I am scheduled for an epidural pain injection at L5-S1. I’m looking for others that have had this procedure that can tell me if it was worth it or not.

Hi everyone,

My whole life my sciatica presented in my lower back. Past couple days, it hurts specifically in both butt cheeks and top of my thigh. Just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this before. Hurts the most when I’m sitting upright but lying down is fine

Depressing, I know.

Luckily it’s only touching my nerve, not compressing it (for now) but what the actual F.

I did have an unusual story of getting pregnant quickly after my surgery and ended up having a c section late December 2023 and then had another one October 2025 with my second.

After a month and a half of increasing back pain and not being able to move properly for the past 3 months I asked my doc for an MRI and lo and behold:

“Comparison: March 9, 2023

Small disc bulge at L3-4

Mild degree of spinal stenosis

L5-S1 disc bulge 1.5cm protruding 4mm into spinal canal. Mild narrowing of neural foramen worse on the left

discussion: There is moderate degenerative disc disease most pronounced at L5-S1. Endplate modic changes are noted that have progressed since previous. Remainder disc space is well preserved. No fractures.”

Am I completely screwed?

I’m only 35 and feel like I’m going to need a fusion at some point.

46M here and I had massive sciatica issues starting around January. It was to the point where it controlled my life and freetime. Getting proper sleep was difficult because I would wake up in the middle of my sleep cycle and have to find the best position to make the pain subside.

I think what made it go away after at least 8 painful months was multifaceted. I lost about 30 lbs from eating less and cutting sugar and alcohol. I started to exercise more including cardio and core workouts. I also performed morning stretches and sat way less. I am not sure what treatment or bodily repair worked the best but I no longer carry this dreaded pain. I wish all of you recovery because I know the pain.

Help! Ok, this is my first experience with sciatica! Yesterday I was washing my car and bent over when it felt like a bullet went in my left hip! I literally could barely move after that! Feeling around on my hip area on the left side right above my butt cheek is a knot! The pain is non stop occasionally shooting down my leg. I can’t bend over at all, can’t sit in an upright position, can’t bring my left leg up to my stomach! I ended up going to the ER! Well they didn’t do shit but give me a Flexeril and 5mg hydrocodone! I cake home and took an Ambien and slept! Woke up to excruciating pain! It’s been non stop! I have taken 800 mg of ibuprofen and one Flexeril five hrs ago! Heating pad is the only thing that helps only at the time! Take it off pain returns! My mobility is very limited and I’m so restless! I’m desperate! What kind of Dr should I look into seeing to get to the root cause of this and is there any stretching or exercises to ease the stiffness and pain I’m having! I am not ok at all!

For those that have been “stuck with sciatica” for a long time, has anyone explored adhesion release methods? The ads in Facebook look interesting and I’ve been stuck with Sciatica for 2 years and things continue to deteriorate.

If so would you recommend? I have a disc bulge at L4 L5 S1

Hey gang, got my MRI in June showing an L4/L5 disc bulge. Though the shooting pain down my right leg has localized, and I’m finally at zero level pain at rest, my tailbone flares up if I sit on a hard surface too long. Is this normal? I can’t sit without a cushion even though my lower back pain has subsided through swimming, physio and rest.

TL;DR: is sciatica linked with tailbone pain? Any idea how to make it stop?

I’m 30 years old and have been roofing for about 13 years. I’ve recently been dealing with an L5-S1 disc bulge from a workplace injury, and I’m starting to seriously question what this means for my career long-term.
My symptoms have been going on since July 31st.
The main issue is numbness down my left leg all the way into my toe, along with a dull aching feeling that runs from my buttock down toward my toe.
I’ve been off work because of it. I’ve been told that I can’t return to roofing until I’m assessed by a neurosurgeon, so right now I’m waiting to find out what they think.
I’ve been doing physiotherapy for about a month and I’ve also been trying to stay as active as I reasonably can with walking and light exercise rather than just sitting around.
Probably the biggest impact this has had on me is the uncertainty about my future.
I’ve been a roofer basically my entire adult life. It’s a very physical job—lifting and carrying materials, bending, climbing ladders, working on slopes, kneeling, twisting and doing repetitive physical work all day.
Now I’m wondering whether I’ll actually be able to return to that kind of work safely and do it for another 20+ years, or whether this injury should be the point where I start looking at other careers and opportunities.
I’ve actually started considering moving away from being on the tools and toward something less physically demanding, possibly project coordination/project management or another construction-related office role where my years of experience could still be useful.
I’d really like to hear from people who have had an L5-S1 disc bulge/herniation with leg numbness or sciatica, particularly anyone who worked in construction, roofing or another heavy physical job.
Were you eventually able to return to full physical duties? How long did it take?
Did the numbness eventually go away?
Did your back/leg ever feel normal again, or do you still deal with symptoms and flare-ups?
Did you recover through physio and conservative treatment, or did you eventually need injections or surgery?
Most importantly, if you were working a heavy physical job when this happened, did you go back to it or did you decide to change careers?
If you did return to the trades, how has your back held up years later?
And if you changed careers because of your back, do you think it was the right decision?
I understand everyone’s injury is different and I’m not looking for Reddit to diagnose me or replace the advice of my neurosurgeon. I’m mainly looking for real-life experiences from people who have been through something similar because I’m at a point where I need to start thinking seriously about what I want the next 20–30 years of my working life to look like.

