Posted on 08/29/2015 7:18:38 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
Some medical advice from Freepers is sorely needed.
About two weeks ago I twisted my lower back and the result sciatica. I have been taking 3 200mg of Advil and 2 300 mg Tylenol every six hours plus alternating between an ice pack (wrapped in a towel) and a hot water bottle. I have also been doing some exercises several times a day as recommended by my physical therapist. So here it is Saturday evening and I am in a lot of pain. What is so discouraging was today at about 2 pm for a couple of hours, I was pain free. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
If your spine is not screwed up, just getting yourself standing straight and doing the exercises could do the trick.
GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR!!!
PILLS WON’T FIX IT!!!
IF YOU NEED HELP FINDING A GOOD ONE FREEPMAIL ME.
I specialize in back pain. We have no doctor patient relationship, but here is my advice that you should do today...and then follow up on tomorrow.
Ordinarily, seeing a doctor is helpful, but not in the case of back pain where most doctors are clueless, plus since you’re seeing a PT, and getting meds, it means you’ve seen a doctor. Doctor’s treating back pain are great in getting you to “feel” better, but not getting you better.
I doubt that you have true sciatica....so here’s something to think about...
By far, most back pain is mechanical in origin, not muscular, not inflammatory. The fact that whomever is treating you with pills is clear, that they have you miss diagnosed.
Assuming they’ve ruled out the red flags of your pain, eg fracture, cancer, metabolic, neuromuscular etc, then it’s a good bet that you are suffering from a “derangement” of your disk.
I WOULD STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU GO TO THE MCKENZIE INSTITUTE OF NORTH AMERICA WEB SITE, AND FIND A DIPLOMAED THERAPIST IN YOUR AREA, THEN TRANSFER YOUR THERAPY THERE.
In the meantime, today, try lying prone, (ie face down on your belly), on the floor for several minutes, and see if that immediately alleviates your leg pain. If it does, then rise up on your elbows, as if you’re watching tv...
If after a few minutes your pain in your leg subsides, and moves into the middle of your back then you’re half way there, and it shows that your problem is in the disk.
The next step would be to do a press up, extending your arms and rising up from the waist up. Some people call this a girl’s push up. Do about five of these, then resume a prone position and see how you feel.
If your pain does not go away or gets worse, then stop these positions, and see the McKenzie therapist in your area. You can go to the private messaging on this forum, and I can tell you more.
Google DMSO & sciatica
If the regular exercises and mild medication are not doing the trick, consider seeing a pain specialist and getting a nerve ablation.
“Please see a medical doctor as soon as possible...”
Very good advice. Shortly after I graduated from nursing school, I had an emergency call out to assist in a gastroscopy on a patient in the ICU who had an active GI bleed. It was a 50 y.o. female who had recently received her first dose of chemo for metastatic bone cancer. She was having severe coagulopathy issues, meaning that she was having clotting and bleeding issues simultaneously and it was a balancing act to keep her from having life-threatening clots AND life-threatening bleeding. She was getting blood and other plasma components as fast as they could be infused. The first gastroenterologist came and we performed the gastroscopy...there was so much gastric bleeding that we could not see at all to perform interventions to stop the bleeding. He said he could do no more. The family begged the attending physician to call another GI MD and he did. The second GI doc started the gastroscopy and the patient started bleeding so profusely that it was like a volcano of blood and blood clots spewing from her mouth....the doc stopped and told the attending and the oncologist there was nothing that he could do. The family stood there in total shock while their mother bled to death.
And the reason that I relate this story: the lady had been having pains that were similar to disc and sciatic nerve problems. She finally went to her primary care MD two or three weeks prior to her death. He prescribed a pain-killer which had no noticible effect...she went back to him and he ordered a CT scan. She was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer and was told she had two months to live.
I will never forget this lesson and I always advise to never ignore any symptom.
i had long term serious pain which turned out to be from some mild arthritis setting in where the nerve leaves the spine. Pain pills had to be pretty heavy and it sucked to be on them so i was eventually sent to a pain doctor who did steroid injections at the site. The first two lasted 6 and 12 weeks respectively and the last one was over 2 years ago. Sometimes get some twinges but regular exercise and stretching keeps it all under control.
