r/Sciatica

I’m only about 6 weeks in but the pain is unbearable. Throughout those weeks the pain has changed and no longer causes back issues, but my buttock and burning shooting pains going down my leg. It’s bad enough I’m currently trying to collect some painkillers and I haven’t made it 2 minutes down my road before having to stop and crouch down to try and stop the pain (I have taken ibuprofen to no avail)

It’s come on suddenly and with no clear reason, however I do have a back injury from having to jump 35ft to escape a murderer - they said I have disintegrating lower plates on the MRI - this has caused a dull ache in my lower back across the last 6 years but super manageable until now.

Do I need someone to check this out further? Was diagnosed on the phone and confirmed by a PT. Said I still have reactions so isn’t that bad basically.

I feel I have a pretty high pain threshold, I’m covered in tattoos and I broke 15 bones that day amongst other issues and stopped pain relief after a week. This is making me question if I even want to be alive.

Hello I will keep this short , but i'm freaking out. Yesterday was my first post ope and I felt fabulous.I was walking around laying comfortably in my bed.My leg pain was gone. Fast forward to now. I think I'm over 36 hours from my M.D and my leg is sore again , and i'm so stiff , I can barely move. Is this normal? I was home alone , but my mom is here now. I have my self all freaked out about d.V.Ts and that the surgery failed , even though I know I read online , that my leg pain might not be gone when I woke up. The problem i'm having is that it was gone , and now it's back

Hi all,

I am a 27F. I got the mentioned back injury a month ago at the gym. I immediately went to the doctor and got the MRI done. It showed 3 disc bulging with tears on two discs. Then I got the epidural steroid injection. For two weeks after getting the injection, I was told to restrict movements. After that, my physiotherapist started with basic exercises.

Now I have pain in my left hip, which comes and goes.

I want to know if with such an injury, I would ever be able to have an active life again. I was a regular gym goer and a runner.

Could anyone help answer this and it would really help if anyone has any positive stories to share.

Does deadlifting get rid of y’all’s pain? It seems like when I deadlift heavy the pain will go away completely for a few days/ a week

Unfortunately I read a lot of you saying that you’re unable to walk for longer than 15-30 minutes at a time. That must be so challenging. But for me, it’s the opposite.

I can walk all day. Actually, the more I walk, the better I feel. Every morning is a struggle to walk upright for 20-60 minutes but once I’m up and running, I have no limit on how far I can walk. In the gym I limit myself in order to be safe, but physically I don’t feel a limit.

When I sit down, I feel more discomfort than pain. Standing up too quickly might hurt but it’s minor as far as back issues go.

But lying down? If I lie down for longer than 15-30 minutes, my front hips and lower back get so tight that I turn into a hunchback. Every time.

I try side sleeping with pillows, sleeping on my back, everything. Every morning is around the same. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and stand more upright than others but I couldn’t tell you why.

My PT says it seems to be a disc issue but she says my PSOAS muscles are why my stomach looks so sucked in when I wake up and I’ll need to address my hips in order to recover. The issue is, stretching and strengthening my hips (seems to) causes more pain at night.

The swelling and pain does seem to be getting better but veryyyyy slowly. I don’t know if it’s counterproductive but my best days seem to be when I get the least amount of sleep. The less I rest, the less my nerve feels irritated. Am I looking at this correctly?

Are some of us meant to completely walk and swim our symptoms off? Tie ourselves to a treadmill. Stretching only seems to hurt me and the little sleep I get makes morning life unbearable. Anyone else getting better from going Insomnia mode? Or is this a horrible idea?

5am here losing it a bit, appreciate you reading

I used to look at this thread a ton as someone who had a severe herniation and fiercely wanted to avoid surgery at all costs, and spent three months essentially bed bound in excruciating pain (i did do two ESIs)

I got operated on over 6 months ago and while it has been a bumpy journey, I am way better than how i was before my pain even became sciatic and am glad i got operated. After my surgery, i've had "ghost nerve pain" rarely (literally maybe 3 or 4 times) but my sciatica has, thus far, been gone.

I am open to sharing my journey but the most pivotal piece is this: if you've lived with back pain for 6months +, you may have a very eschewed sense of what "normal" is or have forgone the idea of living a pain-free life. Explore and consider everything, and have faith in yourself but also the will to change your mind if your current decision is no longer serving you.

While i suffered emotionally, financially and missed out on life events for three months, I am glad I waited until I personally felt ready: this is your life and health alone, and it is unique to you. Only you will know when you're ready to change paths or feel comfortable with the risks of surgery. As someone who believed a pain-free life was not possible for me, I hope you find peace and relief from pain if you are reading this right now.

Hi, so I have been having sciatica since I was in school but only diagnosed later in my adulthood😐 I was just given painkillers or neurobion, a B complex supplement. It reduces the pain for may be an hour or so. I'm 42 now. In my early 20s, I was told by my gyn it's just PMS and to eat nutritious food. I used to get sciatica 2 weeks before my periods like clockwork and some months it doesn't go away after periods. So it was hell. Right now, I'm going through that. It has not subsided after my periods. I get s******* thoughts when I get sciatica. I have other chronic pain because of psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia, so it's been really tough. Please help me out with your suggestions. What test or doc should I see? Also, is anyone on therapy for mental health? I am. What techniques help you with your chronic pain's impact on mental health?

What has been bothering me lately is how many people with chronic back pain seem completely mentally trapped by it.. and honestly I understand why because I’ve lived it.

After a while you stop trusting anything. You don’t trust movement. You don’t trust flare-ups. You don’t trust your MRI. You don’t trust providers because everyone says different shit. You don’t trust yourself because every time you think you figured it out, symptoms change again.

