Lets hear em. Not a big fan of meds or the Doc (no offense to those in the profession). Been giving me fits for the last 4-6 weeks, she's hurtin pretty bad the last couple days.

It hurts down the back of your leg?

If it's really bad just lay around with a heating pad.

Things that helped me long term are a firm mattress, ab/back exercises, and stretching(touch your toes/cross your legs and touch your toes). Other forms of exercise like cycling can be terrible for your back.

Oh yeah, eat/take fiber and poop everyday!

I had a bout with sciatic nerve about seven years ago. It got so bad I could barely walk into the hospital, fifteen minutes under the flouroscope while the doctor injected steroids into the joint in my pelvis and I walked out of the hospital totally free of pain. I am not aware of any home remedies that will provide permanent relief from sciatic pain.

try a chiro yet? they have worked wonders for several different back issues for me. but you gotta find the right one. some are useless.

Yup. Burning, pain in my ass with pain down the back all the way to my foot. If i stand to long my toes get to tingling like the feeling when your foot falls asleep. I'll try those stretches. Thanks.

Laying on the floor flat on my back and pulling my knees up to my chest. Works sometimes, sometimes not. I hate taking any kind of pain meds.

+1 on a good chiropractor.

Never been to a chiro. Was hoping to avoid an office visit of any kind.

That doesn't make any sense. You have a lumbar vertebrae out of place. A home remedy is to hope it improves.

Hope in one hand $hit in the other - whick fills faster?

Stretch hamstrings well in addition to back/pelvis. Doing ab work doesn't hurt either.

Thanks all. I give it a try, minus the schitting in my hand thing.

Simple stretching helps me when I have a flare up.

Sciatic pain is often caused by inflammation of a vertebrae that pushes on the nerve. For me, ice on my lower back and ibuprofen often help.

If it gets too bad to handle, find a non-quack chiropractor.

went about 3 weeks with it once - then just got in the habit of laying on my back on the floor, raising my leg and keeping it straight and having my wife stretch it toward me as far as I could stand it.

The more pain I endured from stretching the less pain I had during the day. Up until that point I couldn't even sit down at work. The stretching gave me more relief than any horse tranquilizer the doc gave me.

No heat. Ice. 800 mg Ibuprofen. Stretch your hamstrings. If you can find an inversion table -- IT WORKS.

May not be a vertebrae out of place, I've been dealing with the same issue since July 4th weekend. I had an MRI Tue. and have already done about 10 visits with a chiropractor, mine is either a bulging or ruptured disc (will find out with results of MRI) it bulges out and presses on the sciatic nerve causing all of the issues OP mentions. I also have numbness on left side of left leg from knee to ankle.

I tried to tough it out for a few weeks, began Anti-inflammatory meds, muscle relaxers, Ibuprofen, finally broke down and began low dose prescription pain meds after tears running down face trying to get socks and shoes on..can't sleep in bed for 3 weeks, been in recliner since only way to get comfortable enough to fall asleep.

At this point I hope an epidural of steroids will work but if surgery necessary so be it I just want it resolved.

Still able to work and grateful for that.

Mike

this, if a good chiro cant help you your looking at surgery or leaving it which is a bad plan as the nerve will eventually die if its kept compressed for to long...

as far as DIY.....there are alot of videos on youtube but dont see the two that helped my ex the most, the first up can do yourself, the other you need someone, preferably someone stronger than the tension in your leg muscles so if you have a small wife or girlfriend you may be SOL on that one

#1 stand with a chair beside you on the affected side. put your foot on the chair with your leg as far out to the side as you can, your foot should be pointing more or less to the side not ahead of you...now slowly bend down to touch your toes a couple of time....that will stretch stuff out and may help make it better...

#2 lay in bed with your gal on the affected side, bring your foot up so your heel touches your arse and lay it over onto the bed, now hae your gal bring your knee up to your armpit keeping the knee joint as close to bed as possible....pushing on it bouncing it a couple times to help stretch it out but not to hard that you really pull something...slowly bring the leg back to straight still keeping the knee as close to the bed as possible....closer you can get it to your armpit the better but most guys aint terribly flexible...

i do know a third way but a chiro showed me it and i have to do it by feel and am not sure i can do it on anyone but my ex, really dont think i could do it to any normal size guy....

