Excruciating sciatica - please help!

[KR2013]

I've had sciatica since Tuesday morning, and I'm absolutely going out of my mind with the pain. Think I've been pretty lucky with the GPs taking it seriously (although turning up in my PJs and deep breathing like I was in labour throughout the appointment probably helped 😬) and I've been prescribed pregablin and diazepam, plus oral steroids as I have Rheumatoid Arthritis so he thought trying a stronger treatment to reduce inflammation was reasonable. I tried a diclofenac suppository and codeine with diazepam initially but got no relief, and GP removed the first two as he didn't think they'd do much for sciatica. I've also tried a tens machine but didn't feel like it helped when the pain was really severe.

Yesterday was a better day and I was relatively spasm free, although literally lay on a heat pad all day and only got up to go to the toilet.

I've had another huge burst of pain this evening (I think because I tried to move around more today rather than just lie on the floor/bed) and I honestly don't know how much more I can take - the pain is just horrendous, and I literally can't move when it hits 😩 I've come close to ringing for an ambulance twice as I don't know what else to do when I'm locked in one place and grunting in agony.

We're looking into whether I can get an MRI through my husband's health insurance, and the GP said if not, rheumatology should arrange it due to higher potential for disc issues (although he suspects the wait will still be pretty long, but it's quicker than the usual NHS avenues), but any wait feels unbearable currently.

The doctor said physio is an absolute no go currently as I'm in far too much pain for them to do anything.

Not sure what I'm hoping to achieve with this message, apart from maybe hearing others' experiences and any tips...and maybe just some sympathy whilst I'm feeling truly shit and sorry for myself 😭

I didn't use them when I had sciatica but I've heard good things about TENS machines. Sleeping on my side with a pillow between my knees helped me alot.

I had really bad sciatica it is very difficult. I found the drugs don't do much and the only thing is to lie in the most comfortable position using heat pad or ice. Sometimes I would get some relief by kind of hanging my legs over the side of the bed. I know the advice for back pain is to keep moving, but I think you need to wait till the acute pain is more under control then take things very slowly at first. Watch out for any signs of Cauda Equina Syndrome.

I used to get bad sciatica in my 20s and had to carry my TENS machine everywhere I went. It won't work straight away, you have to find where the pads feel most comfortable and then work out which rhythm and intensity helps.

I have to say, lying down all the time will not help. As soon as you feel a little less pain and can move even just a little bit, get walking. I used to start by crawling, then walking like I'd shit myself before I could eventually stand up straight. Movement will help release your nerve if it is trapped. I really feel for you, sciatica is awful.

Sciatic stretches help, loads of vids on youtube. I feel for you, 11 years and still suffering with bouts of it, last months sometimes

I slipped a disc two years ago and was in the same position as you. I was in constant agony and couldn't get out of bed apart from to crawl to the toilet for three weeks. I was given diazepam for a very few days, plus amitryptilene, the maximum dose of codeine 60mg four times a day) and the maximum dose of paracetamol. The wait was very long for an MRI scan so I paid to have one done privately with Vista Health. It cost about £300 and they have a lot of centres around the country. All doctors I've seen offer me pregabalin or gabapentin but nothing would make me consider either of them because of the side effects I saw in my mum and because of how carefully and slowly you have to reduce the dosage when you start to improve and i many cases it seems that ykh are expected to take them for life. I have also read recently that studies have linked the use of both of these drugs with the onset of dementia, and my mum went from being a fully alert 87 year old to severe dementia in three years.

The thing that gave me the greatest relief and enabled me to start walking more than to and from the car was using a tens machine and I really couldn't have got through the last two years without it. I have also found that acupuncture has made a huge difference to my pain. You really have my sympathy - it's a horrible horrible pain

Go to A&E at a major hospital and you will get a same day MRI
Do you have any loss of feeling in legs or urinary control? They are both indicators to go to A&E. Call 11 first and they will advice

If you are in London then Chelsea and Westminster were great when I went last year.

I'm sorry. Sciatica is bloody terrible. My physio tells me 80% of people are better by 16 weeks. It will get better, but it can be a slow process.

