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Sciatica and Fibro

Carrigon

Senior Member
Messages
808
Location
PA, USA
Does anyone else get severe sciatica? I'm wondering if it's some kind of part of the whole Fibro thing at this point.

I have it so severe now, the last two weeks. There's a whole area of my lower back that feels fused. I wake up feeling like someone tried to pull my leg out of the socket. Severe pain in the spine in the lower back. I've just started trying some stretching exercises in hopes of loosening and strengthening it. But it is just killing me. I've had to resort to the muscle relaxant and a pain killer at this point.

I think I toss and turn alot in my sleep and I'm some how doing something to it without realizing it. I don't know what to do about it anymore. But it's bad.
 

Glynis Steele

Senior Member
Messages
404
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne UK
Hi Carrigon,

My daughter was seeing a physio a while back, and I complained to him that I had sciatica. He told me to put a box under my feet when I was sitting down, and make sure that my knee was lower than my hip. I had to make several adjustments to the box, until I felt more comfortable. I then stayed still for a while, and it helped hugely. It only plays up now and again these days, and I get a box out immediately. HTH.

Glynis x
 

voner

Senior Member
Messages
592
Carrigon:

I certainly empathize with you. Have you ever heard of trigger points and referred pain? From my reading, trigger points occur in muscles that are severely overworked -- i.e. -- bad chemistry and weak. A number of us have discussed trigger points/trigger point therapy in this post:

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?12813-What-Triggers-Your-Trigger-Point-Pain

and here's a pretty good interactive webpage that allows you to select a muscle group and see what is it's trigger point pain referral pattern:

http://www.myofascialtherapy.org/symptom-checker/

When muscle can clamp down with trigger points causing some shortening and contraction, and because the surrounding muscles to do the same, and it goes on and on -- and then they all have pain referral patterns and they can just get totally miserable.

I had/have luck with a physical therapist who is a member of American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists who also does dry needling. These physical therapists are very hands-on -- and apply osteopathic and a range of hands-on techniques. If you have the insurance, or the money -- it'd be worth a try. Just tell the therapist to start slow and easy because the manipulations can take a toll -- but I certainly find it worth it. The dry needling can be momentarily painful -- and then, for me, but about a day and a half the area is sore -- and then the muscle is much much happier -- and the referral pain areas and diminished drastically.

There are other disciplines that are hands-on and do dry needling also, and you might check them out also.

I certainly have not found anything curative about this -- but through dry needling and some of the other techniques they use -- I found relief. I'm one of those overdo and crash type people -- and I've never learned any other way -- so the trigger points and misery can come back, and commonly do. But over time I've found some significant relief depending on how much I overdo it -- and nothing else ever has produced relief and I've tried tens of tens of different techniques, drugs, supplements, etc.

I've also found some significant relief for the long-term by the practitioner identifying what muscles I am no longer using -- especially the core muscles along the spine under the stomach -- and muscles shoulder/neck/shoulder blade area. It's amazing how many muscles but I just absolutely stopped using -- and couldn't even engage -- until it was pointed out to me and I started engaging them.

I hope this helps someone. It's not a panacea for me -- not by any means -- but it has helped, sometimes dramatically.
 

Gavman

Senior Member
Messages
316
Location
Sydney
Common problems with the lower back tend to be the hamstring and hips. Loosening these with stretches, if your body can handle it (otherwise i'd be looking into supplementing with magnesium and maybe potassium. If you want to go down that route, there are body therapists who can loosen hamstrings and hips quite effectively.

Psychologically the stomach is the hotbed of emotions so psychologists/stress management/meditation can be useful with that.