Sciatica hell. What might help?

[tattoonewbie]

I saw the e chiropractor last week and he diagnosed trapped nerve in three places Pain is in my bum, spreads down my leg and currently my outer lower leg is throbbing and my foot is fizzing.
I cannot get comfy. Back at chiro on Thursday but it's worsening. I've got GP tomorrow and will ask for some pain relief as it's awful. I've done my exercises tonight and it feels even worse.
It's so horrible. Just relentless.
Has anyone any top tips ? Please. I'm so miserable and can't see me being able to drive tomorrow to work. I can WFH but even the thought of sitting is making me want to cry. Sorry to sound pathetic.

I will add this illustration to show how different positions affect your discs. The higher the number the more pressure on your discs which can exaccerbate issues. You can see the importance of posture when sitting, bending etc. Also helps to explain why vacuuming etc affects your discs

Good illustration. On the other hand physio states the importance of keeping moving. So vacuuming, squatting to pick up things all hurt but do help me to keep going and do reduce pain overall.

Just finished my morning exercises, trapped nerve playing up. I'm suffering.

@justasking111 That's great, if vacuuming etc works for you & makes you feel better. Although it is unusual for this to be the case with a disc issue due to the loading this creates on the spine.

Keeping active is very important and a good physio can recommend safe exercises and techniques to do so.

I have the vacuum in one hand and the walking stick in the other go very slowly and carefully. We have two black dogs, pale flooring and a tortoise shell cat. 🙈🤣

I bought a robot vacuum, love it.
Sweeping the floor actually caused my first flare up so it's one I try to avoid.

My first flare up was moving house 2016. We were downsizing so much furniture and many boxes had to be humped downstairs by me to the conservatory. It was actually after we moved that one morning I swung out of bed, was in agony and needed a wee. I got to the loo eventually, got pills from the doctors, it settled down. Apart from finding walking distances hard for I got away with another few years. 2022 another flare up which eased off but it was slowly down hill after that. Gabapentin stops the spasms but not the pain really.

It's two years since my MRI I'm so much worse now I wonder if it's worth pushing for another consultant look see.

I'd definitely go back
I'm in so much pain tonight now after a work trip. 12 hour day but with good walk breaks and standing and sitting but nipping to Aldi for literally 3 things has me feeling horrendous. My bum is actually throbbing.
The illustration was really interesting.
V helpful as the mattress cleaning and hoovering I did were in terrible angles
Roll on a scan. Still waiting for a date.
Might have to on something stronger. Calling GP tomorrow. It's making me feel sick tonight.

I'm sure making the bed, bending over doesn't help.

I struggle to slow down and rest and have been accused of being grumpy tonight. I have been lying on sofa just waiting for the meds to hit.

This is what sets me off too,, it 's the bending over and lifting the corner of the mattress to tuck the sheet under

Try not doing that today, let it stay untucked. See if it makes a difference. I've just bought a super king sheet, it's too big but behaves better doesn't ping out every night. The Argos/Sainsbury/habitat 200 thread one is working better for me.

Yes! I did tuck a sheet last weekend. Maybe that was what set it off again
So sore today again. Praying for the scan

I kneel down to tuck in the sheets so I'm not bending over

😁😁 with my bad hip as well getting up is a mammoth effort. Also the bedside tables are a pita, in the way when making up beds. Ours our heavy too.

Saw physio this morning, been three weeks. I can now do the leg exercises four times over. The leg weakness has improved so much.

Sat down with him to discuss back and core exercises. So now will augment the legs with the back to build up my core strength.

Told him I wanted to be able to walk further without back pain so slowly we're working towards this.

Re vacuuming he asked if I changed hands for this job which I actually do. He said that was good for my back. Being ambidextrous can be an advantage then 😁.

He then worked me over leg wise. Sheesh my right leg still dinnae like this, quite painful

haven't read the whole thread so sure someone has already said this but cold not hot!! Cold baths, freeze pads etc massively helped me and keep moving if you can

@justasking111 you sound like you're making good progress
Regarding the ice , I find it helps so so much

I like the cold packs too and a tens machine, during the day. At night if I have pain the little electric heating pads are great, help me relax and sleep.

I felt sick and cried with pain this weekend. I'm miserable and feel pathetic. I need to take more tablets and ring GP for more cocodamol- stronger ones as am really struggling. In dark moments I have worried there's something terribly wrong but actually then I read this thread back and remind myself that sciatica IS horrendous when it's bad.
I'm now going to Mumsnet search disc surgery for some kind of reassurance there might be a resolution IF my MRI does show it's thr disc. Which I hope it is as at least I'll then have answers.

There are some FB groups that might help, lots of people on there with the same and will completely understand and have lots of advice xx
https://www.facebook.com/groups/492828211211123/?ref=share

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1539942046319676/?ref=share

I had surgery, feel free to ask anything
mine was a huge disc herniation at L5/S1 causing cauda equina. It was tight in my back so took about 5hrs and that was 2017

are you seeing a physiotherapist? I saw one through axa health insurance, and she did acupuncture which was amazing. Pain relief and also very relaxing. She also did some very gentle massage and manipulation to relax the muscles I was tensing and made it worse. After a few sessions I was able to start doing the excercises she gave me and I started seeing an improvement. Have a look into acupuncture if you can.

@lovegoodlovegood I'm not pretending to be able to read a scan but even I see a big difference at L5/S1!
I'm just hoping for the adage of common things happen commonly and for it just to need me to get the MRI and be seen and then have route forward
@Calypsocuckoo I've seen a physio who massaged really hard saying he thought muscular - I cried onto the tissue paper that time ! Acupuncture is maybe next. Seen chiro too but that was too painful too.
Exercises they gave don't help much but I get some relief from a short yoga video for sciatica. Have run out of cpcodamol too 😬

@tattoonewbie from my experience consultants like to leave it 3/6 months with conservative treatment as most herniations heal naturally within this time frame. Steroid injections are often offered and they can help with pain to allow you to get moving again. They work for people for various time periods from days to years and don't work at all for some people. They do not fix the issue. If there is no improvement after 6 months of symptoms a microdiscectomy can be offered. It is a keyhole surgery where the "shave" off the bit of disc which has "spilled out" and is pressing on the nerve. It helps with nerve symptoms in the leg for most people but does not get rid of the back pain. It is usually a 6 week recovery period.
If an mri shows cauda equina you would have immediate surgery.

Yes it was very obvious! The surgeon said “poor girl, no wonder you were in so much pain” and I cried again
I was up and walking an hour after and back on a horse about 8 weeks post op. Best thing I ever did