Sciatica relief without surgery?

[dolphin8808]

I have had sciatica before, I believe I herniated a disc many years ago that repaired on its own but took about 6 months to do so. I have recently 8/31 reinjured my back and have found to have a fairly large herniation at my L5-S1. Doc wants me to wait the 3 months to see if I will heal. Steroid pack was given in ER  during that first week and made a huge difference but I feel it is wearing off, burning stinging nerve pain in back of thigh, ankle and heal. Hurts like hell at times! Not able to walk too far without the pain. Frustrating as hell too. Docs don't think PT will help a lot because I am a fitness instructor and already in pretty good shape.

Any luck without surgery of a herniated disc recovery?  If not, it looks like a micro maybe my next bet.

[dolphin8808]

Hi Luke, sorry it was oral. Yes it def helped at first but I haven't tried the 2nd round again, those are some strong drugs and I am leary about going for round 2.

Slipsoup that is awesome! I am so happy for you, was surgery even an option for you?

Hi Kalvin, Yes I am, since I already took a booster pack when I first injured myself on 8/31 and now they want to do another... not a big fan of meds to start with but those guys can have some nasty side effects, I have put off taking them for now.

[Kalvin]

I'm sorry I don't know much about booster packs, never had much luck with Steroids. Are you concerned about the frequency?

[Slipsoup]

Hi. I had an injury very similar to yours about 13 months ago. I was cautioned by my doctor not to go to a chiropractor, as it could make my extruded disc worse. Physical therapy exacerbated my sciatica so I stopped.
I had excruciating sciatica from month 2 to month 5, when I discovered a postural exercise program called the Egoscue Method. Over the course of the ensuing 3 months, I began to improve. Within days, I was beginning to walk normally again. I continue to do the exercises daily. I also bought a portable TENS unit, which helped.
13 months later, I can say I have rare flare-ups of sciatica. Sitting is my least favorite activity at this point. When I was going through the worse pain, I never thought it would end. I'm happy to say that after letting nature take it's course, I'm almost back to normal functioning. I swim and bike with no problem, and I've just started running short distances a couple of times a week.

[LukeEdAllen]

Hi dolphin, just a question of my own to you as a fellow disc sufferer.. the steroid booster pack you talk of that helped you in the first month... was this prescribed oral steroids or injection? Thanks! Luke

[dolphin8808]

Thank you so much! Can you tell me, have you ever been on the steroid booster packs? I have been on 1, in August, my doc wants me to try another round, its the 1 week high taper off pack. I am a little freaked....

[Kalvin]

Have u given any thought to seeing a Chiropractor? I had a really bad episode with my low back a couple years ago. Horrible pain in the rear, down the thigh, leg, and ankle, I couldn’t even straighten up.

A little history, I had a fusion at L4/5 about 13yrs prior to this incident, so this experience was unfortunately familiar to me. I had had a few minor instances of back pain since surgery, but this was the 1st time any thing this severe had happen. Decided to go see friend’s Chiro, basically out of desperation. X-rays looks horrible, the disc space at L5/S1 was practically gone, and it also showed some Retrolisthesis. I was like oh great, here comes another surgery. I could tell by the way the Chiropractor talked to me about my situation that he was concerned, but he did say that he thought he could help.  Although they all say that. Anyway,  I saw him 3 times a week for 3 weeks and he got my pain down to  tolerable levels and I could straighten up after about a week of treatment.

Prior to this I was very skeptical of Chiropractors and the ones I had seen previously were no help whatso ever. This one really helped me; my x-rays still looked like hell, but apparently the adjustments were enough to get the pressure off the nerve. Might be worth looking into.

If it does become necessary for you to have surgery, the good news is that these Micro are minimally evasive, have good success rates and the recovery times can be as short as a couple of weeks compared to the 8-12 months it take to recover for a fusion.

Let us know how you are and what you decide. :-)