You have two choices
Go to a Dr, or stop complaining and just suffer

Thanks everyone. If all else fails, Jim Beam and a warm bath will fix it. At least according to my dad. That was his cure all for anything. Bad back, constipated, Jim Beam and a warm bath.

Its really bad when it hurts in your foot. I had it for over a year, I do back stretching exercises every day and hope it doesn't come back. In my case caused by a bulged disk.

there is that aswell. i bulged my L5-S1 and L4-L5 disks and was pushing on the nerve....my back doc insisted on using a chiro first cause he had seen it work and the chiro did get the top one to go away but i did something stupid at work and made the bottom one worse that required surgery.....will say i was rolled into surgery i would have gladly took a hit of heroin if offered, woke up in recovery in zero pain and several years later still have zero pain.....

i thought i knew what pain was from my knees but until i bulged that disk i didnt know what pain was....opiates dont touch it, they dont do chit for "phantom pain" like from a bulged disk where a pinch in one place causes pain in another....

I am not a complainer. Never have been, dont intend to start now.

Two days before I went moose hunting I had some nasty pain in my lower back that was shooting down my right ass cheek. I was actually quite worried as I was going to be spending hours riding in an argo. I did this exercise and it went away immediately. Could have been a fluke but I never had any issues and still don't.

Tens Unit... about $70

Link

Phil

a pinched sciatic nerve can bring the toughest guy to a crying ball of jello....keep in mind if your pain aint that bad it can get there if you choose to ignore it instead of fix it and the longer that nerve stays pinched the longer it takes to repair itself and at a certain point the nerve gets to phugged up to be fixed...doc warned me that i could feel twinges in that nerve for up to a year though i got it fixed relatively quick before permanent damage was done....

aint gonna lie every time i felt that twinge, which was a tiny fraction of the previous pain, it would stop me cold and i would start sweating going through every move i had done in the last day or two trying to figure out what i did wrong praying like mad that i didnt bulge the disk again

I had episode that hurt so bad I went to the hospital and was in complete agony.They shot me up with Demerol and then muscle relaxers. I couldn't breath it hurt so bad.

rattler

That has been my situation, originally had it going away and doing well, injured it again, more seriously, now I take the low dose pain meds to go from unbearable, excruciating pain, to pain I can tolerate as long as I take it easy with much teeth gritting and sweating. Am looking forward to a resolution so can drop the meds and resume a normal life.

Mike

I am not opposed to the Doc, but would like to try alternatives before i go that route. I try to take care of myself, run regularly (just finished a marathon in May) but took some time off and thats when this thing flared up. I was able to run 3 miles yesterday without too much pain, gonna try some of the stretches and another longer run tomorrow. If it doesnt get any better in the next 3-4 days then it'll be off to see sawbones. I am going to look in to those Tens units too.

Chiro,stay hydrated, stretching, lunges, ice in 20 minute increments. Don't leave it much longer than that.

I was doing 4-6 miles on elliptical 2-3 times per week at 8 min mile pace, lifting lite free weights, what started out as muscle spasms has turned much more serious.

I hope you get it straightened out quickly, I have joked with friends that if I were a dog I'd shoot me...then the disclaimer that I am not considering suicide only stressing how bad it really hurts.

Mike

i will say if this is the first time its happened and the recommendations make it better your prolly fine and its just something that slipped out of place and you got it to go back....if not you need to get to a doc and get a mri to find out exactly what your dealing with .....from there you can make an educated choice of how to go about....unless something is extremely out of whack like a bad herniation chances are if you see a good back doc he is gonna do the same thing to you as mine did and insist on you trying everything else first cause the success rates of chiro, PT ect compared to surgery when looking at patients 5 and 10 years down the road is dead even....not cause surgery is ineffective but cause sometimes its the only answer and sometimes its not...

Went the chiro for the first time today because of this. Its been going for about 3 months but the last week I havent been able to get much sleep because i cant lay down.