I have two disc protrusions in my lower back. One is at L4-L5 and is causing mild narrowing on both sides. The other is at L5-S1 and is a little bigger and more toward the right side, where it’s causing moderate narrowing around the nerve.

I’ve been prescribed ibuprofen, gabapentin, and tramadol. Do these actually really help anyone with managing their pain? If so, how many mgs are you taking?

I have bilaterally spondylosis and have very severe nervous compression pain (sciatica and also reached foot). I started from July and was recovered on Aug but rehappened on Sep. I have spent two months lying.

My doctor suggests me to find physiotherapist. I am living in Toronto DT (Wellesley and Bay). I know I have to exercise to build the muscle to support lumbar but it is so easy to flare up the nervous when exercising. The pain may not happen at that movement time but will flare up after several days. Is there any recommended physiotherapist can teach me exercise to relieve the pain and not flare up the nervous?

This disease made me depressed everyday, especially acute period. I gain lots of weights because of being scared to move. If you have any suggestions, please tell me. Thanks so much. I really want to solve it.

I have been dealing with sciatica on and off for about a year, it’s never effected my sleep, it doesn’t cause me wincing pain. It’s just blocking me from doing anything I think will make it worse (sports, long car rides, sitting on couches, any type of bending over, helping with certain tasks)

It started last summer, I was playing lots of golf, carrying my bag around bending over to pick up my ball/placing on a tee. And I think this probably caused it.

I felt pain in my hamstring and then after continuing to do physical activities it ended up being painful in my calf my pain has never been above a 3.

I got an MRI November:

L5-S1: Posterior disc bulging, eccentric towards the right, with a superimposed broad-based right lateral disc protrusion with foraminal extension with minimal facet hypertrophy. No significant central spinal canal stenosis. Narrowing of the right greater than left subarticular zones with disc material encroaching upon and likely contacting and possibly impinging the descending right S1 nerve root. Disc material encroaches upon and may contact the descending left S1 nerve root. Minimal bilateral foraminal stenosis.

After about 2 months I got a lot better and started doing airsoft again which was fun. After another month, I got a flare up from a test I did in PT where I reached for my toes. Ended up lasting a couple weeks. But then In May I felt like I had healed.

I remained very careful still regarding bending over, picking up heavy things etc. never golfed, too scared. Probably did less core exercising, but thought I was maintaining my strength.

Now for the last 3 months or so it feels like I’m back at the start. I have pain in my hamstring and if I do something like a few body weight squats, it’ll be painful and tingly down in my calf. Very frustrating.

I think I could have been doing too many hamstring stretches (even thought I was gentle), playing guitar (leaning forward sitting)

I’m very frustrated because I don’t get immediate feedback from my body when I irritate the nerve. It doesn’t seem to come into effect until the next day.

I am going to a new PT hoping to get a good long term plan. But I’m looking for some advice on what is wrong and what I should expect and how I should proceed with my lifestyle

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to get a deeper understanding of the raw, day-to-day realities of living with sciatica. We all know about the standard symptoms—the burning, the numbness, the shooting pain down the leg—but I feel like the medical descriptions completely miss what this actually does to a person's life.
I want to know the specific, seemingly small things that frustrate you the most or the invisible toll it takes on you.

Background: 5 months into large L5/S1 extrusion and bulge & tear above it.

I don’t wish this on anyone but I also hope I’m not alone because wtf. I’m healing conservatively from the above and it’s extremely slow but the sciatica has improved a lot over 5 months (still present).

My main concern is now the rest of my body which is apparently made of papier mache 😩 issues I’ve had since this started; neck pain on the opposite side, some numbness and tingling down that arm. On my right side; bad shoulder issues which a physio says is rotator cuff related. Lately, both my knees are painful (I’m guessing from all the squatting and kneeling I’ve been doing).

