8 Months of Unrelenting Sciatica Pain

Steroid pills never did a thing for me

Man I've had it since September last year and it's just now going away. I'd reccomend getting a prescription for prednisone and doing nerve glides

I’m on Gabapentin 300mg x 3 a day, Cymbalta 60mg am and 30mg pm. I also have a therapeutic massage therapist that is extremely knowledgeable every 2 weeks. I also ice my sciatica when I start to feel pain. Do NOT use heat as that makes it worse. Stay as active as you can, stretch out your glutes, (YouTube) is a beginning to watch and see what you can do. Gentle and controlled exercises are the best. Yoga is great! I take CBD oil when I’m having anxiety about feeling the pain begin to help me relax. I take a muscle relaxer when needed. I’m in chronic pain daily but controlled enough now to have a life. Still have bad painful days where I rest, ice, take 800mg of ibuprofen (prescription), and walk the house and/ or do gentle stretches if I can. I’m sorry because I feel your pain, literally!

Hi sickem! I’m Julia, age 20. also suffer from sciatica and back pain. It’s really an awful thing. I see from your profile that you are on Cymbalta. I am not sure if your doctors have placed you on this due to depression or chronic pain. Either way, cymbalta has been shown to help alleviate nerve pains. I was on it for a little while found that it did help slightly. Maybe you want to talk with your doctor about increasing that dosage. I don’t know what you have tried and have not tried but I could only assume it’s been just ab everything. Currently I feel that my pain has been brought more under control because of working closely with a pain management doctor. She has placed me on 4 medications all of which address pain in different ways. Maybe you would want see a pain management doc who deals with medication management. The first one is Gabapentin. This med helps reduce the signaling between nerves in the spinal cord by working on gaba receptors. It’s meant for chronic pain. This medication is very similar to cymbalta but works on different neurotransmitters. The second kind of med she has me on is two muscular relaxers. When the muscles are more relaxed the nerves don’t become entrapped so it’s less likely they will fire and cause your pain. The last kind of medication is an NSAID naproxen. This reduces the amount of inflammatory enzyme produced. All of these medications I take three times a day. Gabapentin 300mg 2x per day and 600mg 1x per day, Naproxen 500 mg 3x/day, bacolfen 20mg 3x/per day, and flexeril 5mg/3x /day. Maybe you would want to go on a similar medication regimen? Have your doctors done an MRI? I have had multiple MRIs over the years tracking the progress of my degenerative discs, hypertrophic facets as well and a grade 1 retrolithesis at S1. Last January I had surgery after battling the pain for 5 years. It helped a lot!! But unfortunately I reinjured my back and now need a second surgery. It’s scary to think you need spine surgery but it is better than suffering endlessly with the pain. Some docs told me I didn’t need it but I kept seeing different docs until I found one that truly listened and cared and was willing to do the surgery. Have you done PT? I feel like it’s a stupid question to ask bc most ppl in our cases have. One thing I found is when I can keep my core and glutes activated it helps to keep the pressure off my spine and therefore help to alleviate the pain. I also have a massage 1 a week which is helpful. I know this may not Be an option as it is expensive. Finding a chiropractor that specializes in sacrum alignment is a great Avenue to try as well. The sacrum is the base for the whole spine and when it is out of alignment, the rest of the spine will be as well. When the spine is not aligned properly, the pressure from walking sitting etc will be distributed wrongly and therefore worsen herniations. This might be an Avenue to try as well and one I found some slight relief from Finally, gentle stretches of the quads , hamstrings and glutes I find helpful as well. I’m sorry you’re dealing with so much pain :( and I hope at least one of these suggestions will help.