Sciatica Fluctuations - My Story

[nth_dimension]

Hi Everyone,

First of all, this site is great. Lots of positive stories, and frankly, the RYB blog and site in general seems to be an excellent and well thought out summary of sciatica and related matters.

I've had this problem since Febuary. It all started after a day shovelling snow off my roof, followed by a long flight, followed by an intensely stressful time at work. I was literally just working normally, and I felt things tighten up, and then when I sneezed, POW, back pain. This lasted a few days. I managed to get my job done in SanFran, and then flew home to Canada. The back pain was nasty, but I stayed at work and in about 3 weeks, I was mostly back to normal.

But the best was yest to come. At the start of March, right when my back was 90% better, my foot suddenly went numb. Again, it was after an INTENSLY stressful time. The numbness was combined with tingling, shooting pains when standing up from a sitting position, and shooting pains when coughing. I also had periodic jolts of calf pain that were random and extremely unpleasant.

I went to a couple doctors a PT's. All of them concluded that I did NOT have a disc issue, just "something" irritiating the nerve. I got a few exercises and then was told to wait it out.

Through to May, things got better. The symptoms moved up to my back and mostly out of my leg. The back pain was a problem, but I was happy to see there was progress. Then... at the start of July, they dropped down into my calf again. Sharp pains, cramps, that kind of thing. I'm not sure what happened, but it did!

Here's the funny thing. I went on vacation at the end of July, and the symptoms left almost totally. They were gone for the 2 weeks I was away, and i was at >95% for the rest of August.

Now they appear to be back again.

Overall my issues have been mild, and for that I am grateful, but this is a HUGE drain on my life and its starting to eat at my spirit. I've been a competitive cyclist for years (I'm 40) and my season has been totally shut down. Its so frustrating!

Do the symptoms fluctuate like this? All I have is cramping and pains in foot and calf, and the odd twinge in my back. Do they get better, and then get worse.... before getting better for good?

How much of a role does the mental spect play? I follow my symps and they seem to strongly correlate with my levels of stress and anxiety. I can have an event to go out to, and I feel great, but sitting at work with my mind on my problem, and my fears rise (what if this NEVER goes away?!?!), the symps flare up.

I've totally stopped all PT and exercise to see if that helps any. I may just check back in with my Doc and ask for an MRI for peace of mind.

Thanks for listening.

CK

[darius]

oh! no replies. i'd be interested to see how you got on. by the sound of it you have at least partially diagnosed yourself.
i do believe stress plays a big part as is proven by your holiday period. you are probably sitting down less and worrying less. western people seem to be unable to relax fully even when in a lounge chair. they are mentally still "on the go." that translates to tension in the lower back which is never relieved.
its possible you have a slight herniation around L4 and L5, did you have the MRI?
also you mention years of cycling. did you ever have any maintainence on your lower back to correct what might amount to repetitive strain injury?

hope you're on the mend now, darius

[nth_dimension]

oh! no replies. i'd be interested to see how you got on. by the sound of it you have at least partially diagnosed yourself.
i do believe stress plays a big part as is proven by your holiday period. you are probably sitting down less and worrying less. western people seem to be unable to relax fully even when in a lounge chair. they are mentally still "on the go." that translates to tension in the lower back which is never relieved.
its possible you have a slight herniation around L4 and L5, did you have the MRI?
also you mention years of cycling. did you ever have any maintainence on your lower back to correct what might amount to repetitive strain injury?

hope you're on the mend now, darius

Hi there,

This forum is pretty quiet now, its probably dead.

Anyway, overall I'm doing better. I still have days where the problems come back, but they seem less intense and shorter-lived. In fact, after making the original post back in September, I was as good as new a week later.

Sciatica really is a long term problem. I find that managing the mental aspect is CRUCIAL. You have to stay positive and keep up with things. Now... aside from some common-sense back care, I don't make any sort of accomodation based on whether I have issues or not.

The next step is to get rid of the problems once and for all! Its been 9 months, afterall