Sciatica?
 

I have symptoms that seem to be related to this. I did a little heavy lifting (furniture) followed by a nice long climbing ride on Saturday and the next day I felt what I thought was just a little muscle pain. Today I've decided that it's a pinched nerve in my hip. Anyway, here are the symptoms - No pain in the mourning when I get out of bed, the longer I stay on my feet during the day the more it hurts, it's just in my right leg from the hip area to just below the knee on the front of the leg, doesn't hurt when I'm sitting, doesn't hurt when I ride (I did 25 miles yesturday and no pain). When I say pain I mean a sharp burning sensation. Everything I read says rest is the only cure, but that the last thing I can do.

Anybody felt this and if so how the heck did you get it to stop?

My younger son got relief through chiropractic manipulation.

I got my 4 year old to jump up and down on my back last night and I've done a lot of stretching with no results. The chiropractic route might be my next try.

Your best bet is to go get checked out by an orthopedist, or at least your MD.

If it's down the front it could just be a strain. There are several muscle groups that could be involved, so not necessarily a sciatica problem as I believe that will normally hurt in the back of the leg, but nerves are weird.

Best bet is to do light stretching in the area that's sore. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, relax, then do a stretch for 45 seconds, relax, then 60 seconds. This will help the muscle to relax (a muscle could be strangulating the nerve). This should all be pain free!

Stay off aspirin for at least a couple of days. Get a baggie of ice and ice the area for 20 minutes on, 40 minutes off (NO MORE THAN 20 MINUTES ON!!!). You can also get a paper/styrofoam cup, fill it with water and freeze it. Then take the ice and do a massage from the knee area upward (pressure going up, no pressure when going back down) for 20 minutes. This is an ice massage and will help with pushing the swelling out of the area. But don't start this until it's been a couple of days since it first started to hurt.

If you have a local high school or college, contact the athletic trainer and ascertain if they might be able to check you out (most won't or can't), unless you can be seen by an MD. They can advise if you need to do anything special, including what rehab you should do.

Don't blow off rehab as if you hurt it once you'll probably hurt it again, so you need to strengthen it.

Hope this helps a little.
Dan'o :}

Please tell me you weren't STUPID enough to let anyone jump up and down on your back. You might have done more damage than good. Get to a doctor ASAP. I'm telling you this from the school of severe pain.

I had a sciatic nerve problem a few years ago and it I thought it was going to kill me. I was about 40 lbs overweight so when I lost the weight and started to ride more it went away.

When I had a similar pain, my doctor had to first x-ray my back to satisfy the insurance company, knowing full well it would show nothing, then wait for me to complain again so he could order an MRI which showed a herniated lumbar disc. Then he sent me to a physical therapist who manipulated my spine and had me do excersizes to help push the disc back in place thus relieving the pressure on the nerve and reducing the pain shooting down my leg.

This has kept things under control for several years now. I made a few adjustments to my riding position on my road bike to help stretch my back. Now the more I ride, the better my back feels.

Your situation may or may not be similar. My suggestion is to see a doctor.

Thanks guys, as usual great advise.

Every time my wife and I have had our sciatica flare up, it's involved pain down the back of the leg, not front.

Have you tried ibuprophen? Most such things involve reducing inflammation and providing the opportunity for recovery.

My chiropractor's solution was micro electrical stimulation at the point of swelling (SI joint) followed by cold deep tissue massage. I don't go for adjustments. This would reduce the swelling taking the pressure off the nerve running down the leg via the SI joint. Two weeks of treatments and go for up to a year. Core strength improvements and weight lose have minimized flareups in the past couple years.

I had that pain!

In my case, turned out it was a symptom of herniated disc (L5-S1).
I would go straight to the ortho doc, an MRI will give definitive information.
IMO, Physical Therapy is the best course of treatment along with anti-inflammatory meds.

So, get thee to the doc.

Luck,
Jeff, still fat

A few years ago, I suffered excruciating sciatic pain on my right hip/leg for about a month - apparently I inflamed a spinal disk with some inappropriate exercise (no, not that kind), and it was aggravated by some age-related arthritis in my lower back.

Only one thing worked to heal me - time.

- Back specialist - not much help except for some pain medication, which did seem to knock the pain down after that first month, and then the pain plateaued.

- Chiropractor - I wanted to become a believer and I tried one for a few visits. I'm still not a believer.

- Medication - it worked at first, then was hit or miss, depending on the day.

- Staying away from exercise - no effect

- Exercising - no effect.

- Physical therapy - no effect.

Then, after a few months, I began to realize that no matter what I did or didn't do, I was slowly healing. My morning test: when I stood up from bed, I would feel a tingling pain running down from my hip, through my leg to my heel. Over time, the pain lessened, the tingling diminished.