Took xrays and my spine is twisted where it enters the pelvis(from leaning on my console while im driving I think. The muscles spasm trying to fix that twist and in turn pinch the nerve.

He did some electro therapy which felt so awesome, like an electric massage. Then he put me on his table. He would jack parts of the table up with a foot pump like a barber chair then get me all twisted up and, kick a different lever and slam me back down on the level table again. Starteling the first time but I felt quite a bit better when I left. Back again tomorrow.

Have it looked at by a good Neurosurgeon, A good neurosurgeon will get an mri done and will be able to determine the cause and the correction of the problem, He will not always recommend surgery or pain meds, I had a fusion done in Jan of this year, Best decision I have ever made. I no longer lay on the floor in so much pain I can't move and I do not fall cause I "lose " my leg anymore.

3 chiros and acupuncturists almost killed me. 7 months later dr does ipidural and I have a life again. Maybe not for everone but suicide was attractive for awhile. Had it years ago and 2 months later it was gone. Gap between pelvis and L5 is minimal, a 60 year old thing of someone that works for a living. Physically I mean. Take care of your back , it like your feet has to last the rest of your life.

Had my ipidural on the 26th of august headed out for my NM elk the next morning and drove 20 hrs. Put on a 40 lb pack and ran arount the mts fo 2 weeks. Still feel good. Dr says I'm crazy , yea so what.

the shots into my spine did nothing for me but do great to some....i levitated off the table the one time when the fluid moved stuff and compressed things worse for a few minutes....surprised the doc didnt wind up paralizing me on that one....wouldnt had been his fault cause short of strapping me to the table there woulda been nothing to prevent it but im positive i got three feet of air not bad for starting relaxed on your stomach

keep in mind there are piss poor, ok and great chiros.....a bad one can phug you up bad....a good one can help you but will be rough....not the best with a back injury....but a great one can do manipulations without hardly touching you cause they fully understand how the parts move and can usually make them do it with the least amount of effort possible, not to mention they will refuse to touch your back if you come in with a complaint like prolonged sciatica without knowing EXACTLY why cause they know if they try to help you but the reason your having it is cause of a bad herniation or busted vertebrae they can REALLY phug you up accidentally....

im lucky in that out of the 5 within an easy drive when i bulged my disk one of them was a great chiro who happens to have an office in town....he insisted on seeing my MRI results before he would agree to touch me....granted if its your first episode and it started out of the blue and isnt a terrible pain this is less of an issue....

ice on my azz cheek works for me.

Alleve/neproxin, prescription strength, just one week.

Get a bigger belt and a different brand of jeans.

I would not fool around with home remedies for too long, gor as other posters have suggested the cause of the pain is irritation of the sciatic nerve. The nerve can only stand to be irritateed for so long before becomeing damaged to the point that you'll have constant pain that cannot be remedied. I would not bother with Chiropractors as sorting out the good from the bad can be a guessing game. A quack Chiropractor can cause irrepaiable damage. In my case the sciatic neve pain manifested itself after I had completed many weeks of physical therapy that successfully rehabilitated a herniated L4/L5 disc. My Orthopedic Surgeon had done an MRI in the process of diagnosing the herniated disc and when the sciatic nerve became painful he sent me for the steroid injections. I was pain free when I got up off the table after the injections and remain so some 8-9yrs. after.

Thats encouraging to hear!

Seems like all my veteran friends are messed up in their backs and necks. Seems like they all have something to do with getting tossed around inside a C-130 more often than not! LOL

I have been fighting this for a year. Started last year during deer season. My hips got to hurting at night so bad that I could not sleep. I thought hip replacement, so went to the Dr. with that on my mind. MRI said pinched nerve in my lower back, so off to Therapy. Stretching worked for about a day and therapy was every other day, so things got better, until therapy was over. I then had two shots in my back. Instant relief when the medicine hit. Lasts about ten days. Pain is not quite as bad as when I first went to the Dr. nearly a year ago but not much better. Along with other exercises, the cat stretch and laying on my good side lifting the bad leg up, seems to do the most good. I have not tried an inversion table, but wish I had one to try before I buy. Wonder if you can rent one. I fear surgery is next. I have seen a laser back surgery advertised on TV that is fairly non invasive. Ad says they do not take medicare and I wonder if my secondary insurance would take care of it. I need to check on some things, it seems. miles

Got called today, scheduled epidural for next Thu.

