to be struggling so much coping with sciatica in pregnancy?

[Gentleness]

I'm scared so please be gentle! I'm only 23 wks and the pain is debilitating - we're only functioning as a family because dh is off for the bank holidays.

This is dc3 and in all other respects I have pretty healthy pregnancies and I thought I had a pretty high pain threshold so am feeling so frustrated with myself. I suspect malingering as I'm quite lazy. With ds2 I had v painful spd for about 3 weeks till I got the right help, but it didn't slow me down as much as this constant pain.

It really feels like agony, the whole length of one leg. Going to a chiropractor (3 days ago) really helped but it's got worse again over the last 24hrs. There are no comfortable positions for more than 5 mins and whenever I try walking/ standing/ cooking the aftermath is horrible, tear-inducing. So I've been lying in bed a lot but what on earth am I going to do tomorrow without dh on childcare? I just have to get up and get on but I'm not sure how.

Should I be coping better?

Impossible to answer because we all feel pain differently.

I had sciatica for 2 or 3 weeks during one of my pregnancies and it was a difficult thing to cope with.

Then I woke up one morning and it was gone....maybe the baby moved or something I don't know?

Do you have any family/friends who can help you out?

I suffer from sciatica ever since having my DS 4 years ago. I didn't actually have it in pregnancy but did have some degree of hip pain which seems to have developed into sciatica which comes and goes. I'm not sure I'll ever be completely free from it but exercise really helps, especially swimming and pilates- would either of those be an option for you? Although of course, it's more of a preventative thing- it's very hard to start doing something like that if you're already in pain. You have my sympathies.

Can you phone your GP and ask for them to ring you back as an advice call? They may be able to prescribe something for you that you can take during pregnancy.

I would try a physic as they can give you excursuses which you can do which will help. You poor thing, sciatica really hurts

PHYSIO

Thanks all, definitely going to try gp and physio tomorrow. I just hate it when they ask you to rate the pain out of 10 - it feels both fraudulent and indulgent to give a high number for something not life threatening.

I'm hoping and praying to be like worra and wake to find it gone soon. The thought of this carrying on for months is so depressing and really takes the joy out of feeling baby kick.

Waterlego, do you exercise through the pain? Everything I've read says to stop doing things that hurt but I'd give anything a go at this point!

Well no, Not usually. Mine is very intermittent so I lay off the exercise for a few days until it's gone/improved. I can exercise when it's mild but when it's at its worst, I avoid doing anything except walking.

Is your pain constant or is there some occasional let-up? if so, that would be the time to try and do some gentle exercise!

I have had sciatica in pregnancy and it hasn't gone away since DD, 18 months old now.

It bloody hurts. I am on tablets for something else now but because they are to do with nerves, my sciatica has gone.

If it hurts that much, see someone.

I remember struggling with sciatica when I was pregnant with DS. I was given excercises to do. One which really helped was getting down on all fours and arching back - sort of stretching it. You have my sympathies, but like Worra sciatica got much better after a few weeks.

I am lucky never to have had it but my mother was in agony with it.

When it comes to pregnancy I don't think there's any such thing as "should I be coping better". With my first pregnancy I was as sick as a dog. I didn't cope at all. I was utterly exhausted and was throwing up all the time. People saying, "Pregnancy's not an illness" just made me feel worse. It's true that it's not an illness but it can make you feel pretty effing ill.

Now at nearly 30 weeks into my second pregnancy I seem to be doing fine (well, nothing out of the ordinary).

Don't judge your pregnancy by previous ones or, indeed, by how other people feel during pregnancy. It can make you feel bloody awful and it's not "all in your head" just because it's pregnancy-related.

Could you try the tennis ball self-massage?

Lie on the floor with a tennis ball under your bum, and roll your hips to massage the muscles. Sciatica is made worse if the piriformis muscle is tight, as it sits on the sciatic nerve.

Walking can help, try to move around when you can.