Sciatica
About five weeks ago, on a Friday, I went to pick up the kids from after-school club. I somehow did something to my back, probably as I pushed my bike home (maybe in a more twisted posture than usual, trying to talk to the kids behind or in front of me, or some such). It was uncomfortable over that weekend and on the Monday it was painful enough that I even rang the GPs. They rang me back and ruled out a few things (in so far as you can do that over the phone - there was a fair amount of 'take some painkillers and see how you feel').
The discomfort didn't go away, so much as change - sometimes more of a feeling like a leg cramp, sometimes moving away from the lower back and into the top of the leg. Last Monday I was fed up with waiting for it to just be gone and I made an appointment with a local osteopath, who I saw the next day. It's sciatica, which goes by itself but only eventually - it can take maybe a month or two (or three...?) to go. He did say that the good news was that as I'd already had it for 3 or 4 weeks I was a fairly good amount of the way through the pain!
I'm taking painkillers, doing the recommended stretches, and trying to avoid the sorts of activities that will cause the spinal disc to press on the sciatic nerve (hence the name). So not too much sitting down for any length of time (lots of standing up and wiggling if I've been sitting down for too long!). Hope it doesn't stick around for much longer, I am quite fed up with it already!
Two interesting factoids learned as a part of this process: the spinal discs dry up as you get older, so sciatica is really something that you don't get after about age 50 or so, it's not an old person's ailment as you might have thought. And the other factoid - it is worse in the mornings when you first wake up, because while you are asleep the spinal discs reabsorb fluid from the vertebrae, they become plumper (and you become a bit taller), and so they are more likely to bulge if you make the wrong move and thence press on the nerve...
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The discomfort didn't go away, so much as change - sometimes more of a feeling like a leg cramp, sometimes moving away from the lower back and into the top of the leg. Last Monday I was fed up with waiting for it to just be gone and I made an appointment with a local osteopath, who I saw the next day. It's sciatica, which goes by itself but only eventually - it can take maybe a month or two (or three...?) to go. He did say that the good news was that as I'd already had it for 3 or 4 weeks I was a fairly good amount of the way through the pain!
I'm taking painkillers, doing the recommended stretches, and trying to avoid the sorts of activities that will cause the spinal disc to press on the sciatic nerve (hence the name). So not too much sitting down for any length of time (lots of standing up and wiggling if I've been sitting down for too long!). Hope it doesn't stick around for much longer, I am quite fed up with it already!
Two interesting factoids learned as a part of this process: the spinal discs dry up as you get older, so sciatica is really something that you don't get after about age 50 or so, it's not an old person's ailment as you might have thought. And the other factoid - it is worse in the mornings when you first wake up, because while you are asleep the spinal discs reabsorb fluid from the vertebrae, they become plumper (and you become a bit taller), and so they are more likely to bulge if you make the wrong move and thence press on the nerve...
This entry was originally posted at https://jinty.dreamwidth.org/1045576.html. Please comment there using OpenID.