I feel your pain, I am surprised they injected without an MRI. I lived with this since a incident at work . I eventually had to have a lumber fusion. Before this I had many spinal injections, and all with success, be sure you go somewhere like suburban imaging, that is all some Drs. there do and they use an imaging camera so they can watch the needle. I would usually get relief about four months and you can have 3 a year. I am 74 now and have chronic pain but a lot of that comes from arthritis and I live in Minnesota lol. any thing I can help you with let me know

@junebug15, Thank you so much for posting about ART. I just looked up and read about it, and I think that will be a great help for my chronic sciatic, hip, leg, knee and ankle pain! I have found a provider in my area, and as soon as we get home from our vacation in Yosemite, I will make an appointment.

On this vacation in Yosemite, I walked well over a mile yesterday, in pain the entire time. I kept walking through the pain though because I wanted to be with my husband. I lost 85 pounds through RnY Gastric Bypass surgery 3 years ago because I wanted to be able to hike and walk with my husband when we retired and were able to take off in our 5th wheel whenever we wanted. I pictured myself healthy and slim and hiking in places such as Yosemite. I was so happy to lose the weight, and SO disappointed that last September after our vacation in Costa Rica and Panama, I injured my L5S1 to the point where I needed surgery to relieve the bone impinging on my spinal cord. That surgery worked! However, the pain on my right side back, hip, sciatic nerve all the way down to my ankle and toes has been awful. I was on 3 pain medications for 6 months, but decided this spring to get off 2 of the medications, Gabapentin and Baclofen. I have done that successfully with minimal reactions since I tapered off slowly.

I noticed that after reducing the medications, my pain actually improved. So, we planned this vacation to see how much I can actually do. The last time we were in Yosemite with our grandchildren, I couldn't walk very far or very fast due to my weight. I weighed 230 pounds and it was just too hard and hot for me to do very much. I ended up waiting while everyone else hiked up the hill to see something beautiful, and I was really embarrassed. My husband let me know, without saying anything, that he was not happy that I couldn't go along with everyone else on even short hikes. I decided then that I would lose the weight before we went again. It was hard for me to make the decision that I would get the surgery because I felt I was taking "the easy way out." Let me tell you, this was not the easy way, but it was successful after many years of my dieting and exercising to lose the weight. I now weigh 145 pounds and feel great not lugging around the extra 85 pounds! But then came my back problems.

After yesterday's hiking I wanted to cry because I pushed myself to go further each time I thought I probably should stop due to the pain. I would rest for a few minutes and then be up walking slowly with my husband again. I was truly exhausted last night, but my husband and I were both happy I was able to do as much as I did. This morning my knees and legs were very sore and painful, and my sciatic nerve was about the same as usual. My husband offered to go into the Yosemite Valley by himself for the day and let me rest, and I agreed that would probably be best as I would have been starting out at the level of pain I was in at the end of the day yesterday. He got dressed and went to the bus stop to catch the bus into the valley for the day. I got up and got dressed and as I was dressing, I realized that my pain was much better than earlier in the morning. In fact, I felt the best I have felt since last August! I quickly put on a sweater and walked briskly to the bus stop, hoping the bus was as late as it had been yesterday. Disappointedly, the bus was on time, and I had missed it. So, I walked briskly back to our 5th wheel, feeling very happy about how great I am feeling!

I think all that walking actually forced my muscles to work and all the rusty joints and muscle knots and tightness loosened up. I have felt that my muscles are almost frozen in tightness, and moving them was so painful it was hard to push on through that pain. Yesterday, I wanted so badly not to be handicapped that I kept pushing on through the pain, and I think it worked! My pain is not so much in my back or spine as it is in my sciatic nerve and all the muscles in my thighs, right knee, calf, and ankle. Using all those muscles got them going again and they seem to have liked it! I think adding ART to this is just what I may need to get back to normal again. I'm only 68 years old and I'm not ready to give in to being an invalid due to chronic pain. I still have a lot of living, traveling, and fun to have after having worked all my life.

Thanks again, Gail B

I notice that both @junebug 15 and @gailb are interested in Active Release Technique (ART) as a way of dealing with pain from their sciatic nerve. This came up in discussion more than a year ago, and some of the major points of that discussion might be helpful here in assuring that members have key information about ART.

First, it's primary purpose is to help fix "soft tissue disorders." Soft tissue is mainly muscle tissue, not bone or joint or spine or nerve problems. Here's a quote from the ART website itself: "About Active Release Techniques® (ART®) -- Dr. P. Michael Leahy started Active Release Techniques® over 30 years ago. ART® began when Dr. Leahy was working with elite athletes as a way to treat soft tissue disorders so they could get back to peak performance as quickly as possible. Dr. Leahy studied engineering in the Air Force before becoming a chiropractor in 1984. As he watched athletes perform, and studied their movement he realized he could combine what he knew about engineering with his chiropractic knowledge of anatomy and biomechanics to treat their soft tissue disorders quickly and get them back in their competition."

Second, note that the ART is a registered trade mark. That means it is protected for commercial purposes and it is a proprietary method of therapy. As a general rule, this may mean that the technique has to be paid for by the practitioner who applies it to a patient. Whether that's true in individual cases -- and how much that adds to a patient's bill for treatment -- are worthy questions.

We would be grateful to learn about results from ART therapy from any Connect member. That too will help members decide whether to pay the price for muscle repairs to treat pain from physical activities.