The girlfriend is suffering something terrible this last few weeks with sciatica. Is there anything she should be doing to ease it.?

Go to an expert and find out what is causing it. Generally a back injury, so go careful.
MacKenzie works for many – but TAKE IT EASY

I had it a few months back for about 2 weeks. I think its in my forum history somewhere. I went to the doctors eventually and he said carry on as normal but if the pain gets bad take some painkillers. I carried on as normal, I found riding my bike seemed to help it, it just cleared up eventually.

A symptom of an ailment not a root cause. Find out what’s causing it and treat appropriately, possibilities include a slipped disc like what I had 🙂

I suffer from it. You can get proper pain relief from the doc, but i found it made me drowsy. I just take ibuprofen, seems to help.

I do yoga on the wii fit to help keep it at bay, and lots of core work and stretches. A sports physio gave me a list of ones that would help. It keeps me from cycling as much as I’d like, which is the worst bit. Makes my job harder too, as there’s a lot of lifting involved.

@millsphysio

+ 1 Tom83

Get a fit-ball, go to fit-ball classes. I suffered from sciatica for a long time before I was recommended to build up core muscle strength and for me the fit-ball does it.

+1 brant. I find I respond well to the approach, advice and treatment from Physio’s, your GF may prefer something else.

It’s unpleasant, walking can help.

High chance of settling with simple measures – physio, pain relief etc. If not settled after three months seek an opinion (via GP).

Yoga/pilates reported by many to be very helpful too.

jet

I had it for about 6 months after falling quite hard playing paintball. Bl**dy awful to be honest and really interfered with normal life and mountain biking. Painful to walk and stand around for long periods. Some days better, some days terrible. Tried osteopathy, physiotherapy, core strength and yoga but what has really helped me is a book by ‘Treat your own back’ by Robert McKenzie. Now almost pain free after a frustrating few months.

Keeping active is a must (walking is good) and learning about good posture can contribute hugely to making a recovery. Doing a desk job contributed to prolonging mine. I thought that sitting down and resting would help it get better – in fact it probably helped prolong the symptoms.

I get it, worst thing is shopping with Mrs Richmars, it’s the slow walking with periods standing still.
It’s much better now, I’ve been doing lots of sit ups and stomach exercises which seems to help, but take care, I’m not a Dr.

Send her to a proper yoga class. They’re always saying this and that asana are good for sciatica… sorry I don’t pay proper attention.

Mckenzie style exersizes help forsure
Also lie on your side sore side up with a rolled up towel jambed between hip and bed helps
Amitriptolene and cocadamol helps with pain very nicely

But if pain is due to burst disc. Might take weeks but most heal up after 6 week :wink:s ish
Bewary of changes to toilet behaviour and or numbness

Been fecked with back since xmas, emergency discectomy done 6 weeks ago

Tell her to take it easy but exersize like hoovering n dusting will help keep her supple

Icepack on lower back

I suffered quite badly with sciatica. After many trips to the Quack, NHS physio etc, I could hardly stand up straight. I was cured by a chiropractor. He diagnosed a pinched nerve in my spine. It took three visits but the treatment works.

I had sciatica and carried on ignoring the pain and ended up with a prett bad slipped disc so take it easy and don’t do anything that hurts. If it isnt getting better in a week or so then see your p or a physio.
the gold rule is to not do anything that hurts

Get proper advice sooner rather than later. My GP wasn’t really much more use than asking on an internet forum, infact his advice, based on the observation that I’m tall and tall people usually have a bad back) was to look things up on the internet. Trouble is.. things like McKenzie excercises (of which many vain internet pundits feel wise enough to demonstrate on youtube, whilst being critical of the kink of quacks that offer demonstrations on youtube)would be great if the cause is a disc, which it may not be. Decent instructions for McKenzie call for the excercises to be observed by someone who knows what they’re looking at.

Being in scotland and in a small business (less then 250 employees) I got fast tracked for treatment to get mobile again. You’ll only get on that fast track though if your GP knows your employment status. Non of the treatment i got focused on the lower back (although thats the location of where the nerve is) because the disc is fine – all my treatment was on the upper back – getting more flexibility there as I’m asking my lower back to do too much work

Pretty much +1 for all the take it seriously and it might be a symptom posts above.

My story is that I’ve suffered with sciatica off and on for a few years. In the past two I’ve been getting pins and needles in my legs and numbness, which then progressed to full out dead legd with little or no muscle control at any point where I was standing for more than 2 or 3 minutes. Investigation shows that it is a stenosis, which is basically a flattening out, in my case of 2 of my lumbar discs, to the extent that they are encroaching into the sciatic nerve channel and effectively blocking the signals to my legs.

Treatment: Physiotherapy on an ongoing basis with a series of exercises done routinely every day. When that doesn’t work any more the next step is an epidural injection, which from what I gather is very unpleasant and not that effective, followed eventually by the vertabrae being fused together.

Reality Check: The injury is caused by years (I’m 56 and have been riding offroad since I was 6) of pounding to my lower back over rough terrain, lack of stretching post ride with the subsequent shortening of my ham strings. By manning up and ignoring it I’ve managed to terminally cock my back up.

