this is never going to end. The gp has referred me to physio which shouldn't be too much longer. Just wanted advice on what I should be doing please.

@BriocheForBreakfast

I've heard of a few people on amitriptyline. What are the side effects?

Anyway, I've just had another bad night. I just can't find a comfortable position to sleep in. My mental health is going downhill. I'm spending a lot of time lying down as I just can't judge how much I should be doing. Plus I'm shattered from not sleeping. I'm so anxious, and I'm having to cancel more things everyday that I've got booked in. This is all over my annual leave too, which I'd worked so hard for. I just can't see it getting better.

Do you think I should try and have a more active day today?

I don't think I did much activity for the first several weeks OP. I think the first thing is to get some more advice on getting the pain under control - it took trial and error with my excellent GP to find out what worked for me. Amytriptlline made me feel sick.
The pain makes you anxious and that and sleep deprivation will make you feel worse and that makes the pain worse!
You poor thing, don't despair. Go back to the GP and get the pain med sorted out. You need to get the pain dealt with before you can do much more.
Have you been able to try heat/TENS at all?
You will get through this. Back to the doctor first I'd say.
Really sorry you're having such a bad time. I know the pain had me half demented - I had a steroid injection into my spine and that gave enough relief for me to start focusing on stretch exercises and slow mobilising.

Thank you for your kind message. I have some naproxen waiting for me at gp. I had come off most of the meds, but pain is back which is really disheartening.

I was looking at my new TENS machine yesterday, but it says you can't use it on numb areas and it worried me.

How did you get the steroid injection? Did it hurt?

I'm also reluctant to get private physio as I still don't know what happened with the osteopath I saw.

I had a bad back, saw him who said it was just muscular and not anything serious like sciatica. Then 2 days of pain and not being able to walk properly or drive. He'd definitely done something as my right foot was sticking out to the side. Then I was in A&E as I has passed out in pain, and it was diagnosis as Sciatica.

What does anyone think about this? Would you contact the company to go through it with them? Were they at fault?

I have permanent sciatica thanks to degenerative disease, osteoarthritis from T12 to L5, a synovial cyst at L2/3, scoliosis and a congenital birth defect - it’s quite literally a pain in the arse 😂 !

Pacing yourself is helpful, so some gentle stretches or walking for 5-10 minutes, then rest for 5-10 minutes. For a bit of a hurtle turtle it frustrates the snot out of me, but it does mean in the long run I can get physical tasks done on the worst pain days.

TENS machines are great for discombobulating your brain & they can gently exercise the muscles if you use a massage setting rather than a tapping one (which I find the best on crap pain days).

I use it on days where there is numbness down my leg & into my foot, but I’m 30 odd years into this clusterduck so I ignore the warnings, but please don’t throw caution to the wind & use it on my advice if it’s contraindicated by your machine’s instructions!

Gentle stretching is helpful too, anything bending forward to open the spinal canal helps me.

For me, if I have tightness around the muscles (which adds the poopy cherry to the shite sundae of a slipped disc), I alternate heat & ice. After spinal surgery (laminectomy on an already deformed vertebrae) it was recommended to alternate heat and ice packs; my last surgery was in 1992 so it may very be an out of date method, but it helps me!

My discs are now so squashed by the osteoarthritis extra bone spurs they look like smooshed Oreos on my MRIs lol!

Unfortunately I’m in the ‘failed surgery so orthopaedic docs just shrug their shoulders & apologise that they can’t do anything more’ category, but friends have had great success with decompression surgery.

I’m prescribed pregabalin, tramadol and amytriptaline, with dihydrocodeine & paracetamol for breakthrough pain. It doesn’t mend or, for me, ease the pain as such, but it does disrupt the pain signals in the brain so I can try to function & move more. I have some awful side effects, but it’s balancing the side effects with the pain disruption.

I also use a Shakti mat (I apologise if that’s the wrong spelling!) which looks like a medieval spiked torture device.https://www.shaktimat.co.uk/?tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=16622901551&gclid=CjwKCAjw29ymBhAKEiwAHJbJ8leo2pUl1aiuaPzrF6jbKSTXjzazt0ksU34goR4aXSt_UwKFAnhTBBoCLmEQAvD_BwE .

Again, it’s about overwhelming the pain signals which personally helps me. I’ve also had acupuncture via the Pain Clinic at hospital; first session was amazing, the remaining just lead to a flooding of the pain back before I’d left the clinic.

