Sciatica « Back to Group Discussions

[oklamama]

Hey y'all. It's been awhile since I've posted...I've just been floating around all pregnant-like, feeling like superwoman. But now I've gto sciatica in my left buttock. It's really painful. I don't want to take any drugs. Have any of you had this?

[Mamabeakley]

I think chiropractic care could really help.  But is expensive.  But maybe worth it.  I don't think I would have remained functional through my 3rd pregnancy without regular chiro care (fortunately for our non-existent budget, this pregnancy is different and although my digestion is still totally messed up and ATM I can't breathe, my hips and the rest of my musculo-skeletal system is holding up.)

[mamaharrison]

find a licensed massage therapist that is versed in treating this. The massage will not be relaxing and may even be painful at times, but massage is very well indicated for pregnancy sciatica because it is mostly due to relaxed ligaments which stretch the attached muscles. There are many stretches you can be doing at home to help, too.
This is a great one--you should be able to open your legs wide enough to allow for belly to be there: http://www.moore-chiropractic.com/sciatica-stretches.html alternately, instead of using your arms/hands to hold under that thigh grab a long towel and thread it through your leg so it comes under the thigh and hold the ends with your hands closer to your torso. Make sure when you are doing this you keep your upper body, neck, head well on the floor and not cocked up as this will create problems in your neck. You can hold this stretch for a long time--5 minutes--it can be very intense, but that is OK and good. It is stretching the piriformis muscle, the most commonly associated with sciatic pain. You should do this 3x daily and anytime you are in pain.

FYI: a massage therapist will be working mainly in your gluts {your butt} with this massage, so, make sure it is someone you are comfortable with touching you there. Also, it can be done over underwear or a sheet, but is very effective with skin to skin contact--either way, your comfort should be respected at all times ; )

[oklamama]

Thank you so much for this. I haven't been stretching because it hurt, but now that I know it's supposed to, I'll get back to it. I live in a masseuse desert, so I may just try massaging it myself. I had been because I thought I had pulled a muscle. Thank you again.

[mamaharrison]

This is not a massage you can do yourself. It takes concentrated, static pressure directly on many trigger points and muscles deep inside of your butt muscles. You can stretch on your own! Where are you that there are a lack of Licensed Massage Therapists?? In Florida, we are crawling with them--though many are simply no good hacks who do little more than rub lotion on people. Chiropractic can help, too, but will likely need repeated visits throughout the pregnancy since the very nature of pregnancy is for the ligaments to continue to relax and that will continue to put pressure on that nerve :/ Just know it should be self limiting to the pregnancy and that with some work of your own--stretching, don't sit too long, nothing that seems to aggravate it--it will likely fade away soon after birth when your ligaments start to firm up again and pelvis tightens back up.

*side note soapbox* I don't expect general population to know this, so please, do not take offense to the correction. However, Licensed Massage Therapists are NOT massueses {see, I can't even spell it!} and we don't work in parlors ; ) The terms just scream of 'happy endings' and 'oriental spa massages' and as a whole I don't know any serious bodyworkers who are comfortable or identify with being called that. Just a bit of insider info ; ) In America, there is no National Licensure yet, and some states allow people to perform massages without licencing, but for those who are licensed we are Licensed by the Board of Health--the same as Medical doctors and Nurses and are considered healthcare workers. 

Note all the smiley faces--because it is hard to say that without seeming like I am coming at you...but I am NOT! haha--you are certainly NOT the first or last who will unknowingly make the dreaded mistake ; )

 

[oklamama]

I'm in rural SW Oklahoma. The only massage therapist I've ever gone to is my grandma (she's been a massage therapist for over thirty years)...and I now live about five states south of her. Now that you've defined masseuse, I can tell you that for the lack of massage therapists the nearest city has, it is certainly not short on masseuses (it's sort of a weird Army town).

[mamaharrison]

Try to find one here: http://www.amtamassage.org/findamassage/index.html?gclid=CJre2ZXJprECFcyc7Qod-WAAcg
Do you have Chiropractic offices or physical therapists near you? I would start with them--they may be able to refer you to an LMT. Maybe you just aren't aware of any LMTs and only hear about the prostitutes {that's what people who provide sexual favors for money are called in my book}. Military towns are kinda rife with that sort of thing. Is it near Lawton? 

