Sciatica

Several months ago I posted that I was experiencing lots of nerve pain after spinal surgery. I had gone to PT for about 10 weeks, and while my muscle strength improved the nerve pain was still substantial. I decided to try a different approach to PT that I had read about called FCS or fascial counterstrain. At the time I indicated that I would update everyone on my progress. I initially found out that most issues require about 4-6 visits to get significant results. In my case it took 5 sessions to eliminate 90% of my pain. This was nerve pain that I had experienced continuously for 9 months. I am now virtually pain free. I think for anyone seeking help, it is worth investigating. To learn about it go to counterstrain.com. You will learn what it is and locate a practitioner in your area. I am now back to the conventional PT that I was doing before to regain my muscle strength.

@roma76 Thank you for sharing your experience here which is very valuable. It sounds like you had an excellent surgeon. I am glad to know that your surgery prevented a possible future serious problem by fixing the instability in your spine.

@denman55, you may want to read through this discussion started by @roma76 with her experience as she went through spine surgery.
Spine Health - "Will lumbar spinal fusion solve my leg pain or just add new pain?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/will-lumbar-spinal-fusion-solve-my-leg-pain-or-just-add-new-pain/
Jennifer

I recently had surgery for sciatica. Pain diminished for a few weeks but is back. I need a walker to walk. A recent MRI shows more issues in lower back. Not sure I want steroid injections or more surgery. I’m on pain meds. Not sure what to do next.

First let me warn….this does not help everyone as comments on this blog will show. But my spinal cord stimulator does reduce my pain by about a third. On some settings it takes away my sciatica completely. But I have so much low back pain when I reduce one area then another area is difficult. What works best for me pain wise is to combine 3 tools and each takes away about 1/3 of my pain: the spinal cord stimulator, Cymbalta and Lyrica. Unfortunately, Lyrica does make me gain excess weight so I am struggling to find a substitute for that. But everyone is different so you may not experience the weight gain. Hope you find a solution!

Ask for a second opinion from a surgeon who specializes in back issues and a third opinion from an orthopedist that also specializes in the back. That's what I did and I did have back surgery and now I have no sciatica or back pain.
Good luck.

Thank you!

I had sever sciatica about a decade ago. It went in for 2 years. I went to numerous doctors, even the Cleveland Clinic. Well out of desperation I tried an acupuncturist. She examined me and found that my hip joint was partially out of the socket! She gently pushed it back in, and the pain vanished! You would think one of the many doctors I saw would have figured this out.
I wanted to hug her! ❤️😊

Has anyone tried dry needling for relief from sciatica? I am just starting and curious to know if anyone else is and their reactions

@susanjane77
I am a 55 year old female and had dry needling on my neck muscles when dealing with cervical stenosis and myelopathy/radiculopathy. I personally did not like it and it was very uncomfortable. It did not seem to make my symptoms any better. I also have lumbar stenosis, degenerative disc disease, sciatica and neurogenic claudication. I was never suggested to get dry needling for sciatica. I had PT and massage to try to stretch, strengthen and relax surrounding muscles. You may want to research more about whether dry needling does much long term to address sciatic nerve pain/entrapment.

@susanjane77 You might want to look through the many discussions on dry needling to learn what others have shared. Here's a search link that lists the different discussions - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/discussions/.