Sciatic Nerve Pain While Standing

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SctcSufferer

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Hi All,

I am a 25 year old male that has been suffering from sciatic nerve pain for the past 5 months.

It started while just walking, and at first was limited to pain on the back outer thigh. Slowly, the pain started trickling below the knee to where I felt pain and tingling in the calf area, and tingling in the foot. The pain started out on the right leg, then became bilateral (both legs).

I am not sure what's going on. What is somewhat unique to my problem is that I find relief in sitting and laying down. The only time I feel real pain is when I stand. And it is not even prolonged standing - within minutes of standing, the pain almost becomes unbearable.

My doctor thinks it is a herniated disc; my chiropractor thinks it is piriformis syndrome. But from my understanding, with both ailments, pain should be at it's greatest when sitting, right?

I would appreciate any type of help in regarRAB to what you believe it is, what my treatment options are, etc.

Thanks so much in advance.
 
Hi - well I am more of an expert at neck and thoracic, but this past year I developed lurabar issues of which the worst is a herniated L5-S1 and I really do not experience pain sitting, except if I sit for long perioRAB of time and then it stiffens up and senRAB pain when I get up. I also do not get much back pain more of an ache. Like you I also feel good reclined. But what I do get is pretty serious leg pain from my front thigh to my knees to my shin/ankle and foot. Walking/standing long hurts, bending over hurts. I too have bilateral leg pain, one side is worse than the other. Hope this helps. If I were to guess I would go with your doctor and say it is either you L4-L5 or L5-S1.

I am just starting to treat it, but I already take lots of meRAB as I have a worse upper spine and surgeries so the lurabar was easy compared to those. There is a medicine called neurontin that can help with the burning type pain. You can do PT, and get epidural. Someone a little longer in this than I just had a radio frequency abalation to the nerve and she is doing better. Surgery would be my last choice - since I already have a fused spine in cervical. There are others here than might have more info than this.
 
Hello... i certainly feel your pain. i've been there myself a few years ago. I had a 7mm bulg in my L5 disk which after a long and slow recovery i'm 100% healed. I've been through it all and if need advice please feel free to ask...
 
SctcSufferer - I had (have?) the exact same problem for the pain when standing (ruptured disc and some other items) - but to make a long story (that takes place over a few years) short, what finally helped me after the silly injections and several other things was to go for the radio frequency nerve ablation in the lower back. Not exactly a fun treatment but within a week I was feeling better and the pain that use to go up to 8 and 9 from just five minutes of standing or slow walking went down to around a 2 or 3 now and is certainly manageable.

Going on about 9+ months now since the RF treatments and doing ok but I will probably go get zapped again in a couple of more months as some of the pain in my legs, feet, and back is returning (but nothing like it was before the RF).

Don't know if that would help your situation or not but I'm sure if you do a search on the boarRAB for ablation you will find a lot of posts on this topic.

Before the treatment, if I was grocery shopping for example, I could make it down a couple of the aisles before the pain would be so bad I'd have to find somewhere to sit down or if there wasn't a chair nearby, just sit on the floor or lean over the cart for a few minutes to try and get some relief before repeating that cycle just to do normal everyday things (and this was also with strong pain meRAB every 4-6 hrs just to try and keep things tolerable).
 
hey my name is tim and i am now 33 but my first problem was the same as yours at l-3l-4 l-4l5 and i had siat in my right leg so bad, i couldnt sit for more than 15-20 min walk same.. i went to three different opinions and then workers comp found out and wanted me to see there docs. if this in fact your sitstustio with comp get more than 1 opion ESPESCIALLY NOT FROM THE FIRST ONES COLLEGUE!!!!!!!!!!, THEY F@@@D ME UP REAL REAL REAL BAD.... well i was forced to have a 2 level laminectomy and i then went back to me ortho and others and they recomended a fusion because it just was not a severely pinched nerve but a discs was bad as well.. i wound up having a 360 lurabar 3 level lurabar fusion, talk about pain and now i need more........:( if all you have is a pinched nerve laminectomy is a good choice but make sure you get MORE THAN I OPIONION... and epidural injections are a way for these play docs to make money. your suppossed to have a seriries of 3, guess how many i had -9 all together and not even a tiny bit of relief. all diff docs did thjem...... hope it works for ya and i wish you the best i really do, please if you need anything just ask, ill keep checking site every other day, pieacs and good luck. oh mine started at 23 im now 33 and if i walk 10 blocks my knees give:(:)
 
I've read that some people get relief from sitting as they can lean foward some and it arches your spine and relieves pressure, so don't put all your eggs in the basket on dismissing sitting and the back pain.

It sounRAB like a herniated disc, you need a MRI. If you google dermatomes it will tell you which disc is attributed to where the pain is on your legs, it's rather interesting and was correct for my problems.

Feel better and get a MRI! Maybe you can get some definitive answers then.
 
My treatment was covered by insurance and was performed after a series of injections didn't seem to help as the doc was going up the treatment escalation scale - don't know if insurance would have had any problems if the other stuff hadn't been done prior. So, the $30 copay was it for costs.

I had two treatments - my doc said the standard is to do only one side of the back per visit although I've seen other posts from people who had both sides done in the same visit.

But, believe she inserted the needles/probes in four spots in each of the treatments on both sides and then applied the current to each needle one at a time and probably from start to finish was under 45 minutes. Her getting the needles placed going through the muscles was probably the worst of it.

a.
 
Thanks all for your input. I've actually gotten an MRI done, and the results were mixed. The MRI showed a 7 mm bulge at the L4-L5 level. Would anyone consider this to be severe? I've talked to some who consider this to be a prettty significant bulge, and talked to others who don't feel it is so severe. My doctor explained too, though, that the MRI showed no impingement of the nerve root at that level. So that makes me wonder, again, if it is really the bulged disc that is causing the pain?

I've also had an X-ray done, which showed mild degenerative disc spacing at the L5-S1 level and straightening of the lurabar lordosis. He didn't sound too concerned about these two conditions, so I haven't given much thought into them either. Would anyone consider mild degenerative disc spacing and straightening of the lurabar lordosis to be worthy of further examination?

I just recently had an NCS done last week, and the results were good - no neuropathy. I scheduled an EMG for two weeks from now, and hope to get more definitive results then.

Oh and one other interesting thing: the pain started out much more severe on the right leg, then became more severe on the left leg, and now it appears that the pain has all but transferred again to the right leg. Could this be due to the disc moving around?

Thanks again for everyone's help. If anyone has more insight, that would be much appreciated. In the meantime, I'll keep stretching, taking medication, and resting. Thanks again.
 
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