Painful Journey with Sciatica

This personal account of overcoming Sciatica comes from my father. Its a fantasy way of saying he has a pinched nerve I suspect. You could see this account as the medical service being thorough or over-servicing. Hmmm...at the end of the day you end up with the knowledge that you are ok.

I am a 72yo, reasonably fit man for my age. I played a lot of sport throughout my younger days and have always been an active person, living a life in the outdoors, enjoy gardening (i.e. I grow clivias on the Central Coast NSW, Australia). I have for many years practiced simple yoga regularly and for a number of years now have been careful about my diet.

In May 2011, over a period of 2-3 week, I developed pain extending down my right leg as low as my ankle. I became useless and had to sit down and put my feet up to diminish the pain. The doctor performed X-rays and prescribed pain-killers (Voltarin, Norflex, Tramal, Norspan patches and Naproxen), however most of these drugs made me feel sick and the patches which went on my shoulder made me violently sick for weeks, whilst the pain persisted. The X-rays didn`t reveal much and the doctor wasn't sure what was causing the pain.

I then had a few sessions of Physio. The well-qualified physio (with 2 diplomas) suggested some stretches and indicated some tightness in some leg muscles. He gave me a leaflet and didn't do much else for me.

Meanwhile, I was thinking it was my hip playing up (since I had had a hip replacement on the left side 10 years previous as well as a partial knee replacement on this same side as the leg pain). I decided to put my name down to see an Orthopaedic Surgeon - which entailed a 6 week wait. Now August, I also decided to get a CT scan done and get some injections (into the L4-5) to no avail. No one could tell me what ailed me, however the CT scan did identify spinal stenosis and a disc bulge or protrusion in the L4-5 disc and so it went on. I eventually got to see the Orthopaedic Surgeon who said I had no worries with hip or knee. He also conveyed that “the pain would go away in a few months!!!".............not saying why it would go away!!!

I however continued to go to muscle therapists, chiropractors and Physios as the pain endured. I still tried to do exercises and stretches to no avail. I had become quite depressed during this 5 month period. I had no trouble sleeping as when I lay down the pain left me. One day I awoke in the morning with no pain. It eventually subsided as the Orthopaedic Surgeon indicated. In about the 1st week of December I called the surgeon's secretary to provide feebdback; that the pain had gone away he anticipated.

I had found out just before this follow-up from a pharmacist that: hard tissue gives way (succumbs) to soft tissue (bulge & nerve). I would have loved to have known this whilst I was enduring over 6 months of pain; that when there is a bulge or a protrusion it entraps the nerve against the hard disc (pinched nerve) and causes pain all along the sciatic nerve (the longest nerve in the body) branching out behind the knee and travelling right down into the foot.....the hard disc eventually wears away and the pain subsides!!!

So there you go. After editing my dad's account, I empathise with his painful persistance. :)

Something interesting to me in this account is the fact that my father went back to his doctor with feedback. This is important, though I suspect there is a lack of formalised process by which this can be done. i.e. Telling the secretary probably will not make it to the surgeon. There really needs to be a third-party database by which doctors can log-in and amend and update a patient's records, so this can be used by researchers who study such issues. I really think this is a problem with our medical institutions...that there is a lack of process. This is often the case with professionals. I guess we can sympathise with doctors because they perform some 6-8 years of study, and then they have to learn software. Maybe they wouldn't have to if research was on the job? Then they might be using modern medicine.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com