Hope it's just a transitional thing from twisting, but if it is due to another condition that just popped to the top from the issue, there is a good likelihood of successful treatment for long-term relief.
Hang in there and do your dang exercises with some extra stretching as necessary...
Give a chiropractor a shot. They should be able to fix it in three visits. Just, don!t get addicted to them, they will try to keep you coming every two weeks for life. Naproxen is the the best NSAID around. Tylenol is useless, except to reduce a fever. Welcome to Modern Maturity.
I started using the B-12 a year after I started working night shift. It was a 12 hour shift 7 days a week and I had a real problem staying awake and also sleeping in the day time. Coffee was not useful. You drink that a lot and it becomes normal and doesn’t wake you up anymore. It’s only good for half an hour or so, anyway. I tried an energy drink but that just made my stomach hurt. I tried something called 5 Hour Energy and that kept me going all night but it was expensive and I am cheap so I didn’t get it again until I was really tired going in. It worked again. The third time I reached for one in the convenience store I read the label. B-12, 500mcg. Aha! I had seen that in Wal Mart. I went to WM after work and found a bottle of 236 500 mcg “microdots” for less than one 5-Hour. By the third use my sleep/wake schedule was straightened out. I slept well in the day time and stayed awake at night. I look everything like that up and did see the sciatica link. A year later my daughter told me she had sciatica and her doctor wanted her to do the shots. I had seen the 5000 mcg bottles at WM and told her to go get some. She is fine with that and never did go in for the shots.
Please see a doctor. Or good chiropractor first.
I’ve had 3 back surgeries for sciatica and have been free from pain since 1992 - I’m 70.
First and most severe case was successfully dealt with by a good chiro whose treatment had me well in 30 days. Pain was so severe I couldn’t walk one step as 10,000 volts would shoot up my leg to spine. He did something I’ve never found any chiro to duplicate, but said he used my tendons & muscles along my spine to push a bulging disc back into place. Like the Chinese finger tube that gets tighter the harder you pull it. All I know is it worked. Right leg.
Years later I ruptured a disc pinching the nerve in my left leg. No chiro could fix it, and none knew of the method used by the first one. Osteopaths couldn’t fix it. Steroid injections couldn’t fix it.
Swore no doc would ever touch me with a knife as I had tennis friend who had 3 back surgeries in a year and was left a cripple in a wheelchair. But I learned from him - never let an orthopedic surgeon cut you when dealing with nerves. Find the best neurosurgeon experienced with sciatica. BTW, I accused my friend of not telling me that sciatica was contagious as I had gotten mine from so much time visiting him in the hospital. ;-)
Eventually I had to have surgery - couldn’t sleep - and you can only go without sleep for so long. I found the best neurosurgeon for sciatica in the area, and was walking without pain a few hours after surgery.
The pain came back 4 years later, again, I tried everything but surgery - with each successive surgery, the liklihood of success drops by 50% they say. Nothing worked. Even an arthroscopic surgery.
Finally I had the first doc do it - again, instant relief - that has lasted 23 years. This time is was scar tissue from the first surgery on one side of the nerve, calcified bone growth on the other side.
A pinched sciatic nerve can have dozens of causes - some purely muscular. Those can be healed with things like stretching that have been mentions.
But when you have a ruptured disc, nothing will fix it but surgery - or a divine healing. I was facing being crippled for life from atrophied muscles if I didn’t have surgery, even if I could have endured the pain.
This is too complex an issue to try to fix yourself. See a chiro first - if that doesn’t work, get thyself to a good back doc and only let a neurosurgeon do the work.
HTH - hope this helps....
My wife came down with debilitating pain 4 weeks ago shooting from her left hip down her leg. Saw a chiropractor and 3 doctors who couldn't find a cause even after an MRI. She was prescribed opiates, muscle relaxants, steroids, and even an anti-seizure medicine. She saw a nerve specialists who saw that her left leg muscles were weaker than her right leg. She was a type 2 diabetic and he attributed this to diabetic neuropathy. She was favoring 1 leg over the other and the imbalance put a strain on her hip. PT is now being directed to this issue. He took her off all meds accept 1 for anti-inflammation. It took 5 consultations to get this point.
you need to be on 800mg+ of magnesium glycinate everyday. ask any necessary questions.
this is why you have sciatica and back issues in the first place. mag is one of 2 relaxing minerals and it is VERY easy to be deficient in it.
