Which is worse? The disease or the cure? For sciatica patients, it can be tough to know. While many treatments are prescribed for sciatica, no standard intervention boasts compelling long-term outcomes. Justin B., like many other sciatica patients, bounced from treatment to treatment, and some of his attempts to solve the problem set him back further.
Justin grew up in sunny Sydney, Australia. Through his teens, he was as active and carefree as a young man could hope to be. That changed in 2010. He was twenty-one when new physical limits were unexpectedly imposed.
He was leaving work one day, when he noticed a strange tingling down one leg. By the next day, the tingling had expanded into full-blown pain. He couldn’t walk, let alone play sports.
Concerned, Justin immediately made an appointment with his general practitioner, who ordered an MRI. When the results came back, Justin learned he had a few abnormalities in his spine – a bulging disc, spondylosis at the L5/S1 level, and bilateral foraminal stenosis.
But even though some potential causes had been identified, treatment remained elusive. Justin was first given a prescription for physiotherapy, but after attending a few sessions he conceded that it was not working.
Exploring Alternative Treatments
He then embarked on a tour of alternative treatments, hoping to find something to prevent or dull the regular, intense, flareups that would leave him bedridden for days at a time.
He overcame his initial reservations about being poked with needles in the name of therapy, and tried acupuncture. Once he got used to it, he found the sessions relaxing, and they did provide a modicum of relief. But ultimately, acupuncture wasn’t effective enough to justify the cost and inconvenience.
He tried a couple of chiropractors, who employed a couple of popular therapies. First, he tried decompression, in which he was strapped to a table that gently stretched his spine. The price tag suggested a premium treatment, yet Justin noticed no difference before and after.
Justin also visited another chiropractor who specialized in the McTimoney method, a relatively gentle chiropractic technique which, although popular, does not have much hard data regarding its effectiveness.
The chiropractor himself seemed knowledgeable, with a strong dose of woo-woo. His massages included odd pinches and clicks. Despite the chiropractor’s unconventional approach, the treatment did seem to help. After each visit, Justin would be temporarily pain-free. He would have been happy to continue his sessions, but once the chiropractor moved away, Justin no longer had the option.
Pharmaceutical Interventions
Justin wasn’t opposed to trying pharmaceutical options, either. His flare-ups were so intense that any treatment that helped him take his mind off the pain seemed worth a shot.
His doctor prescribed Tramadol (an opioid used for pain relief) and diazepam (a benzodiazepine often used to treat muscle spasms and anxiety). He wasn’t familiar with either medication, but found that they worked, after a fashion. They didn’t eliminate the pain, but by popping enough pills, Justin could reach a euphoric state where the pain didn’t matter.
Before his sciatica started, Justin would occasionally join his friends and sample recreational drugs. He first tried marijuana at age fourteen. But it remained an occasional, social activity – his experiments were limited to perhaps once a month, and he never developed any signs of addiction. By his mid-twenties, he had tired of social drug use and stopped.
The prescription meds, though, were another story. Justin increasingly relied on them to manage his pain, and during a flare-up, he would binge. “The pain would be so bad that I would pop as many pills until I would reach a euphoric state,” Justin said. “I would still feel the pain, but the euphoria would distract me from it.”
He was addicted, he knew. And what’s more, he realized that binging on powerful pain meds wasn’t healthy.
He might have continued to do it, though, if he didn’t have a good reason to stop. As luck would have it, a good reason did arrive on March 19th, 2017, when Justin’s long-term partner gave birth to a daughter.
Justin realized he had too much at stake to continue his high-risk practices with painkillers. So he weaned himself off the Tramadol and diazepam, and looked around for less potent alternatives. He returned to cannabis, and for the first time in his life, started smoking daily with a vaporizer. He also started taking Meloxicam, a prescription NSAID often used as a pain reliever.
Lifestyle Changes
Neither medications nor therapies did much to eliminate the pain or prevent recurring episodes, but Justin noticed that certain activities affected his pain. He stopped playing organized sports, and tried less strenuous exercises like swimming and cycling. Cycling has brought the most relief, and Justin credits regular cycling with reducing the number of flare-ups over the past few years.
He started paying close attention to his posture in order to avoid positions that caused pain. Sitting, even with proper back support, tended to cause flare-ups, so he started using an exercise ball when working at his computer. He realized that some positions were more comfortable than others while sleeping. He now prefers to sleep on his side with a pillow between his legs, or on his back with his legs supported by a pillow. Soft beds do his back no favors, and are best avoided.
Justin was also forced to switch career tracks. He started out as an early childhood teacher, but the physical demands and requirement to sit at the children’s level could be unbearable. He switched to primary education, and now spends most of the day on his feet.
Outlook
Now, at age thirty-one, Justin has been dealing with sciatica for a solid decade. He is not cured, but he has learned how to keep his sciatica in check. The flare-ups have become significantly less frequent.
Despite the limitations sciatic has imposed on his life, Justin is also grateful for the lessons it has taught him. “In the end, I sometimes see sciatica as a blessing,” Justin said. “Yes, it nearly killed me a few times from drug abuse and depression. But it also forced me to make big life changes that have bettered me. I am quite fit and healthy now because I HAVE to be. I know my body so well; I can avoid the horrible pain.”
He is also active in online support communities. He knows first-hand how sciatica sufferers can reach desperate lows, and offers support to those who are standing where he once stood.
For those who are in the midst of their own pain nightmare, Justin offers words of encouragement. “Do not give up. I know it feels like there is no end, but there always is. If you are living in hell from sciatica, keep going. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck in hell. Once you find what works for you, you’ll have your life back.”
