The reason I drink watered-down soy sauce is…for my health.
Category: Sciatica
I Could Tell You What My Sitting Pain Feels Like, But You Wouldn’t Understand
Every time I’ve tried to explain what my sciatica feels like, I walk away from the conversation feeling like I’ve failed.
Working With a Sitting Disability Survey Results
To answer these questions, I created a survey, which I shared on the Sitting Disabilities Facebook group on June 14th. After a week, I collected the results, and summarize them here.
Book Review: CROOKED: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting On the Road to Recovery by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
Crooked was sufficiently useful that I listened to the audiobook twice, and then bought a hardcopy so I could page through it more carefully. In many ways, it changed my thinking about back pain and treatment, and made me realize that my failure to respond to the treatments prescribed to me has less to do with my own unique situation and more to do with the failures of the system.
“Sciatica” Is a Sexy Topic for Search. For Research, Not So Much.
“Sciatica” is a subject of great interest to the public, but for researchers, it’s barely an afterthought. Scientific interest in sciatica is dwarfed by that in the broad but nebulous “low back pain.” And interest in low back pain is in turn dwarfed by that in other neurological conditions.
Kelly’s Story: When Sciatica Is the Family Legacy
Kelly fully appreciated how devastating back problems could be, having witnessed a family member’s hellish trek toward a cure. Her mother has a history of herniated discs, and at one point the condition was so debilitating that she couldn’t walk or sit for more than a few minutes without experiencing pain.
Justin’s Story: Advances and Missteps Through a Decade of Sciatica
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.
Shannon’s Story: The Test of a Sunny Disposition
It was like he had stepped on a lightning rod. The current curved from his back through his left hip and reached down through his leg and ankle. “It was just the most painful thing I’ve ever felt,” Shannon said. “It was so painful I couldn’t speak. All you can do in moments like that is hang on for dear life.”
It’s the Middle of the Night, and the Pain Is Still Here
As people tend to do when they are awake because of pain, I ruminate about the pain.
Epidural Injections: The Weakness in My Bones
So did the epidural injections accelerate the bone density loss in my lumbar spine? I couldn’t prove it in a court of law. Since I didn’t have a DXA scan until seven months after my last injection, I don’t know for sure if the injections were correlated with bone loss. Even if I could prove causation, I don’t think any doctor knows for sure what effect that will have on my fracture risk thirty years from now.