MetaChat - Can I Get Some Commiseration?

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11 January 2007

Can I Get Some Commiseration? I know I am a hopeless lurker, rarely adding to the conversation, but today I am home from work, and can surf and comment, because I'm having a wonderful attack of sciatica. →[More:]

Anyone had this? Is there hope? If I lie down, my leg hurts like hell after a while. I stand up and it hurts like hell. I sit? It hurts like hell.

My Doctor says: Lose weight, do yoga. Okay. After I can function again... My chiropractor says, this is going to hurt for a while. Lose weight. Do yoga.

'Kay. I get it. But meanwhile?

post by: mmahaffie at: 13:09 | 19 comments

Poop. Sorry. I should have done a "read more"....

posted by mmahaffie 11 January | 13:10

Acupuncture might help.

posted by Hellbient 11 January | 13:11

Yeah, I'm thinking about that as an option as well. Among my blog-friends here locally is a fellow who has been a yoga instructor. He's been helpful with some tips. I'm just tired of feeling like a dentist is working on teeth that happen to be in my right leg.

posted by mmahaffie 11 January | 13:13

Yeah, I was going to suggest acupuncture too. Sorry you're owie.

posted by Specklet 11 January | 13:18

(I more-insided you!)

Sorry you have to go through this, mmahaffie. See what you can find out about therapeutic massage - especially "alternative".

My husband has a congenital (I guess) back problem that means occasionally it gets very bad indeed. There have been a couple of times this Russian guy was able to make him feel much better with this sort of strange (rather painful) massage thing. I know nothing about it; we just call him "the pinch doctor" and he's had success with some people suffering some problems that shouldn't really respond to massage, as far as conventional thought goes.

posted by taz 11 January | 13:31

Hang in there mmahaffie. My sister has sciatica occasionally and it doesn't sound very fun.

posted by chewatadistance 11 January | 13:57

...strange (rather painful) massage thing. I know nothing about it; we just call him "the pinch doctor"...

Sounds like myofascial release, and it's excruciating.

posted by mudpuppie 11 January | 14:10

Hmmm.... I'm all full up on excruciating for the moment.

posted by mmahaffie 11 January | 14:14

Ice? Heat? I don't know what to do when nerves hurt...

posted by youngergirl44 11 January | 14:20

Got any intoxicants laying about?

posted by Specklet 11 January | 14:39

Yeah. Therapeutic massage. A chiropractor that specializes in ART. Ice. I'm dealing with the same thing as we speak and am finding relief with those three things. I know your (excrutiating) pain.

posted by mike9322 11 January | 14:49

This page of exercises for sciatica was recently recommended to me for a family member. (There are links on the left there for specific exercises depending on what's causing the sciatica.) Maybe some of those would help for now, without having to gear up into a full exercise/yoga program?

posted by occhiblu 11 January | 15:38

(That is, "without having to gear up into a full yoga program right now.")

posted by occhiblu 11 January | 15:39

Youngergirl, the ice/heat thing is interesting. You need to know what the cause of the irritation is. If it is muscles in spasm, heat can help. If it is inflammation, then heat can make things worse. Mine seems to be the latter, so I do ice, especially when I'm driving.

Ah... intoxicants. My current meds suggest staying sober, but I am sorely (ahem) tempted.

Mike9322, you feel my pain. And I your's. I plan to discuss ART and massage with my Chiropractor tomorrow.

Occhiblu, I had also found that page. Very useful. And comforting in a "It's not the end of the world, though it may feel like it" sort of way.

posted by mmahaffie 11 January | 16:19

Yeah, I was searching around online last week because it felt like I seriously fucked up my low back in a yoga class, and it was comforting to read that moving around was better than resting it too long. Before reading that, I kept thinking that any movement was going to cripple me for life.

(And that's what I get for taking a yoga class at a gym...)

posted by occhiblu 11 January | 16:30

My sin was not paying attention to the growing problem over the last two weeks, and then volunteering to drive a mini-van filled with pre-teens and teens to a Dance Academy audition an hour and a half north of here last Saturday.

There is irony in their stretching, pirouetting, and being generally graceful in one room, while I'm in the next trying to writhe in pain and keep perfectly still at the very same time.

I just don't plan to relish that particular irony quite yet.

posted by mmahaffie 11 January | 16:37

Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry.

There are times I'm glad I don't have a car -- it always seems so scary to be stuck somewhere and have something like that happen, then have to pilot a huge machine in order to get back home.

posted by occhiblu 11 January | 16:54

Aw, mmahaffie, I hope you find relief soon. Back pain is the suck.

posted by jrossi4r 11 January | 17:03

I left out the lucky fact that the Lovely Miss Karen was along and drove the girls home (and me to the ER).

posted by mmahaffie 11 January | 17:32

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