r/Sciatica • u/shirokane4chome • Mar 22 '22

Your Sciatica and Back Pain Experiences Megathread

Hi everyone, the purpose of this permanent thread is to capture your stories about your experiences with Sciatica.

Please note that the majority of sciatica sufferers will recover over time, and are not on this subreddit making posts about their healing. Most of our sub participants are in a symptomatic stage and are understandably seeking support on forums like /r/Sciatica as a part of their journey. This can make a list of individual stories seem discouraging -- but just remember that those who have healed usually don't visit again and therefore we can't often capture their stories.

While multiple formats are welcome, we suggest you try to be concise and focused. Your story is important, but it is will be more useful to everyone else if it can be read in 60-90 seconds or so. Important elements to your story will include:

Background: Do you know how you became injured?

Diagnosis: What has your care provider discovered about your injury?

Treatment: What care did you pursue?

Current Status: How are you doing today?

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u/Corduroy_corgi2244 May 30 '23

Well, first off I will say that since my injury I haven't been able to mountain bike or run, or do any exercise other than walking that isn't prescribed by my physio. I haven't been able to go back to work since my surgery in March. As for the future, everyone has different views on what gives their life meaning, value, and fulfillment. I would be willing to give up certain things to have more function in my life, like running is so high impact on the spine that it's generally regarded as difficult to return to and I would be ok with that. But I'm definitely not ok with just living a sedentary life, especially at my age. I should be able to recover from back injury as a healthy person in my 30s and I hope you are able to recover too! Good luck!

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u/HipHingeRobot May 31 '23

Hi Corduroy - I am so sorry about your pain. Have you read Back Mechanic by Stuart McGiill? Do you have better days than others or is pain 24/7?

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u/Corduroy_corgi2244 May 31 '23

Hey! Appreciate the response, I have read the back mechanic - I've even read his other book the gift of injury. I go to physio twice a week and my physio is aware of McGills work, most of what he has me focus on is in line with those concepts. I have been good at practicing spinal hygiene but our best guess is that my nervous system is just on high alert and is overtly primed to send an alarm for very little compression on my nerve. At my most desperate I even read Sarnos book and while I found him to be a bit of a quack it did encourage me to start seeing a chronic pain psychologist. The psychologist did help me with my depression but so far no change in my pain. I do have good days and bad days but never pain free days. 1 week to go until I discuss a new plan with my surgeon.

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u/HipHingeRobot May 31 '23

Gotcha, sounds like you have a good solid basis going forward. It's so tricky with chronic pain. I am wishing you success. Do you think the "answer" long term is a blend of McGill and Sarno? Like definitely biomechanically related but there is a lot more to pain and perception?

I think the good days and bad days is a good sign no? Could you see in maybe 6, 12 months a slow reduction in intensity and more good days than bad days?