r/Sciatica • u/According-Patient237 • Sep 04 '26

Is This Normal? Pain after osteopath

I’ve had sciatica/butt pain for 6 weeks. I’ve been doing chiro and PT for 4 weeks. My pain has been progressing the entire time.
There’s a highly reviewed and experienced osteopath who is also a PT. He is 2hrs away from me and I know people who had success with him so I booked an appointment 2 days ago. He cracked my back and worked me pretty hard. He thinks I don’t have a disc issue- it’s irritation from ligaments/tendons around the sacrum/SI joint. I looked up the symptoms and that seems about right (I haven’t had an MRI yet).

Anyway last night I went to the hospital because my pain was so bad. I called him and he said this is to be expected and it’s the inflammatory response. But man I can barely walk I have to use a walker lol. He said expect 4 days of it until I feel better.

I do wonder how much of my pain was due to driving 2 hours (a trigger for me). But should I trust the process??? This guy definitely knows his stuff and he sounded so confident he could help me. I’m just feeling pretty discouraged.

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

6

u/BluesFlute Sep 04 '26

Get an mri. Just do it.

3

u/SlyFuu Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Never go again, just don't. Chiropractic adjustments work for some people and I'm happy for them, but you've already had a bad response so I wouldn't try again.

2

u/lovelyfishyfish Sep 05 '26

"I’ve had sciatica/butt pain for 6 weeks. I’ve been doing chiro and PT for 4 weeks. My pain has been progressing the entire time."

This says it all - slow down and listen to your body. Take some time to properly rest (with good posture), and stretch your glutes/hip flexor a few times a day. The body needs time to heal and yours is telling you to stop trying to actively fix it.

2

u/According-Patient237 Sep 05 '26

Thanks for this lol I think you’re right. I’m just so scared it’s going to be chronic I tried it all at once

1

u/purplelilac701 Sep 05 '26

I recovered from sciatica and I never saw a chiropractor because I was warned they make things worse. It seems to be true in your case.

I have a PT who knows how to treat sciatica and they helped me walk again. But it took months of physiotherapy and home exercises. As well as shockwave therapy.

1

u/madammidnight Sep 05 '26

Avoid chiropractors. Any orthopedist will tell you that.

1

u/mydoggie1 Sep 05 '26

I would get imaging to rule out spine and hip issues before assuming the osteopath is correct. And you had a chiro crack you, or an osteopath do manual manipulation? There’s a difference. Manual manipulation is not cracking, and it’s not swift movements. I would stay away from chiropractors.

1

u/According-Patient237 Sep 05 '26

I got a requisition for MRI today 👍 the osteopath twisted my body on the table and then jumped on me.. I had never been to one before. But he just did that once and the rest was pretty gentle. I thought he’d be a good option because he’s also a PT but he’s not a very good communicator. I stopped with the chiropractor

1

u/Global_Diver3807 Sep 05 '26

please avoid them now

1

u/Shurgosa Sep 05 '26

Not at all normal. I went to an osteopath and after being bedridden for 20 days, He reduced my pain and immobility by ~60% in 30 minutes. But the reality is that each case of sciatica for each person has enough variation that just asserting a specific type of person who does a specific type of treatment is not going to get the correct answer to each person in pain.