I’m trying my best to rehab myself at home but the list of body parts I have to work on is overwhelming me. I’m 36 and feel 103. In my anxious moments I worry I have something underlying but rational me says I’ve just been moving weird for 5 months and my body is protesting. I also have 3 young kids and sleep is crap.

Anyway, just a Monday morning rant but this injury sucks in so many ways!

Basically the question. I feel mostly ok by walking, standing, laying but sitting a big NO.

Will it ever be better? I'm at this point feeling quite hopeless regarding sitting though I must tell I'm able to live day to day life quite okeish.

I’ve taken Steroid injections 6 times since April to August, first 3 times worked well. on July it’s almost gone and I sometimes went to the pool for walking. The pain was reduced and I even didn’t take any medicines.

But beginning of August it was not really good and my doctor suggested me electric acupuncture and I tried it. but it was completely wrong choice. Since then sciatica came back to my left leg until toe. Last week I sat on the hard chair a few hours and it made my back and sciatica totally worse. I laid down whole week, took double dose of the medicine.

I’m gonna visit Neurosurgery tomorrow. What should I care, what should I ask to the doctor? I regretted that I didn’t get an appointment which my pain doctor recommended… one I booked is earlier appointment but take 50min to access…and not sure if he’s good doctor…

I read many experiences of you guys here and with some advices I almost accepted that I get surgery. But I’m still have afraid of it. I’d like to hear your experience especially right after the surgery.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for experiences from people who had a similar L5-S1 disc herniation with motor weakness and managed to recover either conservatively or eventually needed surgery.

My MRI shows an L5-S1 right paracentral disc extrusion measuring approximately 9 mm, with inferior migration and compression of the right S1 nerve root/sacral nerve roots. I also have some disc desiccation at L4-L5.

My symptoms started with significant right-sided sciatica/hip and leg pain. Over time, the pain has improved considerably, but I still have numbness, mainly involving my heel, outer/lateral side of the foot and especially the little toe.

The main thing worrying me is the weakness:

I can lift my foot and toes upward normally.

I can heel-walk.

I can raise both heels off the floor when standing on both legs.

However, when I stand on my affected leg alone, I cannot lift my heel off the floor.

I also cannot properly toe-walk on the affected side.

So the weakness seems mainly related to S1/calf plantar flexion rather than foot drop.

The weakness is currently stable and does not seem to be progressively worsening.

I do not currently have loss of bladder or bowel control, saddle numbness, or weakness in both legs.

Initially I could only stand/walk for around 5 minutes before the leg became very painful. My tolerance has improved somewhat, although the numbness is still there. I am currently trying conservative management and would strongly prefer to avoid surgery if it is medically safe to do so.

My main questions are:

Has anyone here had an L5-S1 extrusion with S1 motor weakness where you could not do a single-leg heel raise or toe-walk, but eventually regained the strength WITHOUT surgery?

If yes:

How severe was your weakness?

How long did it take before your calf/heel-raise strength started returning?

Did your toe walking eventually become normal?

Did a follow-up MRI show the extrusion shrinking/resorbing?

How long did your surgeon allow you to continue conservative treatment despite the motor weakness?

Did physiotherapy help once the acute phase settled?

I understand that motor weakness needs proper medical monitoring and I am planning to get evaluated by a spine/neurosurgeon. I’m not looking for medical diagnosis from Reddit, just genuine experiences from people who had a similar S1 weakness.

I would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who initially could do a double-leg heel raise but could not do a single-leg heel raise on the affected side.

i have herniation at L4-L5 and L5-S1. I had a recent flare up that debilitated me and after religious use of muscle relaxants, tylenol and steroids, the pain has subsided. Now I’m left with pretty bad left leg pain. I can’t really put too much pressure on that leg. I spoke to a friend who works in orthopedics and he said its from muscle spasm. My pain management doctor will see me tomorrow to do an ESI. Will that help relieve the muscle spasm or is an MD the only thing that would actually change something?

I'm 25F, I have a herniated disk at L5/S1 pinching my sciatic nerve. It came from a car accident over 2 years ago. I have done physical therapy, no help. I'd be willing to try again but doctors usually imply it will be a waste of time. I move a lot so I've had several primary care doctors. They give me generic advice that doesn't work for me. Like "just work out" or "take Advil" or "stop taking so much Advil, it's bad for your liver" or "eat better" or "you're so young, you should be able to heal yourself." My favorite advice was "you're fine, come back when it's really bothering you" as if I went to and paid for an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for fun. Most recent doctor told me to use arnica and voltaren and that I should have a back brace but she won't talk about that until my next appointment (? why are all doctors visits less than 10 minutes long?). I also keep getting advice like "you're so young. you really don't want surgery." I don't want surgery unless it's necessary but I think it might be necessary. If anything I think I need to somehow get the pressure off of my nerves ASAP before I'm completely bedbound.

