Wife has severe hip pain and most likely sciatica

It does sound like sciatica. Sciatica pain is miserable. I use Voltaren gel, Flexeril 5 mg (a prescribed muscle relaxant) and a heat pack for mine when it flares up. I can't tolerate oral NSAIDS (Advil, Motrin, etc.) which is what is usually prescribed. Mention Sciatica to the doctor and get his take on it. Praying for her.

Every morning I sit with my coffee and newspaper with an ice pack on the sciatica nerve part. After about 20 minutes I'm able to walk without a limp for most of the day. That's my diagnosis and treatment only for me. Don't know if it will help her.

@madisonmusic Hello and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Your wife’s leg pain sounds awful so I hope members here can help her. You say that you’ve been to many doctors in Wisconsin but that nothing further is done. What have the doctors suggested for the pain? Unless the problem is with the spine, surgery isn’t done.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/arthritis-and-joint-conditions-268850/
I posted a link to the Bone Health support group where there are several discussions about sciatica. I hope you can take the time to read them.
How often will your wife have PT?

We've been through cortisone shots (works about 25% of the time), but our insurance doesn't cover it, so it's been an expensive and uncertain road for these.

Not sure about PT - They have to evaluate her on this on the first visit and will then determine frequency.

Thanks for your post!

I had severe sciatica pain down my right leg this Summer. I too started with chiropractic after an 8 day period of titration of prednisone, and got some relief from the pain. The cure for me came from twice weekly physical therapy combined with daily exercises prescribed by my therapist. Now, after 10 weeks of pt, I am ready to be discharged to my home exercise program. Can the six week delay in starting physical therapy be reduced?

Has she had an MRI done? My 2nd MRI showed a benign tumor on my tailbone pressing on the sciatic nerve. It took 9 months of pain and meds and chiropractic before this was discovered.

@madisonmusic I wanted to share with you some information about Lumbar Plexus Compression Syndrome. This can happen when hip flexors in front are too tight and some thing can pull the pelvis out of alignment. It can produce symptoms similar to a lumbar spine issue and sciatic pain. I had experienced this myself and worked with a physical therapist on it. One reason I have this issue is because one side of my body is too tight from my chest through my pelvis and it pulls a "hip bone" forward and the overly tight hip flexor helps this happen when I have been sitting too much. This happened a couple days ago and I was able to stretch it out and stop the sciatic pain. It also helped me to switch sides that I sleep on so I could stretch the tight side by laying on it.

Yes, I have been through this and I have experience with doctor's not telling me what is going on. They will tell you that most sciatica goes away by itself and that's true. That's one of the reasons you don't get definitive answers. They give you mild medicines at first, because the stronger treatments/medicines have side effects. They also say it is hard to diagnose, you need to have X-rays and MRI's. Additionally, a lot of people throw around the word sciatica but that's very general. You need a diagnosis such as deteriorating disk disease or slipped vertebrae and sometimes it is a combination of things. I finally had to say, "WHAT IS MY DIAGNOSIS?"

They are right to be careful with stronger meds. They are right to be careful with surgery. I took an oral steroid (for 6 months) and an NSAID (for about 8 months) for pain and ended up in the hospital with diverticulitis (a big deal).
I had a meeting with a surgeon in which he gave me a lot of useful information, then, he told me it might not work. Steroid injections have been helpful, but they have not completely taken the pain away.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

Sorry for your wifes pain. I can sympathize as I encountered the same problem. Five years ago (I am 85 yrs now) I had a Laminectomy/decompression procedure at Mayo and it was 100% successful in relieving my sciatica! I can't say enough about the absence of pain. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

By the way, prior to going to Mayo the Drs here in Wisconsin told me it was a condition of age and I must live with it ! Drs at Mayo concluded I was a 'prime candidate' for the procedure !