Modern Vespa

Never knew it was so painful. Sciatica

I feel your pain. I am currently recovering from a bout of sciatica, brought on while recovering from an unrelated surgery.

I spent one 30-hour period standing up, awake and in pain before getting a big shot of muscle relaxant that at least gave me some relief.

OMG....2 yrs ago.
Came on while I was sitting in a chair changing 2 door locks

Could walk some. Could NOT stand stationary.
Could ride scooter, against med advice, for coffee to Y.S. but had to park close.
Primary Dr. X-rays.
Twice a week to the physical therapy shop. There > Acupuncture, message, STRETCHING, stationary bike....and it slowly went away. Maybe 6wks.

The careful program of stretching and exercising did the job. Not convinced the needles did anything.
ALL of it covered 100% by the med ins I took at retirement.

I sat many nights to sleep in an easy chair.

Highly recommend put yourself in hands of a good physical therapist! This stuff isn't rocket science to them.
Best wishes....hang in there! It will get better.
Tom

Agreed. Physical therapy is key to recovering.

As a long term sufferer of sciatica, I have had best results, in terms of diminished symptoms and a return to what passes for normal for me with chiropractic and back extensions on a roman chair, I can usually get it under control in less than a week. Sometimes a few days. The Roman Chair back extensions are the main tool in the arsenal. If you haven't done them with sciatica, or even to prevent reoccurring sciatica, try them. This is a Roman Chair, and what you do is lay face down on it, with the top pad set so it is just under where you break at the torso. If you are a male, get one that has a split between the two top pads. You'll find out why if you ever use one that's got one solid pad.
You just bend forward towards the floor, and straighten up then bend back as far as you can, while the tops of your thighs stay on the pads. Even during a bad flareup of sciatica, you can do this, and as you do it, you will likely feel the sciatica diminish. I do two sets of 15. I now do it mostly when I start to feel the onset of sciatica, and it does seem to stop the process.
You can find Roman Chairs for less than $100. If you want to try before you buy, every gym has one of these, and you will feel a difference after the first time you try it.
As time goes on, you can hold a barbell plate to add resistance. And if you don't like doing the exercises, you have another piece of exercise equipment to hang clothes on.

My left leg basically withered from the impingement and it was super painful. Good luck. I had a lot of success with chiro, core exercises and basic weighlifting and hanging off a pullup bar. It took a long time. Part of it for me was just getting discouraged. Hang in there!

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. The stretching exercises do provide some relief and, after much searching the web, am about to start a course including acupuncture.

I hope this works out for you. I have tried all the above and more. I had my first back surgery in 2010, the second in 2014. Stayed busy working with lots of PT but 2 years ago the sciatica came back. 6 months ago, it got way worst and I could not put off going to a doctor anymore. PT, shots, nothing was working. MRI confirmed the problems that aren't going to go away. I'm having spinal fusion surgery next week. Meanwhile, I would also recommend finding a good PT and put the work in. Get on a good diet and loose any extra pounds to take the stress off the lower back, discs, joints, etc...

First time I got sciatica I wound up at a chiropracter for multiple sessions on a traction table. It took a couple weeks of 3 sessions a week to cure it.
The second time I got it I got a cheap ( about $100), folding, inversion table and it took about the same amount of time to fix it.
That was about 5 years ago and now anytime I get a twinge in my back the inversion table comes out of the closet and I do a couple of days of 15 minute sessions and go on about my life.

Looks like the roman chair is probably the same principle but face down instead of face up.

The roman chair is about building your core muscles which in turn, supports your upper body. When you are in pain, your muscles tense up. The inversion table stretches you out. If either one of these help, go for it.

My father told me about 2 years before he passed away...

"Getting old sucks"

But it beats the alternative..... I'm only 68. Every day that I get to see my grand daughter is a privilege - one of the many things that keep me going.

I fixed my back with an inversion table. 3 minutes B4 riding. 3 minuets after.
5 years later, I'm using it to help hip pain from walking 4 miles a day. 2 weeks with some gluteus exercises and 90% of the pain is gone.

Sciatica,

Some of you good folks have been hit pretty hard with this.

