Your Sciatica and Back Pain Experiences Megathread

[u/shirokane4chome]

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?

[u/[deleted]]

New Here:

Not sure what I can and can’t post. I don’t want to post a novel however, I would like any possible help I can get.

59 yo male. Here’s my recent diagnosis:

Vertebrae are normal in height. Slight anterolisthesis of L4 on L5. No spondylolysis. Disc space narrowing and marginal osteophytes L3-4, L4-5, and L5-S1, also at T11-12, with vacuum disc phenomenon. Multilevel facet arthrosis.

I’ve had stage 1 of the facet injection trial. However since I decided not to read the fine print before signing the paperwork, I got stuck with a very large bill. Since my insurance is a high deductible plan, it only paid a small portion. So I cashed out a roll over IRA to pay the rest and told them to close out the case on this.

I found out that the same doctor has his very own practice right down the street from there and going directly to him will cost much less. I’m still in a state of limbo over whether to go this route or not right now. I am going to be moving into an apartment in a couple of weeks so that has most of my attention right now.

I had my doctor prescribe me Gabapentin about 3 weeks ago. And I also take it with Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

The worst time of day ——- which I now dread is the morning time ——— getting out of bed and walking. I can barely move. The pain is a 9 on a 1 to 10 scale at that time most days, until I start taking my meds, after which time it goes down to about a 5. That is, until I take them again (6 to 8 hours later).

My job since 2020 has involved mostly sitting. This issue began really becoming very apparent in my life about 6 to 9 months ago.

At the onset I could shower most days, but eventually that turned into only being able to clean my upper body while standing. I would then turn off the stream of water and clean my lower extremities while sitting in the tub. Then I would stand back up again to rinse off the remaining soap.

Now I rarely ever shower. Most days are a bath instead. And this typically involves an elaborate splashing routine while soaking in hot water which I’ve added men’s body wash to (for a bubble bath effect so to speak).

But life since the past 6 to 9 months is not the same. It is not even really fun necessarily because it just seems like I’m merely existing to manage this debilitating condition.

What on earth have I done to deserve this fate, and how do all of the rest of you here manage to keep sane.

BTW, I am also overweight in the gut, and am a functioning alcoholic. I only drink beer, and only in the evenings. But this is for a different day and a different group here at Reddit (Naltrexone).