sciatica and back "butt" pains..

[ironman]

Better to ask your doctor.

We don't know what the hell we're talking about.

Great point Todd!!

I had the same problem 3 years ago and I thought it would never go away. I kept stretching and stretching, and finall, it has gone.

I laid fal ton the floor with my legs straight and would pull my knee toward my chin and hole it and hold it,,,over and over agian, 2-3 times each day. Itt never felt like it was doing any good, but, little by little the dam thing went away.

I feel for ya as it can really be painful!

 

[Quesports]

Start with....

I suffered sciatica many years ago and my ortho gave me two choices excersize or the knife.. I chose to do the stretching excersizes and strengthening workouts for my first choice. It was all I ever needed and I have never had an issue since. My advice is see a highly respected sports related orthopeadic doctor and try some excersizes first if that does not work you may have to consider other options. JMO
GOOD LUCK ,hope you feel better soon!!!
Dan

 

[WKRP]

Train, I have some expertise here and will try to send you a pm tomorrow (I'm traveling right now and having trouble posting from phone) I would not treat yourself and would make an appt with your primary doctor. I'll send some info and questions tomorrow. Paul

 

[Robert Raiford]

I have a lot of problems with my lower back, and especially my sciatica. I have a lot of pain in my right leg, and went to a masseur and a chiropractor, both gave up because it only helped shortly. I am eating a lot of painkillers just to walk. I am going to my doctor again tuesday.

Maybe it is the way I stand in pool, but I don't know, I hope not.... But I was playing pool every day untill it began to hurt.

I was wondering, has anyone else here had this kind of problems?

What did you do to get it fixed? or any suggestions I should bring to my doctor?

I saw doctors and therapists of various kinds without relief, but was determined to figure it out myself when they couldn't do better than painkillers to treat the symptoms rather than determine and address the underlying cause.

What worked for me was discovering the McKenzie exercises, and boy am I glad I did! I carefully followed the self-diagnosis procedures in Robin McKenzie's back and neck pain book 7 Steps to a Pain Free Life and concluded that mine was the kind of pain the exercises could address. (The self-diagnosis steps let you know by your body's responses whether the exercises are capable of helping you or if you should seek help elsewhere, so it would probably be useful either way.)

Now I'm pain-free most of the time. I understand the behaviors that trigger my pain and the before and after exercises I can do to avoid it. If I'm lazy about the exercises from being pain-free for so long and get pain anyway, I can just do them then and it goes away. Oh man, to think of how much time I wasted trying to solve this for my situation suffering through a reduced quality of life...ouch.

Good luck!
Robert

 

[Cue-Z]

I had the same kinda pain a couple of years back. Found out that I was stretching on the Pool Table and holding my leg up. Now I rest my leg (thigh) on the table as much as possible.

I didn't even realize that I was using my butt and back muscles in a way that caused this awful stabbing pain. Once I changed this bad habit, pain is all but gone. The pain that is left is when I play for 8 hours straight. Otherwise NO pain. Hope this helps.

I agree with most here. Discuss this with your Doctor before you give it a try, OK?

 

[smokeandapancak]

I have been through the motions with these same problems...

First time I was 18-19.. I gained a shitload of weight in a very short time after a big deal ankle injury that ended my prep sports tenure. I went on several meds and PT..took about 6 months but it went away..poof..gone...

Came back in Kosovo.. Iwent down and down hard..MRI..PT..Meds...the works. L4 and L5 were degenerating disc and blah blah blah I had a 50 yr olds back....same story as everyone else in this thread.. I almost got a med board out of the Army...almost did the surgery.then it went away again..poof...

I still get a tweak everynow and then.. but I lost alot of weight two years ago (235-180) and have held a good shape since... losing weight and getting those abs tight can do wonders..



p.s .. drop the wallet...makes a big difference.

 

[whitewolf]

Take it from me who had severe sciatica down my right leg to the point where I was gonna quit pool---- get an MRI, find out which disc is pinching the nerve---- and go into surgery to get it fixed. Forget the chiropractors, forget the exercises, forget the stretching - forget all of that --- none of it works like hacking out the chuck that's causing the problem.

AND--- another thing.... follow your doctor's instructions. Don't drive, DON'T play pool, don't do anything he tells you not to do--- otherwise, you'll be like me and have to fade 2 surgeries instead of 1. I was playing pool 3 days after surgery because I "felt ok." HA - bad move.

My lower back hurt so bad I had to use a cane to walk. Plus, I could not sit in a car or padded chair without much discomfort.

My chiropractor and orthopedic surgeon worked together. I had a body scan where they shoot you up with radiated dye - for my hip. Yes, it is possible where a hip that is wearing out can cause your back to hurt like hell.