Mine started in the back of the left leg from the pelvis down to the foot
For years it bothered me. I could hardly stand up while shopping with my blushing bride. I would have to find a place to sit down and recover.

There was a chiropractor in out office building. I was embarrassed after suffering for years - he was able to fix it in a few visits. He was a miracle man for me. I'm sure everyone varies in the fix. He had me lay on my back and draw my left knee (arms around the leg) up to my face and hold for a 30 count. I would regularly do this in the morning - the pain is gone and stayed gone.

In my case, a nerve was being pinched coming out of my pelvis in my back left butt cheek. The exercise freed it up. Again a miracle for me.

Bob Copeland

I was advised that this might be a possibility too. So I looked into this:
https://premiaspine.com/topstm-system/what-is-tops/
It's been around a long time, has FDA approval and there are doctors doing it in the US, and it appears to do better than fusion. One of the downsides for people like us with regular fusion is that the vibration of a motorcycle can back the screws out. And that's apparently pretty painful. Also, you are virtually guaranteed to have problems in the disk just above the one that was fused, because it's now doing the job of the bad one and itself.
If you can, check into tops.

Thank you for this. It looks like a better alternative to fusion as well as the artificial disc that was the rage for a while and for the most part you had to undergo that operation from the front. Then a very long recovery. You are right about when the bottom one is fused, or in my case - the bottom 2, it just moves the stress farther up to the next disc. The surgeon already told me it will be a minimum of 3 months before I ride again and no more kickstarting, (even something as easy as a P200) and nothing off road at all.

Many of these fixes come from stretching and core building - a great idea all around. I have a niece that is a doctor of Physical Therapy. She told me if most of her patients stretched everyday and lost 50 pounds, she would be out of business. Also, I have heard of many telling me they had X-rays that showed a herniated disc which was fixed thru a non-surgical solution. I have to call BS on that one. Most of the time, it is a bulging disc, not herniated, and many times PT can work wonders with this type of injury and surgery can be avoided. But an X-ray is not sufficient at all to check the health of a disc. It can show that the vertebrae are out of line or tilted, but only an MRI will tell the true story.

Truth. At best, X-rays show only vague soft tissue shadows, not detailed enough for discs. At best
one can infer degenerative changes based on proximity of adjacent vertebrae.

Absolutely Bob!
Stretch. Stretch.Stretch!
It can help, and it can prevent a recurrence.
O.S.

Just be sure you're doing it right or you'll be fodder for lecturers on the subject. It's standard seminar fare to tell stories of people trying to stretch their way out of sciatic and just riling it up. Flexion is particularly risky, put depends a lot on the exact problem. All disc lesions aren't the same.

Bottom line with stretches/positioning: If it feels good, go for it. If it doesn't feel worse, probably okay. If it feels worse, just stop already.

As an aside, when I first started practice, people with sciatica, even back pain were sent to bed, even static traction for a week or longer if they went to a "real doctor." And we were quacks.🙄

The more people sit, the greater the chance of sciatica. I have quite a few videos on the subject, did I post these before?

This chair has helped me through two bouts of sciatica. I thought I was done with it after the first bout, and was going to get rid of it. Glad I procrastinated.



In addition to keeping a fairly open sitting posture, it helps flex and strengthen my abdomen and lower back muscles as I rock back and forth at my desk.

The Balans chair is awesome. I had one for years.
Those seeing it for the first time, note how the legs are bowed at the bottom, allowing it to rock like Jess says. It allows you to vary your position infinitely.

Cheap imitations have flat legs, so no rocking. If the chair has wheels, as some imitations have, it cannot rock either.

Had my first therapy session, medic suggested I hang fire on exercising which were tightening up my muscles. Very pleased, a relatively pain free day without medication.
Taking your recommendation Jess and ordered a Balans chair.

Mine wasn't actually a Balans, but I'm sure that one will be great too.

I got this one, because it was somewhat more adjustable. The padding is a bit thin, though.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW1BMLHX/

Looking closer, I can see it's not a Balans brand, but it does copy the rounded bottom. I believe when they first came out, the bottom and subsequent rocking action was patented. So copies had flat bottoms. I guess the patent ran out. I got my first one in 1981 or so, very well made. I loaned it out and never got it back

It didn't have a ton of padding either.