3 ms·

No advice, just commiseration. Am going through a sciatic period (in my case it causes numbness down my leg, not pain). For decades I’d sit sort of weirdly with

by epc 5y ago

No advice, just commiseration. Am going through a sciatic period (in my case it causes numbness down my leg, not pain). For decades I’d sit sort of weirdly with my right leg tucked under my left, it made my lower back feel better, but allegedly trained the sciatic nerve to move to just the wrong spot. Pilates helped mitigate it until Covid. Everything I’ve read about mitigation involves various piriformis and IT band stretches and posture corrections, as well as hectoring about diabetes (which is both on target and misdirected in my case).

Normille 5y ago
Thanks for the commiseration. I suspect my case is Piriformis too, which causes the same symptoms as Sciatica, but less likely people would have heard of it. Doubtless self-inflicted too as I'm the kind of "no pain, no gain" person who grits his teeth and carries on exercising through injuries. In this case, I carried on cycling a few times after feeling a pain in my buttock while out on the bike one day. With these unfortunate consequences. Last time I had a bad attack like this was about 5 years ago, in similar circumstances. Hopefully this time I'll have learned my lesson and will stop working out next time I feel the tell-tale twinge. Twice in one lifetime to go through this hell is enough for anyone!
- epc 5y ago
  I had chronic lower back pain and sciatic numbness for years and completely separately (or so I thought) problems with my knee (going down stairs was excruciating). The knee pain was dx'd as IT band / piriformis syndrome. P/T for the knee coincidentally helped alleviate the lower back pain and sciatica. I eventually got into Pilates which seemed to help stave off all three problems (until Covid). I have a degree in English lit and zero medical qualifications but it sounds like you compressed the sciatic nerve on the ride. Can you get your doctor to recommend some P/T to try to release that?

by epc 5y ago

Normille 5y ago

Thanks for the commiseration. I suspect my case is Piriformis too, which causes the same symptoms as Sciatica, but less likely people would have heard of it. Doubtless self-inflicted too as I'm the kind of "no pain, no gain" person who grits his teeth and carries on exercising through injuries. In this case, I carried on cycling a few times after feeling a pain in my buttock while out on the bike one day. With these unfortunate consequences. Last time I had a bad attack like this was about 5 years ago, in similar circumstances. Hopefully this time I'll have learned my lesson and will stop working out next time I feel the tell-tale twinge. Twice in one lifetime to go through this hell is enough for anyone!

epc 5y ago
I had chronic lower back pain and sciatic numbness for years and completely separately (or so I thought) problems with my knee (going down stairs was excruciating). The knee pain was dx'd as IT band / piriformis syndrome. P/T for the knee coincidentally helped alleviate the lower back pain and sciatica. I eventually got into Pilates which seemed to help stave off all three problems (until Covid). I have a degree in English lit and zero medical qualifications but it sounds like you compressed the sciatic nerve on the ride. Can you get your doctor to recommend some P/T to try to release that?