That test up okay with some small dead spots, so the next thing I did was to get spinal injections to kill the pain. This worked like a miracle and 15 years later I am walking without a cane.

The bottom line is: DON'T GET BACK SURGERY UNLESS IT IS A LAST RESORT. Andybody will tell you this because you probably end up worse off than before.

 

[dardusm]

A couple people have already mentioned this but I was having sciatic pain and did a little research. One cause can be sleeping on too soft of a mattress. Try a stiffer mattress for a few days and see if this helps. It helped me. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest.

 

[JimS]

See a doctor. Follow instructions.

 

[rayjay]

Yep, Spiderweb nailed it. Your sciatic nerve is being pinched and you need to find out what is doing it and fix that. Get an MRI. I had the same problems, finally, after several years of struggling with it, got an MRI and found that I have spinal canal stenosis, which is the canal that the spinal column travels down the spine is getting narrower like a rusty pipe, and pinching the sciatic nerve. The MRI also found degenerative disc disease and arthritis, all in the lower lumber, so seperating them out and finding the cause of the effect on the sciatic nerve took a few visits. Good luck and reread Spiderweb's first post.

 

[MitchAlsup]

When I took up pool (again after a 35 year hiatus) I started to get a bit of hip-pointer. After a couple of months I figured out it was the way I was standing at the break (and the power being put into the break via the back foot). After switching from the standard stance to the Snooker stance it does not hurt nearly as much.

 

[bud green]

My dad did Pilates and started swimming and his back pain lessened quite a bit.

I'm another back cripple half the time. Chiropractic works for some I guess, but after 40-50 adjustments I honestly don't feel any better overall.

Strengthening your core, improving your posture and a good mattress seem to be the best bets unless you really need to go under the knife.

 

[SCCues]

I have a lot of problems with my lower back, and especially my sciatica. I have a lot of pain in my right leg, and went to a masseur and a chiropractor, both gave up because it only helped shortly. I am eating a lot of painkillers just to walk. I am going to my doctor again tuesday.

Maybe it is the way I stand in pool, but I don't know, I hope not.... But I was playing pool every day untill it began to hurt.

I was wondering, has anyone else here had this kind of problems?

What did you do to get it fixed? or any suggestions I should bring to my doctor?

I tried an inversion table to see if it would help my back pain and I was very pleased with the results.

Here's a link to one of the top inversion tables on the market:

http://www.teeter-inversion.com/

James

 

[richy1471]

Hi all, my first post on here. I'm from Scotland, and i used to be a pro snooker player. I had severe back pain for years and put it down to playing, went for physio and acupuncture all the usual stuff, nothing worked. I was at the end of my tether and had to give up playing. 2 years ago a specialist sent me for mri and x rays, and found that i had a fractured spine and that it was causing pressure on the nerves and spinal cord. I had a spinal fusion done. It was 6 weeks lying down only moving to go to toilet and another 6 weeks to learn to walk again.
Please go see a doctor and have all the proper diagnosis. then you will be able to do the right things and maybe get some relief. Hope you get better.

 

[ShootingArts]

always diagnostics first

Hi all, my first post on here. I'm from Scotland, and i used to be a pro snooker player. I had severe back pain for years and put it down to playing, went for physio and acupuncture all the usual stuff, nothing worked. I was at the end of my tether and had to give up playing. 2 years ago a specialist sent me for mri and x rays, and found that i had a fractured spine and that it was causing pressure on the nerves and spinal cord. I had a spinal fusion done. It was 6 weeks lying down only moving to go to toilet and another 6 weeks to learn to walk again.
Please go see a doctor and have all the proper diagnosis. then you will be able to do the right things and maybe get some relief. Hope you get better.

You are absolutely right of course. Anything anyone does should be started by trying to find the problem. No amount of exercise or stretching is going to help some mechanical problems and can make some worse.

A friend had a bone spur bearing on a nerve much like the pressure you had. The good news is the doctor went in with a hammer and chisel. Knocked the bone spur off and my friend did great from then on. Hopefully you will be able to play again if that is what you want to do. Sounds like your operation was well worth doing.

Hu

 

[Terry Ardeno]

I watch Accu-Stats

I have a lot of problems with my lower back, and especially my sciatica. I have a lot of pain in my right leg, and went to a masseur and a chiropractor, both gave up because it only helped shortly. I am eating a lot of painkillers just to walk. I am going to my doctor again tuesday.

Maybe it is the way I stand in pool, but I don't know, I hope not.... But I was playing pool every day untill it began to hurt.

I was wondering, has anyone else here had this kind of problems?

What did you do to get it fixed? or any suggestions I should bring to my doctor?