My BIL was waiting for an MRI for months for sciatica, in the end he was in so much pain he went to A&E, told them he had lost control of his bladder and bowel and had an MRI immediately
He had a bulging disk, needed a microdiscetomy and was operated on.

Thanks so much for all the messages so far - there's comfort in knowing you're not alone if nothing else. Currently stuck on the floor and in so much pain, but also can't get up 😩

I know it sounds bazaar but when my sciatica is playing up and I'm in excruciating pain I sit in the car with heated seat on. It helps. The rest of the time I lie in bed on a heated blanket or sit in my chair on a heated cushion. Heat helps relax the muscle so eases the trapped nerves. I used deep heat gel rubbed in too and the combined 500 paracetamol and 200 Ibuprofen.

I had spells of sciatica for years and years. Nothing seemed to touch the pain when it was bad. I'd have to crawl to the bathroom. It's horrible. I did everything you are meant to do to help but I'd still get a bout of it a couple of times a year.
I had an MRI and it showed damaged lower discs in my spine. However over the last ten years it's improved massively. im careful and never dead lift heavy weights but i play a lot of sports am and generally active. i dont know why i dont get it anymore. i get bit of an ache in my back but no spasms at all and no sciatica.
I hope yours improves quickly.

Joining this thread as I have recent (four weeks) 24/7 intermittently excruciating back pain with some sciatic involvement. I'm in Australia so got an MRI within the week, though think the suggestions about going to A&E are well worth pursuing for the OP. I would in her position. Mine was a rheumatologist's referral as PP has noted, so like the UK might have more clout. At least it was free.

The MRI was fab - all that heat on your lower back!!! I'm getting a heated blanket next week. The painkillers don't touch it - Paracetamol Forte - handed over as it were heroin. Going back to my GP on Monday for more better drugs. I hope.

I second what PPs have said about moving around as and when. The moment it's not shit, I get on with walking the pooch, doing the gardening, etc. I live on my own so needs must, though I've had to abandon volunteer work and long drives too nice things, e.g. Open Gardens.

All the best @KR2013 . I feel for you, though your position is objectively far worse than mine. My fab rheumatologist said pain is not a competition and I wasn't whinging and his job was to sort out mine.

Thank you for posting. I feel a bit less on my own.

I would be very interested to know how your brother in law found the microdiscectomy? I had a nerve root block injection last year which didn't work and am waiting to see the neurologist again with a view to having this done.

Oh I really feel for you. The amount of time I wished I was just a torso when I had a bad bout. Just to echo what others said - for me the only time I was pain free was either lying down or walking. Sitting and standing still were the worst.
When you can, add in exercises and stretches. Do not watch any back videos on you tube! I got a bit addicted.

I herniated a disc last year. It still plays up and I get awful sciatica.
Naproxen morning and evening works best for me, with cocodamol every 6 hours. I've been put on an unrelated medication so I've swapped from cocodamol to amitriptyline, but I haven't needed to try it yet.

I was advised to rest for 48 hours max and then push through and walk around the house and do physio through the pain because stretching your back out relieves the pressure on the sciatic nerve. It gets worse before it gets better.

I found icepacks help most for the first 48-72 hours, and then I switch to curaheat stick on heat patches. The ones that stick to clothes are the most effective. The ones that stick to skin make you sweat and then it falls off. I also have a tens machine which sometimes helps.

I hope you feel better soon

I suffer from sciatica as well.

What helps me is heat, heat and more heat!
Also, if you have a partner: gently massaging and applying some pressure on your gluteus will help soften the muscles. (This should only be done within your comfort zone and after applying heat.)
When you can move again, I highly recommend regular exercise to build up your core muscles... or just go swimming and enjoy the sauna afterwards!

I had a herniated disc a couple of years ago and the sciatic pain was unbearable. I used hot water bottles constantly, the heat did help. Tens machine didn't do a lot for me. I tried every drug available including diazapam and morphine. Morphine helped but I was on a very high dosage which I then suffered side effects from when I had to come off them. Google nerve flossing when you get a small reprieve from the worst pain that floors you. I ended up having a microdiscectomy after trying a steroid injection. The injection made it slightly less painful but then the disc herniated more so the surgeon said there was no option but to operate. Best thing I ever did.