Pain is gods way of telling you something is wrong people. Painkillers and anti inflamatories simply veil it and enable you to do more damage until such point as you can’t ignore it, which is often as in my case too late. Had I been doing a small percentage the physio I’m now doing to strengthen my core and stretch my hamstrings, none of this would have happened.

PS: Don’t be fobbed off with a bottle of painkillers. Demand proper investigation and get a second opinion if necessary. took me several visits to the surgery even when my legs were going numb before I got anywhere.

Anyone know owt about sciatica.?

i’m having breakfast with him this morning.

he’s an evil b***ard.

my gp is no use at all, my chiropractor is a magician, but he’s in New Zealand.

Half the problems are the nhs cost driven guidelin

Turn yourself into a hypercondriac. Lol

Bermbandit pretty much nails the subject
Because when your backs sore the last you want to do is stretching exersizes
But thats the rightroad

can Anybody
Give me a hand to get my socks on

Had several years of it – IMO caused by a job that involved repeated pattern of bending and stretching to the side, can’t be sure but since changing jobs have had very few problems.

First thing is to find out properly what the cause is – is it a symptom of a back/disc problem, or is it something else – in my case it was Piriformis syndrome. Identifying the cause seems to be the one that takes time, as in my case they were keen to just write it off as spinal, when that had nowt to do with it.

Building core strength was the key for me, and I’m sure many others.

my pain is upper back related the physio thinks, back gave way couple months ago so heading for mri soon to check for any other causes. As said many times, take it seriously find a treatment that works and even when gets better stick with it.

A lot of things already posted can help but I would really encourage seeing a professional and getting specific advice for your girlfiends problem. Sciatica is a generic term used to describe back of leg pain with or without numbness, pins and needles or weakness. Its important to establish the root cause so treatment and advice is correct for her. The NHS has limited resources and paying to see somebody privately would be really worthwhile.

If your bike broke you would pay for new parts or fixing it so treat your body the same 😀

I had a prolapse disk L5/S1 about two years ago, to the point I couldn’t walk that well (really bad Sciatica and foot numb). Tried Physio, then a micro-discectmy, then more Physio but none of it worked.

I then had the disc removed and fused with a cage and a variety of nuts and bolts. Its getting better now and I can do about two hours over Swinley. It seems to be taking ages but it is getting there, it beats not being able to ride.

Good days/and some not so good days. Good Luck.

I’ve had a couple of episodes. I sorted through physio, referred from GP. I now do loads of stretching and core stability exercises to reduce the chances of a relapse. As sensible advice above, seek professional help and advice, and do it sooner rather than later. The longer you leave it the longer it takes to sort. Hope it works out.

my doctor had to visit me last week, as i could not stand up let alone walk,he give me tramadol,i take two tramadol with two paracetamol 4 time daily. now i can sleep at night, walk around a bit, sit on the toilet with out too much pain,and think straight.this is the worst attack i have had

Since posting yesterday, mines flared right up! Chriopractor booked for end of month 🙁

You might be interested to know that the original meaning of sciatica is ‘the elfs arrow’.Good description in my case.Cured by Chiropractor and stretching .Always stretch after cycling/sitting all day.

Southbeds – my docs advise staggering the two painkillers so that as one wears off the other is kicking in.

And yes I can’t sleep because my back is killing me!!!!!

I live with sciatic pain. I have degenerative disease in my discs. I have lived in pain, off and on, mostly on, for 30-odd years. I’ve had physio, chiro, acupuncturehad, massage, injections, yoga etc. Eventually I kicked off and demanded a discectomy and laminectomy. That gave me 5 months of no pain. Unfortunately, over the last few months the pain is back with a vengeance and in fact I’m laying in bed right now waiting for the Tramadol to work before deriding whether to go to work today. I think it’s bad again because I went back to working 4 consecutive days instead of 2 then a day off then 2 more days. My back simply will not tolerate sitting. Also I helped my friend blitz his house prior to a family visit, my back didn’t like that. I’m a stubborn old bird who finds it hard to accept that I need to be careful with my back. I can, however – thankfully, ride bikes (but NOT rigid on horse-damaged hard mud fields!). Thanks for the links and reading suggestions, I shall make use of them.

I had it pretty bad over a year ago now– the constant pain got very debilitating,my foot felt like there was acid burning my skin, while someone was boring into the bones without anasthetic, didn’t sleep for months, the painkillers only have limited effect, it was all pretty shit TBH– it took eight months before i saw a physio on NHS– by that time it had abated– for now its semi dormant– but it will return 😥

The one drug i ‘obtained’ that gave me relief was a liquid opiate that a friend had been given for terminal cancer– it enabled some pain free respite !

It is a very debilitating condition that is not very well understood.

Sounds like you’ve had it bad! 🙁

I thought that it was well understood but as there are multiple causes then a simple examination won’t get to the bottom of it ?

its not well understood by GPs’, and as you say there is a lot of trial and error with the treatment, essentially i had to wait until it(inflammation) had calmed down– but the help available seemed non existent apart from standard pain killers(sic)– and i’m lucky compared to Karinofnine 😯