….Sciatica – been taking 400mg ibuprofen’s as prescribed by doc but they’re not really hitting the spot. Anyone any recommendations?

Have also tried acupuncture to no avail. Walking, swimming and cycling give temporary relief but it comes back even stronger after a few hours 🙁

Back extensions – upto limit of pain. Do some of them.

Depends what is causing the pain. NSAIDs might help reduce any swelling but that might not be the cause.

Muscle relaxants, either pharmacological or manual (like an osteopath ) could also help a lot.

Rachel

Just googled back extensions, I’ll give it a go, thanks

Amatryptaline is about the only thing that will effectively work on Sciatica.
Make sure if you use them you ignore the prescription timings – it has a 12hr cycle life so look at taking them around 5pm’ish or you will be a zombie for the morning…

Rachel,
Got some form of muscle relaxant too off the doc to take at night but they knock you out a bit so no good for through the day

Over the counter ibuprofen and codiene is strong

but no idea about sciatica

http://www.cks.nhs.uk/sciatica_lumbar_radiculopathy#-399408

you might find that useful too.

back extensions are probably the main exercise most physios would give you for sciatica.

Hammy, that’s the ones, was taking them last thing at night and getting the zombie effect, will try them a bit earlier

depends on what is causing it…spinal surgery?

Cause is unknown otherwise fit and healthy, had a big kick in the arse from my saddle one weekend and pain started a few days after that, doc reckons it could have been that

After suffering for a few weeks – drugs were knocking me out – I went to a private physio. Possibly the best £20 I’ve ever spent.

Hot water on your lower back and also do some Piriformis stretching
Also maybe wise to do some core exercises, this will extend and strengthen your trunk.
I never found pain killers doing anything for me.

Pain is bad up to about 10am, is non existent all day and comes back about 7pm and is really bad through the night?

Oh – look up “pigeon stretch”.

What kind of stuff aggravates it and what eases it? You deskbound or what?

Hmmm – given the way you say you got your injury I wonder if there’s some sort of bruising or adhesion in your arse muscles (technical term) which has got hold of your sciatic nerve and isnt allowing it to slide like it should.

Sitting about aggravates it, being up and about or doing any form of exercise definitely relieves it. Dog’s had a few impromptu walks in the middle of the night over the past few weeks 🙂

In that case, if it was me i’d be tempted to think it was some injury in your arse muscle that’s stopping the nerve sliding. Maybe when sitting you’ll be pulling the nerve from below and it’ll be tugging at the lower part of your spinal cord causing pain. Standing will release that tension.

I’d look up sciatic nerve slides and sciatic nerve glides and see if they help.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-cXei4e_wM[/video]

Yoga long term

andrewni – Member
Sitting about aggravates it, being up and about or doing any form of exercise definitely relieves it. Dog’s had a few impromptu walks in the middle of the night over the past few weeks

Best put a small cushion under your backside when sitting down including driving.
This alters your seating position and also your not siting in at 90degree angles

and points the weight down towards your knees instead of compacting into your lower back
where the sciatic nerve is.

Pilates will be key exercise here.

By the sound of this exercises/physio/yoga/Pilates is the way forward for this sort of thing rather than drugs and hoping it goes away. Will try and get a physio appointment this side of Xmas

Thanks for all the help

Ps, special thanks to glupton, googled the glides and gave it a go, pains calmed a bit already 🙂

Self management seems to be the way the physio profession is being pushed, particularly in the NHS. So more and more what you’ll get when you go for a physio session is a full assessment followed by being shown how to successfully self manage your condition.

Doesn’t sound like you’re a majorly probably candidate for long term problems given you had a clear mechanism of injury though.

If you have any more questions or want any more ideas you know where i am.

I sort’a live with various “levels” of sciatica dependant on what i’m doing on a day to day basis or have done over the course of the previous day – painkillers don’t really do owt for the pain apart from pethidine but i’d rather get whacked over the back of the head wi a lump of wood and knocked out than take them, Got given ketamine in India when i had a particularly bad bout of it after a 13hr train journey in cattle class, shame you can’t get that on the nhs in this country as it worked a treat, i was fully aware something wasn’t quite right but my mind didn’t register the fact.

What works for me is a tilt table that i use every day/night as my spine is rather shagged to start with and hanging upside down for a while really does help stretch me out and relieves pressure on my spinal cord, not really practical for you i guess but perhaps a local physio/chiropractor/osteopath may be able to help you out.