I agree, but what the heck kind of doctor? Primary is not educated enough to handle pinched nerves. And when the Ortho tells you you are UN FIXABLE what do you do and gives you no reason? L5/S1 is collapsed, you can add in Peripheral Neuropathy. Pain is in the colon too.
I’ve had ALL the conservative treatments. All FAILED.
My Primary is out on medical leave and may not be back. Took me 3 months to find him. Doctors in the Memphis area are scaling back on Medicare patients and if you are Tricare Life they don’t want you at all. So much for taking care of our Ret. Military. Took an instant dislike to his Sub. When you live rural you don’t have the amenities a big city has. Water walk....duh our only ‘pool’ is for 1-5 year old’s wading pool. Nearest adult indoor pool is a 60 mile round trip over bad roads.
This crap nearly had me in the ER with 1 pill. Lyrica
http://www.rxlist.com/lyrica-side-effects-drug-center.htm, Gabapentin which is Neurontin did the same thing.
I’m sleeping what little sleep I get in the recliner on a heating pad.
Advil is also a stomach destroyer. Any of the OTC except Tylenol are. And PPI’s have been linked to Gastroparesis...Slow MOTILITY. Which GI docs refuse to recognize.
PPI’s destroy your bones.
Like me, when you can’t take it any more, you will go under the knife. Laminectomy / discectomy. I tried injections for seven years to no avail. The surgery cured me except for some chronic low level pain. If you are having numbness in your feet, you better get it looked into. You’ll lose mobility.
I had a year of trouble because I tried to carry things as soon as I felt better. A work bag on a shoulder, a grocery bag under an arm. Each time my recovery had to start again. If you can go a couple weeks without lifting, it will make a big difference in your recovery. If you have to lift, hold whatever it is to your chest and supported by both arms to balance the weight. You might look odd coming and going from work, but it will help.
Light use of ibuprofen for inflamation. Heat is okay but won’t necessarily get to the source of your pain.
Don’t listen to anyone that suggests a stretch or excercise that involves bending your back backwards. I pinched the nerve worse on the advice of a friend and couldn’t stand afterwards.
Arch and sag is good exercise on your hands and knees to get mobility back later on when you’re feeling better. Hamstring and calf stretches are good as well. Hamstrings coincide with the nerve that causes sciatica, so flexibility there is a big help.
Good luck and don’t rush off to get more prescriptions. I had a serious of very serious side effects after my doctors put me on a series of heavy anti inflammatory and muscle relaxers. Be careful and understand that recovery could take months.
Lay on your back with feet pulled up and tilt your hops up for 5-10 seconds.
Stretching and heat works, but improvement will take about three months.
I know it hurts like hell, and going from laying down to sitting or standing is extremely painful, as is going the other way.
Laying on your back with legs on a chair while doing crunches helps. When sleeping putting a pillow or two under your knees also helps with the pain.
Like I said earlier, you are m looking at 2-3 months before there is significant improvement and maybe six months before being totally back to normal.
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If I've worked or played too hard and overdone it and know I'm going to pay for it the next day, I take a few grams before bed and I feel good when I wake up in the morning.
Whenever and wherever possible, I like to stake the deck in my favor and like to take a shotgun approach to body aches and pains.
Tumeric/curcumin has been used in cooking for centuries and it is also known to have many healthful benefits, including fighting inflammation.
From what I've read it works best when combined with black pepper, so I looked for Made in the USA supplements with the highest ratings on websites like Amazon for one to add to the liposomal C I take.
Some damaged or broken parts will take their own sweet time to heal, just how it is, but the results I've experienced over time have been liberating. No more Advil. No prescription meds at all. I don't feel any reasons for the back and neck surgeries I've been avoiding all these years.
Big results from just a few changes: the above supplements, a more antioxidant rich, healthful diet and saying Grace and giving thanks before meals and I feel pretty good again.
Your mileage may vary, but the science is there to back up the customer reviews I've read and results I now share.
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