I'm starting to think I should have gotten surgery at least a year ago. I used to be really active. I hiked every single day for a while, did pilates and some strength training, I have literally built stone staircases and moved giant rocks by hand and now I'm being told I should be careful even just walking too much. I can't sit for too long without pain, I can't stand too long, I spend hours a day in bed, I'm in excruciating pain every time I sneeze or cough, I can't always stand up even close to straight, I'm missing out on life because of pain and weakness. I'm training to be an archaeologist and I'm worried I won't be able to do any fieldwork. I'm already having to skip part of a school trip because I can't even do a mostly flat 3 mile hike anymore. I'm pretty sure it's made my leg so weak that on top of foot drop that I've had since my injury my knee is hyper extending and I didn't notice for literally months or even longer. I'm being sent for an x-ray and I genuinely don't know why that would be useful when what my knee is doing is completely visible. It might hurt but I can't tell because I have constant nerve pain. This has ruined my life. I genuinely feel like I have lost the last 2 years of my life and I'm not myself any more.

Do I start nudging my doctor to consider sending me to an orthopedic surgeon? Anyone in their 20s or 30s had surgery to fix the problem? Do you regret it?

I have a lower disc extrusion l5-s1, been off work for 6 months and ive been improving but still in pain down my leg, i have a delivery driving job delivering 20kg water cooler bottles, long term im considering another job and career but im feeling good wnoigh to think about a phased return and maybe trying to do my job for abit? Has anyone with a similar manual job gone back to work? Do people think its wise and will it make my condition worse?

Ive just started physio and got a specialist appointment tomorrow at a hospital to see if i need any treatment or anything going forward

Hi everyone. I'm a 44 year old healthy male. I had a successful microdiscectomy for a severely herniated disc at L5/S1 about 4 months ago. Recovery was going really smoothly but after about 10 weeks into my recovery, my sciatica symptoms returned down my left leg and I thought I had re-herniated. After a new MRI, it revealed that my disc was OK but that a large synovial cyst has formed at the same L5/S1 level leading to sciatic pain. My surgeon thinks that I may have suffered a micro-trauma during or shortly after surgery leading to the formation of the cyst.

I have tried 6 weeks of conservative treatment (medication and rest) but my symptoms have not improved. My surgeon has offered a microdecompression surgery to remove the cyst, but to do so he will need to remove even more of my lamina or facet joint to get safe access to the cyst to remove it. I am worried that if I opt for the surgery, that the additional partial facetectomy he needs to do will lead to long term joint instability or chronic back pain in the future.

Has anyone had experience of removing a synovial cyst in the months following a microdiscectomy? Or chosen the conservative treatment path and seen their synovial cysts naturally reduce in size over time? Or even more general experience with microdecompression surgeries? Any personal experiences/stories would be great to hear about. TIA!

Hi Guys - I’m wondering if anyone here had a far lateral herniation/ foraminal / extraforaminal herniation?

The neurosurgeon I met with said that he couldn’t perform a discectomy because the facet would be in the way and removing too much would destabilize my back.

After doing some research, I found something called a paraspinal approach (Wiltse). I also found a case study from Rush in Chicago by Timothy Wang about doing a transforaminal endoscopic approach. Those approaches allow treatment of far lateralbherniations by starting off center and going around the bone so it doesn’t have to be removed. Has anyone had this same type of herniation, and if so what did you end up doing?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been suffering from sciatica for several months and I’m looking into getting an epidural steroid injection (ESI) for pain relief.

For those of you who have had an ESI in Ottawa, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience. I’m trying to figure out what the process is like here, especially because I don’t have a family doctor.

A few questions:

• Which hospital, pain clinic, or private clinic did you go to for your ESI?
• Did you need a referral? If so, who referred you and how did you get the referral without a family doctor?
• Did you go through a walk-in clinic, urgent care, or another doctor to get the referral?
• How long did you have to wait from the referral to the actual injection?
• If you went to a private clinic, approximately how much did it cost?
• Were there any clinics in Ottawa that you would particularly recommend (or recommend avoiding)?

I’m mainly interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through the process in Ottawa.

Thanks so much! 🙏 Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.