I had a slipped disc leading to sciatica about six years ago - I ended up in hospital because I couldn't weight bear at all on one leg. The solution for me was the right painkillers to get me moving (but not moving pain free at all) - for me, that was Gabepentin - and then loads of physio, Pilates and swimming. Including pushing through a certain amount of pain to do the physio, so in your shoes I'd push for a physio appointment sooner rather than later. I had to treat my health like my job for a couple of months to do enough physio and exercises, which of course made me exhausted anyway (I was fortunate that I was on a career break to study anyway, though I did fail to finish the thing I was supposed to do in the career break!)

I found also hot water bottles and those sticky heat patches you can get were very useful once I'd stated recovering mobility (though I now have some slightly damaged skin from overuse of heat so maybe don't go for that quite as enthusiastically as I did!)

The good news is that I haven't taken painkillers in about four years. I do still have to exercise in certain ways (and I can't go running for any real distance); I do still get twinges, particularly if I've been lazy with the exercising, but I'm basically better. And I've managed to keep better through having two children (though finding out I was expecting child number 1 on the day they closed the gyms and swimming pools was a bit of a terrifying blow - I ended up swimming in a local lake by April!)

Will read through these all properly later, but thank you so much for all your replies. I ended up being taken to A&E by ambulance last night after ringing 111 as I literally couldn't get up from the floor (tried intermittently for 3 hours before admitting defeat.) The paramedics only got me up after several doses of IV morphine and a LOT of gas and air, but we managed it eventually. I've since spent the night in a cold corridor waiting to get into A&E itself, and still haven't seen a doctor. Absolute nightmare 😩

Oh no, poor you! Let’s hope you get the help you need now.

Oh blimey I hope you get seen soon. I’ve been admitted via a&e in a similar state before and spent a week in hospital and had an mri while I was there. So maybe you’ll get a quicker MRI and better drugs. Oramorph helped me and diazapam and naproxen.

i was really bad this time last year and had a week where I could not get myself to the toilet. Dh had to walk me down the landing to the loo and pull my knickers down, lower me on to the loo, etc. was awful and took six months before I felt back to normal. I saw an osteopath after the awful acute phase.

sadly I feel like it’s building up again to another bad flare. I can feel when my SI joint feels out of place and I know what’s coming. I really need to get back to the osteopath. A sports therapist friend of mine reckons stress makes it worse. Which I’ve laughed off previously but am beginning to wonder if she’s right as this time of year is stressful work wise. She reckons if you’re prone to back issues and are stressed all your muscles are tight and more likely to have an acute flare up.

Utter shite. Poor you @KR2013 My fingers and eyes are crossed for you.

Very frustrating morning - I was pretty much ignored by the nurses and doctors once they brought me through ,who were clearly very keen to get rid of me. Doctor agreed I needed to up my pregablin and diazepam, but wouldn't do this for me (said my GP would in Monday), and when I said I'd run out of diazepam, said I'd have to speak to my GP on Monday morning 🤦🏻‍♀️ So I've come home with less medication than I started with.

The paramedics were so, so lovely, and they were absolutely insistent there was no way they could leave me at home last night as I couldn't even get myself to the toilet once they'd got me up off the floor (and I'd had a very hefty dose of IV morphine by that point), but it felt like once I arrived at the hospital, I was just a nuisance. After waiting 5 hours in the freezing cold corridor, they told me I'd only be seen if I sat in a waiting room (I explained I couldn't sit without going into spasm) and a nurse even shouted at me for not lifting my leg up on the wheelchair like I was a badly behaved teenager (I literally couldn't lift it higher.) I'm back home now, and feeling really down 😔

I’m so sorry. No way should a nurse be shouting at you. Is it starting to ease off at all yet? Do you live by yourself?

I've got my husband here luckily, but am finding he can't really help me physically as I want to be able to control every movement as only I know what hurts (not sure if that makes any sense?!) But he can at least make sure the kids are sorted etc, so that's a huge relief. It feels a little easier currently (not too sore at rest) so just being very careful not to bend at all as that seems to be what sends me off into a spasm, and once that starts, it's really hard to stop 😩 Sorry to moan so much - I'm honestly not normally a negative person, just really fed up (and tired and in pain, which I'm sure isn't helping mood!)