Just keep stretching! If there are no LMTs then Chiro if you can ; )

[nhklh]

Ugh, yes, sciatica here last time which was helped with manipulative physiotherapy.

I've got it again this time too, along with a sprained pelvis.  I have a chiropractor whom I'm seeing as often as I can.  He said sitting and lifting will make it worse.  Avoiding those is hardly practical for me though, so I'm trying to limit them.

[tropicana74]

Try looking up the tennis ball exercise. I had a friend who had horrible sciatic pain during all her pregnancies. Her friend/chiropractor recommended she do the tennis ball thing at home and this was her saving grace for all 3 pregnancies. She said it hurts but is worth it. You can find a lot of info online about sciatic and tennis balls!

Couldn't hurt to try it!

[nhklh]

Yes!  And tennis balls while driving too.

[oklamama]

Thanks, everyone. I was nearly pain-free all weekend. I did some chair stretches, as I was literally unable to get down on the floor. I did almost no sitting and iced my rump/lower back for 15 minutes, every hour. Today I'm back at work, where I sit at a desk all day. I am standing today instead and again icing the soreness on the same fifteen minute schedule. I even managed a walk around campus. When the doctor told me about the tennis ball thing I thought "You dude must be insane. I would faint from the pain!". So, I'm glad to hear it works but also glad that I've managed to survive without it.
 

[stegenrae]

A couple thoughts...you can try to ease into the tennis ball thing by cutting one in half. It will reduce the amount of pressure you put on the trigger points, but still do the job. Hopefully you can get it loose enough to be able to work up to a regular tennis ball. 

Also, can you get an excercise ball seat thing at work? I've seen the ones that are basically rolling rings with a bit of lower back support coming up the side, and you just put the inflated exercise ball in the ring and call it a chair. (it looks WAY easier to move around with than just a ball by itself!) 

Thankfully, my periformis behaves in pregnancy...but my ever-troublesome sacrum can torque and I get intermittent sciatica from that and just a good adjustment and some ice keeps it that way for a couple weeks.

My usual pregnancy problem is with pubis symphysis dystocia (is there some latin grammar reason it's also called SPD?). I'll post about that separately...but have a fabulous physical therapy move that has actually staved it off so far. /tangent

[mamaharrison]

Originally Posted by stegenrae 

 pubis symphysis dystocia (is there some latin grammar reason it's also called SPD?). 

yes, it is just that in most other languages they put the adjectives in back of the nouns---So, we say, 'The red ball.' and many other languages say, 'The ball red.'
So, SPD is symphasis publis dysfunction--same thing ; )

[nosreves]

Originally Posted by stegenrae 

My usual pregnancy problem is with pubis symphysis dystocia (is there some latin grammar reason it's also called SPD?).

i'd actually always seen it called symphysis pubis dysfunction, hence SPD, but after reading your question, i looked it up online and found it referred to as pubic symphysis dysfunction and PSD in many places, as well.  

please do post about your experiences with SPD and your tricks/tips for how to deal with it!  i'm suffering quite a big from PGP right now, and i'd love to have your input.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamaharrison 

yes, it is just that in most other languages they put the adjectives in back of the nouns---So, we say, 'The red ball.' and many other languages say, 'The ball red.'
So, SPD is symphasis publis dysfunction--same thing ; )

this is  and a bit nerdy, but i'm a language geek/teacher, so i had to add my .  adjective placement isn't necessarily after the noun in *most* other languages...it's much more complicated than that.  in Romance languages (the languages most closely related to spoken Latin, i.e., Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian and Catalan), adjectives *tend* to be placed after the noun; however, this is not an absolute rule.  in French, for example, you would say "the ball red" ("la balle rouge") but you would also say "the little/right/wrong ball" ("la petite/bonne/mauvaise balle") as you would in English.  in Germanic languages (like German, Dutch, English, etc.) the adjective is almost always to the left of the noun it modifies, but again, there are exceptions.  in the two non-Indo-European languages i've learned, the adjectives seemed to be placed before the noun more often than not.

i'm sure that's way more grammar-related  than most people here care to think about, though   /geek