Train,

I had a 4 hour long back surgery (fusion, instrumentation & lots of other stuff) back in April. Nothing but easy walking, lots of rest and many meds until two weeks ago, when I started physical therapy. I was looking forward to starting to get better because on a 1-10 (10 being you moan out loud or scream if you're not a manly man ), I average a serious 9. Most days, it takes 15-30 minutes just to get out of bed. Once I'm up, it's much better. Problem in my case is I can not, no matter how hard I try, get up off a lying position because the pain spikes well over anything I ever imagined. Anyway, this past Friday night, I was admitted to the hospital and kept for 3 days. I feel the same as when I went in. Next appointment w/ the Docs is in the middle of the month.

IMO, surgery should be the LAST or FINAL option for anyone with severe back pain. Myself, I had no more options. Just be very patient and go slow, expect only slow results and don't get discouraged. Others are always worse off than we are, sad to say.

I want to add that our very own Shooting Arts (THE Honorable Hu Lowery) is somewhat of a genius when it comes to knowing almost all that can be known about a back and surgery for it without actually having a license to practice medice! He has been my very own version of WebMD and he really does know what he's talking about, being someone who has endured multiple surgeries himself. He has a very good spirit about dealing with this, and he's kept me laughing hard! Dude is a very funny man!

I plan on getting back to work someday, not to say anything about how badly I want to use my new KF Cue that Tony Crosby got me! But on most days, it's just nice to be able to even walk slowly in the house with a cane, cause some people can't even do that.

I think as we get older, we'll see that we break down more and more. Slowing that down is the trick....

 

[Rod]

I had lower back surgery when I was 54. I tried other avenues but it did not work and I was in severe pain. I got to where I could move around but my range of motion was very limited.

I talked to a friend who was a nurse. He told me the only people to see if I decided on surgery was
http://www.thebarrow.org/index.htm. He said they only accept the top two surgeons from each class so its the best of the best. I did as he suggested it was the best decision I ever made.

I won't go into details but the surgeon gave me high expectations. It was true, after about 30 days I went through rehab for another month or so. At that point my range of motion was very good, about 85% of normal. I'm not sure of the exact time but within a year I had very near full range of motion, over 95%.

The best part of course is I was pain free before I left rehab. It takes time to recover from spinal injuries. Do not rush as others have said. I do not know if the OP even will need surgery but if you do I strongly suggest Barrows.

Sometimes its amazing what the correct exercise will do. Sometimes I still have problems, not surgery related. I find what helps most is tighten up the abs, stretch the hamstrings and of course keep the weight down.

Rod

 

[grindz]

Ouch......

This thread makes me cringe. I'm counting my blessings now..........
I won't be complaining about a sore back anytime soon!!!

Best of luck to all of you that are in pain, and prayers sent your way today.

td

 

[Robert Raiford]

I just wanted to mention that I may have given the wrong impression by referring only to McKenzie 'exercises' like it was Pilates or something. It's more precise to refer to the McKenzie Method, since it is more a diagnostic approach to troubleshooting back pain in general. There are exercises to be sure, but only if it's determined if they can address your specific situation, and which ones you do depend on what your specific problem is. In no way was I suggesting to do them blindly or without the benefit of traditional diagnostic medicine through your regular doctor.

I got MRIs with and without contrast, as well as x-rays, ultrasounds, etc, and was shuffled from specialist to specialist. I knew I had no interest in risky surgery except as a last resort, and I also knew that many prematurely jump into surgery that introduces new problems without fully addressing their original problem. I also wasn't interested in taking (mostly ineffective) painkillers forever either.

I was determined to be fully informed before making my decision, and that included an exhaustive search of legitimate alternatives (not to be confused with 'alternative' quackery like homeopathy and the like, and I put most of chiropractic in that category as well.) The McKenzie Method is the only thing I found that worked, and I was upset that none of my doctors ever considered it (or even knew about it) during the many many months they 'treated' me.

After very carefully working through the McKenzie book's diagnostic steps myself, doing the recommended exercises and postural changes for sitting/sleep/etc, my pain started to centralize and disappear as described and then I was pain-free in a week! One f*cking week later after all that time of ever-increasing suffering...what a strange simultaneous feeling of relief and frustration!

Of course, testimonials like mine are in no way a form of evidence and should always be regarded with skepticism (the plural of anecdote is not data ) However, they can certainly be useful as a guide for where to do further research. Go and listen to your doctors, but don't passively leave it up to them to solve your problem. They just move onto the next patient, while you have to live with the consequences of your/their decisions for the rest of your life.

Robert

 

[MVPCues]

Here's a tip. If you have a thick wallet, don't keep it in your back pocket and sit on it all day (driving too).

I second.

I have had slight back pain now and then, though nothing major. It was almost always on my right side, lower back, where my wallet is. I moved my wallet to my front pocket some years ago and have never looked back. I believe it has helped me. I move it to the back only to play pool for when I lean against the table.

Kelly