Member-only story
MY LIFE
Sciatica Sucks
Do I really need my left leg? Really?
A few weeks ago, I began having intermittent pain in my left leg. It was annoying. I figured I’d pulled a muscle somewhere, or maybe a tendon had slipped out of place. I’m usually an enthusiastic walker, but walking soon became less and less fun.
Now, when I cross the street to go to the grocery store, I sit down at the bus stop, to ease the pain. Then I sit down again at some benches at the corner of the strip center where my grocery store is located. Then I sit down again just before entering the grocery store.
People have begun asking me out of the blue if I’m all right.
Inside the grocery store, I grab a cart to use as a rolling walker, and I pause it a few times during my shopping so I can angle my leg in such a way that the knee and thigh pain will subside for a few moments.
Last Wednesday, I’d had enough and scheduled myself for x-rays on Thursday. I’d thought it would be spinal x-rays, but no, it was just front-view and medial-view films of my leg, from the hip to the toes.
I looked and didn’t see anything out of place. My orthopedist came in, looked at the x-rays, and said, “Well, your leg looks great. No arthritis, at least in the knee. Everything looks fine. Unfortunately, x-rays don’t show us the nerves or muscles.”
Well, that’s a great lot of help, isn’t it? I thought.
Then she manipulated my leg while I lay flat on the examining table. This caused me no pain at all. She moved my leg this way and that, bent it at the knee, tested the ball-and socket joint at my hip — no pain, just slight twinges of my muscles letting me know they were being stretched.
The final conclusion was a pinched nerve with a prescription for steroid anti-inflammatory meds and 4–6 weeks of physical therapy, three times a week.
I’m no dummy; I’m taking the physical therapy. Dr. Google informed me that one cause of sciatica is poor core strength, caused by a sedentary lifestyle. I work in admin support, and I am a writer in my spare time, so I spend many hours of my day seated. I don’t have one of those cool desks that moves up and down.