Eight months later, all pain was gone. I have had occasional relapses, but nothing like that initial injury. Just once in a while my lower back on the right side hurts, and once in a while I feel a brief tingle in my heel. It's random and it's usually gone in a few minutes or hours. I think that will be with me for the rest of my life.

I can remember one afternoon, riding my bike up a steep hill, telling myself that if my back ever stopped hurting - it hurt to turn the pedals each and every revolution - that I would never complain about riding uphill again. And I haven't. For sure the hardest rides - including a century last weekend - cause no pain.

+1 on Chiropractors (though finding a good one is somewhat like finding a good mechanic). I've had sciatic issues several times over the years and each time got about 90% releif from the first visit to my chiropractor. A few follow-ups and the pain was gone. Since returning to cycling, I've lost weight and built up core strength so I thought I was done with it.

Nope, ended up with a mildly herniated disk in my lower back last month. This was a whole new experience. Headed to my chiropractor and was surprised how much longer it took to get relief (though relief did come). I actually rode my bike the day after I herniated it (very painful 5 miles and getting off the bike wasn't pretty) but a week later (after several more treatments) I did 20 miles with minimal pain. I'm still not quite 100% but I'm very close.

Sciatica - may or may not be...
usually the pain radiates down thru the hip/butt and back side of legs, possibly down to the toes...
but thats not always conclusive either.
disk problems can start issues with the sciatic never as well.
I started getting sciatic issues after I herniated 2 disk in '76. I also paid very poor attention to my core strength,which further exascerbated (sp?) my problems. This progressed to what became quite frequent episodes of Piriformis syndrome (look this up on the net...) Finally in the mid '80's a great doc was able to help me get smarter about dealing with conditioning to reduce/eliminate the chance of attacks.
Core strengthening/balancing.
If it is sciatica, then DO NOT try to 'stretch' it out. The sciatic is a myelin covered nerve and if you do anything to damage that sheath, it could take years to get any recovery.
If its an issue of muscles around the sciatic in spasm, then do what you can to let them relax/recover.
What eventually worked for me was 2,000 mg /day of Ibuprofen (same doc who got me to start a regular core strength & flexibilty program), for a period of 2 months, and then reduced dosage of 600 to 800 mg a day for another 2 months. Lotsa water to keep the kidneys from going into failure. And finally a regular strengthening and balancing program for the core, which now has evolved into almost a daily yoga practice. Chiropractic didn;t help, in fact the 2 times I tried, back in the '80s', it just exascerbated the issue.
I'm not sayin you should do this, but 3x a day, for 5-6 days, of 2 - 200 mg Ibuprofen tabs went a long way to helping a quick recovery from the few episodes I suffered in the '90s.
Haven;t had one in quite some years now, but then core work has become a bit more religious now that I have incorporated yoga into my days. 1 hr Yoga practice - 4x a week - good stuff.

good luck

I had a similar situation.

PT was the answer. Not the kind of physical therapy where they just show you some exercises and send you on your way. The kind where they do some gentle massage manipulation to get your back, hips and sacrum aligned.

Ditto on the physical therapist. I actually find that stretching can aggravate it if I do it wrong. The PT showed me how to manipulate my bulging disc back in place and relieve the pressure. Then he gave me strengthening exercises that I still do. No really trouble with it since.

Had to go through the pain of getting an MRI to get to the PT stage, though.

Instead of Chiro - go to an osteopath. Full MD with understanding of how the body works re: spine, etc. Very gentle manipulation. Done both, osteo is better.

Mine is great.

Yes! I started with a DO and eventually was referred to a PT with the gentle manipulation training. You can get the same result either way.

Yep, sciatic pain is usually a pain in the ass/back of leg and is often associated with the piriformis muscle ... pinching the nerve.

Don't force things. See a doctor and/or physio.

MD's and DO's are both 'real doctors'.

that would be my recommendation! :thumb:



oooh, yuck. I would never see a doctor for back, muscle or skeletal issues. they don't know how to do anything but prescribe drugs or arrange surgery. :eek:

I have worked with Chiropractors, and a majority of them didn't know their butt from a hole in the ground. Chiropractors can be good, but I would find one recommended by an orthopedist.

A good sports orthopedist will do more than just prescribe meds and surgery, they can fix what's wrong. Contact your local college and find out who the school uses as their orthopedist (check with the athletic trainer).
:}

Thanks for the clarification.

Use any treatment method that works for your condition; the rub, you don’t know what is wrong. See your general medical practitioner first, rule out any serious structural problems, and then choose your treatment style.

I have done most of them; other than chiropractors, I’m not a fan of them.

sports docs are a good starting point, injury/physio clinics can give you advice as well.