Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire sciatica, any suggestions?

I started having problems about 3 weeks ago. Dull aching pain and numbness from the hip to the foot.
I thought that time and rest would likely help so I haven't been to a Doctor.
It seemed to get better during the day with normal activities, like walking, but at night it is miserable.
Then helped my Son move to another home. Felt great right up til we were done. After sitting for awhile found it had gone from bad to worse. I can hardly walk without intense pain and lying down is brutal.
I am taking Vicodin for pain but it's really not cutting it much.
Any advice would be appreciated. thanks Butch

Do stretching exercises like Yoga. Try to keep moving, don't sit too much, don't stand too much. Get some massage therapy and/or chiropractic.

Oh, and ice your back until you can't take it anymore. Heat is not your friend, especially after vigorous activity like moving your son.

If there is no damage to your inter-vertebral discs, rest, anti-inflammatory medication (e.g. Ibuprofen) and, latter, regular exercise of the muscles of your back will cure your problem for ever.

This is from personal experience, but I am not a doctor and if the pain is serious and does not go away reasonably quickly, you should be examined.

Best of luck.

Inversion table. There is also treatment avaialable from doctors who have a sophisticated back stretching machine (don't know what it is called).

Get thee to a physician. Taking vicodin only masks the symptoms of the underlying problem and does nothing to heal you.

Most often the problem is what we call "mechanical" back pain, caused by soft tissue injury and swelling that pinches the nerve root(s) coming out of the spine. Antiinflammatories and muscle relaxants will reduce the spasm and swelling. Expect a minimum of 2-3 weeks to get back to normal. You can add vicodin or other pain relievers to the NSAID/antispasmodic regimen if needed. Chiropractic manipulation may also be helpful, but in my experience you need the right chiro using the right technique to get any benefit.

If you're no better in 3 weeks, you'll need a CT scan and possibly an MRI to look for disc problems, nerve root impingement, and possibly spinal stenosis, any of which may require surgical intervention at some point. Drugs and chiropractic will not heal these problems, but they may hold symptoms in abeyance long enough for "tincture of time" to do its magic.

Your first step is getting to a doctor.

Edited to add: Oh, and I might add that all of the self-help advice mentioned by other posters here is potentially of great benefit.

It's your back, your back problem. You own it. You take responsibility for it. I tell all my back pain patients this at the outset. Those who truly take ownership of their back pain are a LOT happier with whatever outcome they get than those who passively accept what "the doctors" tell them.

ice is your friend.

FWIW, studies have shown ice to be better than heat in the acute phase after an injury (2-3 days) but thereafter heat is as beneficial or more beneficial in some patients.

In other words, after the first 72 hours, use whatever gives you better relief.

three epidurals and a bunch of PT later, I'm still asking that question.

but I do have one important suggestion.....get somebody else to sling your deer up on the four wheeler for you. trust me.

Have had the problem for years and have a floor exercise I do most mornings that help stretch everything out. If I do them regularly it goes away. If I do not, I pay for it. Doubt I could explain it in print or even over the phone. Suggest seeing/asking a good Chiropractor and/or physical terrorist if there are exercises that will help. That is how I found this one years ago. Best of luck! TM

DocRocket,

You're a physician I could actually like!. Owning one's own problems would solve much in our society.

I had bad luck with a chiroquacktor, but I can't write them all off on account of him.

My best results have come from an acupuncturist. He's a chinaman who's also trained in Western medicine, and he's the first to send you elsewhere if that's what's needed. When my big toes went numb during my sheep hunt, I went straight to him. He said he'd have the feeling back in 3 sessions, & that's exactly what happened.

To the OP: Ask around your area, and see what/who has helped others. Also pay attention to what/who hasn't. In the meantime, I'll send you some prayers - they're the most effective thing.

Good Lick,

FC

Before any course of action,you need to find out what the problem is.Most minor back pain goes away by itself in a few weeks,but more severe usaully require some type of intervention. Chiros can often make the problem worse. They can't fix stenois or herniated disc,etc.All these ads you see today are not anything but glorified traction that works in some cases.

After my last fusion,I accepted the inevitable and walk every day the weather permits and keep any lifting to 40 lbs or less. Swimming is also a good non impac texersize.Been doing fine now for 3&1/2 years since that happened.