Prayers appreciated that it will resolve the situation!

Mike

you may really want to be looking at surgery, granted ive got no clue how often its pinching that nerve on you but if its been pretty constant after a year your may be entering the area of permanent damage....unfortunately this is hard to call cause everyone is different and the amount of pressure ect all factors in but if its been any where close to constant and especially if its to the point the bottom of your foot is continually tingly or numb you may be looking at long term damage...

I've had sciatic pain since last May. Had the x-rays. MRI, physical therapy and the steroid injection with no change to the pain. My back isn't really sore, just a little stiff in the morning which usually goes away. However the pain and sensitivity in the right leg is constant. I don't notice so much during the day while I'm walking around but in the evening, the agony sets in. A handful of Gabapentin will dull it enough to allow me to finally fall asleep.
I'm planning for surgery sometime next month to try to get this taken care of before it gets any worse.

Rest, ice, massage...good luck with it. It's a bitch

Also doing gabapentin, the left side of my left leg, below the knee feels like you poured gas on. It and set it on fire otherwise which is ironic because it is also numb below the surface at the same time, can't explain how that. Manages to work!

Mike

Been down that road. I was ready to do a spinal fusion. As a last ditch effort I went and saw a chiropractor. I found one who told me I can't fix you but I might be able to give you some relief. And he was right between going and seeing him about once a month and ibuprofen when it starts to flareup I have been pretty good to go. I have done the steroid injection but you can't do more than three injections per year. Since I started seeing the chiropractor I have not had to do a steroid injection.And after a while from What I've been told the steroid injection will only work so many times. With the ibuprofen I usually use about 600 mg I prefer heat some people prefer to use ice. Stick in there I know the pain you're dealing with, it brought me to my knees more than once.

One of my daughters came home from college for Christmas about 12 years ago. She played soccer since she was 9 years old at very high level & had taken many falls & several broken bones & a knee operation. The third morning she woke with excruciating back pain with lose of feeling in both legs. Rushed her to our orthopedic surgeon who felt it was a pinched nerve due to a damaged disc. MRI confirmed. We live in the DC area & have access to cutting edge medical treatment. Our orthopedic surgeon specialized in micro surgeries, but he also recommended a neurosurgeon. He secured a noted surgeon/professor from Georgetown Medical Hospital to assist him. The incision was about an inch & she was released from the hospital in two days pain free. She was advised to not play soccer any more, but remains pain free. There are minimally invasive procedure's if you obtain the best surgeons.

while mine was more invasive than your daughters, back surgeries today aint what they were even 15 or 20 years ago....but everyone is different....good friend of mine had the same disk bulge as me but he needed to have surgery NOW versus my being able to try other stuff because of a slight difference in where the bulge was.....so while it was the same injury they are still highly individualistic....

Gabapentin and I did not get along. Wife looked at me one day and asked who the hell are you? Drug made me mad, wanted to hurt someone. Stopped the stuff and feel much better. Maybe just me but read about possible side effects.

Fought hip/pelvic and back pain for the last 25 years. is more a SI joint ailment not a hip joint problem. Do your self a favor and get some physical therapy that involves facia release type massage and some chiropractic. Then look into Eric Goodman' foundation training exercises (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOgxWp0WyiI). In the last six months I've gone from trouble walking to riding horses and can jog for short distances without pain. Good luck

I think that if you look for advice for a medical problem on an internet forum without seeing a medical specialist you are leaving your self open for a long term damage which may be able to be repaired fairly quickly and easily by a specialist.

Would you look for legal advice on this forum?

Gave you a link, spend the $70 bucks, get your self that damn TENS unit, a tube of the skin jell, and a few extra 9-volt batteries. A couple 1/2 hour sessions will have you feeling one hell of a lot better, and it can't do you no harm, put it on your belt and wear the damn thing all day if you want. Hardest part (if your are alone) is putting on the lead patches.

Phil