re: Esteemed doctors of the OT

My dad got his nerves burned out. It's only supposed to work for 6-18 months but it's been several years and no more sciatica.

Any update?

Good friend of mine swears using an inversion table is the only thing that has given him any relief.

Something like this

Inversion table

Hydration and yoga took care of me

YT- Yoga for Sciatica

My sciatica turned out to be a synovial cyst between L4 and L5. Went from walking to a wheelchair in 2 weeks. Had a laminectomy, fusion and cyst removal. Good as new. Not a fun surgery. Go to a Dr.

Smoke weed

Inversion table helps me.

Just start with going to the local doc in a box and getting a steroid dose pack. If you’re fortunate enough that it calms it down and you have a reprieve from the pain for a while, you NEED to understand that it’s only a reprieve. It has bought you time to do 2 things to make sure it doesn’t come back: lose weight and strengthen your core. I know the term BMI is a bad word around here but put the fork down and get your BMI into the normal range. Losing bad weight and keeping it off along with strengthening your abs and lower back will make sure it’s the last time you have this issue.

quote:

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I come to you begging for sciatica pain relief.

I'm dying over here

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I had it bad one year ago today (bad back since college). I was in Napa and it hit. I could barely walk. Could barely lift myself up off the floor.

Went to an ortho/spine doctor who went the shot route. Slight relief but still problems. My PCP recommended PT. I always thought PT was a joke. Sucked it up and went 3x/wk for an hour a day and received various workouts/stretches for off days.

Best decision I've ever made. Stayed on schedule and the pain subsided. It's now one year later and I'm playing golf and running with no pain (knock on wood). Schedule PT and take it serious.

When mine kicks in, it’s usually because I’ve been pretty lazy. Early mobilization helps it go away a bit faster, but prevention is usually better than abortive therapy for me.

When I do simple, beginner yoga about 3 days a week as a cool down from workouts (cycling and rowing are my main ones. Finish with 10-30 minutes of yoga), I feel like a different human. I’ve got a good friend who’s a PT. When I first got into it, I told him if everyone did it regularly I wasn’t certain either of us could remain in business.

I had a back injury around age 16. Offered surgery (had a nerve impingement with concomitant weakness that never really responded well to PT. It’s not particularly limiting other than doing squats and running will usually flare it up (running can be tolerable if I start really slow, but when I build to about 12 miles a week, I usually can’t get over the hump. It wakes me up at night, and there’s just so many other good ways to get sweaty (which annoys me because I enjoy running)). I’ve never had surgery or invasive interventions. It was over half my life ago now.


Should be obvious, but stretching isn’t going to fix every case. There are a lot of reasons you should seek medical help from someone competent in MSK exams and treatments (some primary care (hit/miss), sports medicine, ortho, neurosurgery). But one of the first treatments with the best results is a core strengthening routine with a big focus on flexibility.