Sciatica

My Right- sided sciatica, going from my butt all the way down to my ankle has now crippled me. The pain is excruciating and I am having difficulty sitting, standing and walking. My question is: Who do I turn to for treatment? and what treatment/procedures or surgery can be done to help this? My back condition is: Lumbar spinal stenosis which I believe is the cause of the sciatica and I have had an MRI. I'm scheduled to have an epidural steroid injection, but it's only a band-aid and don't think it will help. What treatments has anyone else had for this debilitating condition?

I had exactly what you describe but in episodes that would lessen in severity and then return. I had one injection to L2-L3 (L4-L5 was too constricted to allow the needle in. The timing was while the radiculopathy episode was waning so not sure it helped. My spine specialist was willing to do one more 6 months later when another episode hit. He also wanted me to consult a neurosurgeon colleague in the spine clinic. I did so and scheduled surgery at that 90 minute consult. I had anterolisthesis and dangerous degree of movement of the L4over L5 (shown in X-rays done with your back extended). I needed that to be stabilized since a large additional movement could be catastrophic. My surgery completely solved my leg and butt pain. I could walk pain free the day after surgery. I am 4 months out and gradually getting back to normal level of activity. Still so grateful for the surgery which was done with an orthopedic spine specialist attending and 3rd year neuroscience fellow assisting. I recommend finding a surgeon who spends time to explain your individual situation thoroughly. Mine along with his team spent nearly as long before surgery as during surgery (5 hours) explaining to my husband and me. They accurately predicted the hallmarks of my recovery. Best wishes. We are all different challenges but yours sounds so much like mine I had to write!

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.

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.

Boy do I feel your pain!!!! I have the same and more. Everything with an S I have, I had lower laminectomy with fusions L3,4,5 ?? not sure but think he should have done more, and a lot of arthritis removed. I was OK , for a bit. I am thin so my spine sticks out of my back and has shifted to the right side with a huge curve. Not attractive and can even be seen through a shirt , I can not sit back on anything without a cushion,, standing , sitting all will trigger the sciatic nerve from the back, a major spot that is a large bulge , which is the major source of pain, my Dr still has never told me what it is, scans just show major anatomical changes. I had a choice from Ortho Drs, to do a full on spinal surgery with rods, poles, cages etc,, I said no and my neurosurgeon agreed to do what he did that would be the least invasive.. He is a great Dr, and I did feel like a real person again,, but now I am much worse, I used to be able to walk 20 miles a day, hike up mountains, walk through an airport for hours,. I refuse to let this get me so I still do my treadmill 2 hours a night. granted not the speed I used to or incline,, I walk through the sciatica pain , if it gets bad, I stop , take the right leg and pick it uo with the left hand and stretch it all the way over to the other side,. it feels good and will break the cycle,, until the next time.. I started to do on the floor PT .. laying flat on my back, lifting one leg at a time and stretching,, then knee bends,, then crossovers,. If I can make a habit of this it helps.. On a normal day I work I am on my feet all day and I still have to smile through the pain,, there are times I have to just sit at my desk and put my legs up,. have a roller device I now use to roll on the thigh ,, it helps... What made me respond to you was your desire for the stimulaor. Please seriously think about this,,. My Mom had 2 failed back surgeries plus I am sure she never did much for PT, as she is lazy... so she opted for the St. Jude one when it first came out, the thing never worked,, eventually they removed it. We all begged her not to get another but she opted for that quick fix,,, well that quick fix ended up nearly costing her her life and it has sucked the life out of me.. after about 5 years with that in her, again never really worked as she was always whining about her back pain and on pain relievers , and then spending more and more time in bed.. One day her back was wet.. I looked and she had a gaping hole in her spine the size of a quarter, that was beyond anything I have seen,, I had my dad take her to the Dr right away,, very poor medical here, she was being treated for wound care but it wasnt until the right Dr, looked at her , which was my spinal surgeon,. said the box was visible in the hole and full of bacteria and he did the surgery to remove it,, Dr,. stated the leads were loose or disconnected , those are wires in your body,, foreign substances... he said the box became contaminated , who knows for how long , inside or her that eventually it ate away through her skin,, there is much more to this story but I gave you enough,,, I do not know have statistics to say how many people it has helped or what the infection rate is.. but please ask. My back is severe and I would never put one in,, I have looked into these belts you can wear that have the stimulator on the outside on the back.. ask your Dr about that , a cousin of mine got one,, a company neuro med makes a pad you affix to your spine I am researching,, I am sched, for another MRI to find out what happened , You are not alone,, . and about the neck,, yes the neck is part of the spine, But i do not believe it controls the part that causes sciatica .. I had cervical 3 levels 3 years ago,, horrible surgery, still have pain at night, but I do exercises before bed to loosen them up and wear a collar at night,, I will tell you stress is the #1 reason on top of all of the other life issues that rears its ugly head when we least expect it,, I am a stage 4 metastatic double cancer survivor with 15 months of chemo,,that was hell but I will tell you living with chronic pain on a daily basis has been a lot harder and it can really get you down,I wish you well and to receive some relief from this way under researched phenomena of spinal pain,, Carry on!! Jacquie

I have just recently been hit with sided sciatica. The pain down my butt and leg are making it impossible to sit, stand or walk. It's come on quite suddenly. Normally my sciatica is on my side - that has calmed down. What can I do at home to relieve the horrible symptoms?

@justclintdavis Hello and welcome to Connect. You are correct that sciatica can be caused by spinal cord compression in the neck. I am a cervical fusion patient and prior to surgery, I had pain all over my body that was being caused by spinal cord compression. Part of that was sciatica, and my pain would change locations when I changed neck positions. Having surgery that decompressed my spinal cord fixed all of that. I found literature that sometimes sciatica is the symptom that leads to the discovery of spinal cord compression. I will share some literature here and you may want to discuss this with your surgeon in case you want to change course and address the issues in the cervical spine. Many surgeons miss this and all the surgeons I saw before coming to Mayo also missed it. All of these articles describe phenomenon called "funicular pain" and there is no diagnostic test for it except that decompression surgery fixes it which proves the diagnosis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111492/
https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-020-03299-x
https://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/1999/06150/Sciatica_Caused_by_Cervical_and_Thoracic_Spinal.17.aspx
I have not had a spinal cord simulator and don't need one because my c5/c6 fusion took care of all the symptoms. If your surgeon does not want to consider this as a possible diagnosis, you will need to get another opinion and put this literature on the table at the start. I found myself in that position of having been dismissed by a surgeon, and then finding this, and no doctors who knew me would help me address it with the surgeon who missed it. I suggest asking it as a question by asking if your case is like these cases in literature that you found. Let the doctor take the information and get back to you after having time to look at it and think about it. You don't want to put him on the spot and embarrass him if he has not heard of this. They must find a relationship between the imaging and your symptoms to justify surgery and the spinal simulator is because you have pain with an unknown source. I had my surgery at Mayo and the surgeon was familiar with this type of symptom.

Good luck in your quest!

Jennifer