However it was fabulous for half a hour of relaxation!

I hope everyone who is up at daft o’clock like me may find some relief. I know that I’m in this situation for life. I actually awoke to an alarm to give my dog his levothyroxine, but the familiar thrum of pain is keeping me awake so I’m probably talking a lot of toot at 5.51am.

Frankly the pregabalin makes my brain work like a tongue through lard, so please excuse the atrocious grammar & disjointed thoughts. But as I wrote earlier, it’s balancing the pain relief side effects (even if the relief isn’t complete) & trying to negotiate life. I do have better days, and bloody awful days, but the meds give me the platform to try to live,

If you have a sudden loss of sensation & numbness in your vulva/anus & find urinating or pooping difficult, that is a medical emergency which needs immediate treatment!

Thank you if you get to the bottom of those pregabalin & opiate ramble!

Just to add, we have a physio in our surgery so can access help easily, he has given me advice & exercises (I wish all surgeries had one)! We also have a resident pharmacist team who monitors my medication. We’re blessed with a fantastic multidisciplinary NHS Practice, I wish everyone could have such a fantastic Practice like ours!

Tramadol helped me and beccause the pain was down both my legs the GP recommended a CT scan and then MRI with spine injection. That did help. I never used Tens but people here seem to have found it helpful.
Do try to get on to effective pain treatment before the pain becomes chronic.
Once you have decent pain control you'll be able to focus on gentle exercise and stretches.
Really sorry you're having a bad time.

I don't remember having any side effects but I was only on it for about a month. And by then it had all luckily calmed down again. I then had some physio and massage on the piriformis.

I hope you're on the mend soon 💐

As I mentioned, I am abroad, eventually I went yesterday to a local tourist health clinic. The doctor gave me Tramadol, which has helped, although I am still finding it hard to sit/lie/sleep, and feel best when I am (slowly) walking. Its a scary feeling having so much pain in your back. The Tramadol is making me groggy/ a bit high though, and I have to attend some work meetings remotely next week, so I am going to have to omit a dose on those days...

I found the Gabapentin a game changer took a while to work. The spinal infiltration of a steroid injection has helped too.

I forgot to add - the steroid injection into my lumbar spine was acutely painful, but it's not for long - and the relief it gave was definitely worth it. My sciatica went right down into my feet and toes.

@theDudesmummy

Oh no! I didn't know you were so bad with it. Are you on holiday? Yes the feeling from the painkillers kept me in bed for 2 weeks which was why I tried to come off them. I literally haven't left my house for over 2 weeks. I need to start doing more.

*@CentrifugalBumblePuppy

Thank you so much for your message. It sounds like you've had so much to deal with 💐. We take so much for granted.

@Sameold23 yes I am on holiday atm, I think it was a combination of a rather dodgy/slopng bed base in the apartment here, and spending hours on a motorboat on the sea, which triggered the sciatica. I have had it mildly before but never like this. I have started cutting the Tramsol in half which is helping. My holiday has been lovely but now I am quite keen to get back to my physiotherapist! Another 8 days before I reach home though...

*Tramadol

Will you be able to travel ok?

Bit worried about that tbh, it's a 4 day drive. But I will just dose up with the Tramadol (I am not the one driving).

Sympathy. It's agonising pain.

My sciatica was resolved when I saw an osteopath who does Western medical acupuncture. They even bought extra long needles for my big bum! Sadly they only used one because they had fixed my issue 😂 I did the exercises though so it wasn't just the needles. The relief was heavenly!

@theDudesmummy

Bloody hell!! I've got a wedding 1.5 hours away and I'm doubting that. Could you book a flight just for you? Good luck!

I've considered it but getting home by plane would involve changing planes at least once, probably twice, a long bus journey and then a long cab journey, and also probabky taking my autistic DS with me on the trip, and looking after him the whole way without any help. The drive should be ok dosed up with opiates and sitting forward in my seat, which I have found tends to stop the pain. And the last part of the jouney is an overnight ferry, so not stuck in the car. And DH can stop whever i ask to let me have a walk. The worst pain is actually when lying, not sitting.

Yes, I think being in control is the main thing.

@ehb102

Good to know they have extra long needles!!!

For anyone with a desk job I recommend one of these chairs. You will need a higher desk than usual - I have a desk riser on top of a normal desk, which I can use with the chair or raise up to use it as a standing desk. When my sciatica was at its worst it was the only comfortable place for me to sit, for limited periods, at any rate.