There comes a time when you have to start saying "I can't do that", like helping with that move.

FC, thanks for the prayers.
btw, I did see a chiropractor and she "rearraned" my hip, thought I was going to come off the table!
Up until the moving experience I had been able to walk without much discomfort, even went rabbit hunting one day, but now it's a chore just to get up and walk to the bathroom.
Thanks for the thought, Butch

When I get that shooting pain, I get rid of it in minutes with what I call the "Poor Man's Inversion." I simply hang by my hands allowing my legs to dangle free. Smoothly and easily, I twist my hips and swing my legs side-side and front-back a few times. Nothing violent or rapid, mind!

I use the garage door rails and a stepstool. My feet are only inches from the floor and I can either let go or step back onto the stool when I can't hold on any longer. This has never failed to take the pressure off my sciatic nerve and relieve all the pain in one or at most two hangs.

I'll give that a try! Simple enough for sure! thanks Butch

Ive been dealing with the same problem for about 9 years. All of the above looks like sound advice. I would only add that I found a topical rub that helps alleviate my pain without any smells, greasiness, or burning sensation. It is called Arnica Gel. I get it at my local pharmacy over the counter. It goes to work fast and helps me get some sleep. Though exercise and stretching sounds contra-indicated, it can be a big help, but I would urge you to learn what types should be used and start out easy and gradually build up to a regular routine. Some days, you just have to put up with it too.

A large exercise ball, cyclobenzaprine and ibuprofen are your friends. Take the Ibuprofen and cyclobenzaprine for the pain and use the exercise ball to stretch your back. I like to drape myself over the ball and slowly stretch the back vertabraies and back musles. I also do some simple exercises to strengthen my back while using the ball.

The ibuprofen is an anti inflamitory and the cyclobenzaprine (flexeril) is a muscle relaxer and anti inflamitory. The benefits of ibuprofen go on but the flexeril looses it's benefits with time and dosage. You need to see a doctor for the flexeril. Get some physical therapy as well. Usually a good back doctor has his favorite places for the therapy. Good luck. kwg

Limit the ice to 20 minute intervals. Beyond that, the body tends to react poorly and you will pay for it as the body tries to warm the area and swelling increases. Lunges with or without weight will help to strengthen the area.

see a doc, find out just what is causing it, once yah know what is causing it you can figure out where to go from there.....some things that work for one source of pain will make another source worse.....

vicodin or any opiates SUCK for pain like this, before i finally went in for surgery to fix my blown disk i was on some serious opiates, Advil did far more for the pain than the opiates most of the time....opiates are great for short term acute pain at the source, they suck for "phantom pain" like sciatica when what hurts is not what is actually causing you pain....that said, when i got real bad before surgery for my blown disk im pretty sure i wouldnt have passed up a shot of heroin for some relief....

if your doc says its alright and inversion table and a chiropractor can be excellent for certain back injuries but they will make others worse.....a chiro and inversion table allowed me to be functional for 6 months till i did something stupid and made myself bad enough for surgery.....infact when i started going to the chiro i had 2 bulges and managed to get one to disappear by the time i was wheeled in for surgery....

keep in mind though that not all chiros are good ones and not all back issues can be solved or made more tolerable through the use of one.....we have about a 3 chiros locally but ill only let one of them touch me....

Well, I don't know if you'd actually like me in person. I am very ornery before I have my morning cup of coffee or six. Just ask Isaac.

As for owning your back pain, I learned that the hard way. I blew my L5-S1 disc when I was 22, playing football as it happened, but it could've been anything and probably would have. I was in serious pain every day for 2 years, and only got my life back by taking ownership of my back pain and refusing to let the doctors and chiros beat me up any more. I learned to live with pain on an almost-daily basis, and how to minimize the pain without drugs. Learned how to avoid doing stupid things that would re-injure my back, and how to get through the periodic inevitable exacerbations.

I'm not saying that my experience is typical, or that someone else's back pain should respond as mine has done. But I took ownership of my back pain, and as a result I doubt that I've taken more than 25 vicodin in the past 33 years for it.



A good chiro is worth his weight in gold. A bad one is worth his weight in [bleep]. And there's a lot of good data on acupuncture, too. I prefer the traditional Chinese acupuncturists myself.

You can find a variety of stretching exercises for sciatica on YouTube. Take it slow.