To ask how you sorted sciatica

[Tworoads]

I don’t know if it’s connected but I don’t remember getting bouts of sciatica before my son was born 5 years ago by cesarean. The most stupid thing kicks it off and then I struggle to stand up from sitting or lowering down to sitting - even walking sometimes hurts like mad in my lower back radiating pain down my legs. I’m sorry to moan. Don’t mean to sound miserable but I’m not old ffs and it stops me running and everything.
Just wondering what you did to help. Don’t want to take nurofen too often.
Ice packs down in the waistband of my trousers helps.
I get maybe 3 or 4 episodes a year lasting 1-2 weeks. Also get knee pain sometimes (related?).
I don’t spend all day seated at work.
Any advice would be great.

Chiropractic worked for me.

I thought it was a load of crap until a friend who is a Chiro pushed me into making an appointment with her. Fuck me, I wish I had done it earlier! Instant relief, followed by some discomfort the next day. Follow up treatments for a few weeks and ...it has never reoccurrred! 😄

I suffered for years following an emergency c section, I tried every drug that various doctors and consultants could throw at me, I had may sessions of NHS and private physio and deep tissue massage, nothing helped in the long run it just kept coming back.
Until I discovered Pilates... I've been doing Pilates and weight/resistance training 3 times a week for 10 years and have not had a single episode in all that time.
I think because I have a strong core and a higher proportion of lean muscle than I did before it's given me a much better posture and awareness of my body.

Mckenzie technique / cobra position to push the disc back in. Ultimately surgery and also a lot of core exercises to build strength. Supermans are great for back strength.

Lots of core exercises helped me.

God thank you for all your ideas. Will try everything you mentioned. Good to know that you can stop it recurring somehow. Restarting yoga next month. Will do all the other ideas.
It’s so easy to trigger it.

What kind of core exercises helped? Do you find swimming helps?

Having a lower footstool when sat on sofa watching telly helped mine enormously.

Google piriformis syndrome and stretches for it; they will help.

Physiotherapy

Acupuncture really helped me when I had sciatica when I was pregnant one session cleared it

It's probably pregnancy that triggered it rather than the csection. I go to an osteopath and for deep tissue massage every few months for it and other issues, exercise really helps it too.

An osteopath helped my hubby. He suffered terribly but after three sessions he was back to run around!

Osteopath. I had 2 c sections and suffered for years. I also walk around 5 miles a day and that's massively helped. Keep mobile - don't stop moving even when it's bad. It's the worst thing you can do, and try to avoid heavy duty painkillers as they don't help. I'll use Ibuprofen or Naproxen for the 1st 48 hours of a bout then stop.

Ive only had it once touch wood. It was awful. Did the exercises (on the NHS website I think). It cleared up completely after about 6 weeks.

Went to a physio who also does rolfing. I had injured my little toe and the pain was caused by that. It was actually radiating up my leg to my back not the other way around as I thought.

I know someone who has a degree in sports rehabilitation (worked with a well known rugby team). I asked him if he could help me. He did some tests to ascertain whether it was nerve or muscle pain, then he massaged (brutal not gentle) my back and it help enormously. He was getting knots out of my back particularly the piriformis and surrounding area. He has also help with symptoms suggestive of carpal tunnel but turned out to be a problem my forearm and up to my neck. It's brutal but effective. When getting the knots out you can actually feel the muscle relaxing. They often work with physio's.

I had terrible sciatica & was referred to physio. She told me having a strong core is key. So I started doing free yoga online (yoga with adriene). It’s changed my life! That was 4 years ago & if I ever get twinges now, I do gentle yoga & it disappears. Well worth a try

Thank you so much. I’m going to give this a go. It’s good to know that you might not necessarily be stuck with it for life.

It does reccur but you can manage it. Worth getting gp to arrange scan, you can have injections but probably only if very frequent.

This excersise has been really good for me, especially if you can do it before it gets too bad.

There is true sciatica, and there is also piriformis syndrome.
If you don't know which one you have, see an osteopath who'll be able to advise and then you can be treated accordingly. The treatments for the above are very different.

I was suffering from this for about 4 years, spent a fortune on different treatments, some helped but none addressed the root cause - poor posture and weak core, once those were addressed, i made a full recovery
A NHS physio identified these, i never saw one earlier as i didn't want "bad back" on my medical records.

Oestopath! I was nearly crippled and bent double with the pain. It really helps, plus codeine and some Valium for attacks

Doctor Jo on YouTube has lots of gentle exercises for sciatica, piriformis, psoas problems.
She's great.

Also was going to suggest chiropractic.

Number three, my pelvis went to mush, and Chiro made a huge difference.