I see people online arguing over

1. core weakness
2. instability
3. SI joints
4. mind-body pain
5. posture
6. disc bulges
7. nervous system sensitization
8. walking
9. stretching

And the list goes on and on (and on and on) lol.

And after years of this I honestly think a lot of people become hyperaware of every sensation in their body and start living in “management mode” 24/7.

I dealt with that myself for a long time both before and after surgery. It’s one of the reasons I became a clinician.

I’ve actually been putting together a bunch of thoughts/resources around this whole problem because I’m tired of seeing either

1. fear-based medical explanations
2. or
3. influencer nonsense

I genuinely just want to make something that actually helps people feel less lost. But before I continue building it, I’m curious… What’s the thing about your back pain that messes with your head the most?

EDIT: Lots of responses here and I genuinely appreciate everybody who’s chatting with me. I will reply to everybody as soon as I can! If you prefer to chat privately and not air your info in the comment section, I’m happy to talk privately too.

How long can you wait with numbness (nerve compression) before numbness becomes permanent???

It first started after college when I got an office job (August 2024). Around October of that year, I started getting horrible lower back pain. I assumed this was from sitting all day and my body wasn’t used to it. Mind you I go to the gym 3-5x a week and didn’t do any weightlifting aside from cardio because of this pain.

Fast forward to March 2025, pain radiating down my leg started. I got pins and needles type of feeling, but never past my knee. I tried to steer clear of any appointments as I thought maybe my body was just tight from not moving as much. I chalked it up to being tendinitis for some reason (wrong). I ended up putting myself into a full blown flare up. Hurt to walk, could barely walk up the stairs, etc. I finally went to PT and he told me it was sciatica. We came to the conclusion that it was from my poor posture at work (which I did have some nasty posture). The instant I sat up straight, the constant pain stopped, so this had to have been the culprit. I immediately fixed how I was sitting at work after this.

My PT gave me some exercises/stretches to do. During this, I tried to walk more. I was getting less than 2k steps a day. My flare up lasted about a month (the worst of it was probably from September-October 2025) until it started to improve. I was starting to slowlyyyy make my way back into the gym. Fast forward February 2026, I was slowly getting back into my hinge movements (RDLs, step ups, etc.) with little to no weight, focusing on form. Late February I was pretty much 90% back to lifting how I was. My sciatica seemed to be gone!

I started to introduce kickbacks. Unfortunately, I shouldn’t have. Ever since, I have felt tightness pretty much behind my knee only. At this point it’s not even all the time that I feel it. I’m getting about 10k steps a day and feel generally okay, but my left leg is tighter than my right and I don’t feel it’s 100% yet. My posture has changed a ton as well. I’ve been working on my core strength, glutes, etc. any hinge movement I’m scared to do. Like I said that leg is overall tighter and I’m scared I’m going to pull something even though my weights are not heavy. It has been so long of me trying to rehab this and get my strength back up, but I feel like I’m at a dead end at this point . I know I’m improving but when will this leg stop feeling so tight??!! I worked quads today and behind my knee feels tighter than normal. I am tired.

I just needed to let this out. I feel like I should not be feeling this for as long as I have. I had an MRI on my hip because I was starting to get hip pain and all was normal. My PT ruled out a herniated disc so I honestly just don’t know. I don’t have money to get another MRI on my spine. UGH.

I’m 2 weeks into a severe sciatica flare, large extrusion at L5-S1. Walking for longer than a couple minutes is still impossible for me. I can sit for a few minutes at a time but if I overdo sitting, I flare later. Laying flat on my back does relieve the pain, and I’m beyond grateful for that at least. For people who recovered from a similar diagnosis, when could you start walking normally with minimal or no pain— and what did you do to get there? I mean just daily functioning, not going on long hikes or anything.

Rant: I have multiple doctor’s appointments to do now for pain management, discuss MRI, discuss surgery if it comes to that, etc. Why on earth are ortho and neuro facilities not set up to help people with this condition (or any similar challenge) when they have to wait for long periods?!? I could barely get through my MRI because there was nowhere in the facility for me to lay down while I was waiting. I actually couldn’t wait to get on the MRI table to get some relief. After that, I asked my ortho office if there would be any way for me to lay down while I waited for my appointment because I was in pain and they looked at me like I was crazy. Damn. It’s just frustrating. Another appointment tomorrow and don’t know how I’m gonna do it. Maybe lay in my car I guess.

I saw my dr today and she looked at my MRI and told me fluid is leaking from my disc into my nerves as well as the disc pushing on my nerves pretty badly. She is sending me a referral to a neurosurgeon ASAP. I told her I can’t sit, I can’t drive, I can’t even shower properly without screaming in pain. I have to get my blood work done, a copy of my xray and I already have a copy of my MRI for the neurosurgeon. She told me PT isn’t the answer in this case because of how big the protrusion is. I’m hoping I can get surgery and finally feel human again. She told me this needs to be looked into ASAP. I finally have a glimmer of hope 🥺

I’ve done pt. I’ve had 3 injections. After no relief I have a consultation with a surgeon scheduled. I have a friend that is urging me to see her chiropractor. She claims they could help me without doing adjustments. I just don’t trust chiropractors. I’m scared it will make things worse. Has anyone had any success. I’m sick of paying copays for treatments that either don’t work or cause more pain.

So I had a slip disc before and had gone under a surgery which did not end up quite well. I still have a disc bulge (maybe) but the pain was gone from my back and sciatica also left.

It's been more than a year I was in my regular life and one day I just had a tiring day with college and walking (no lifting or anything just walking a bit much). I started experiencing a sudden tingling and numbing sensation in the sole of the foot without any radiating nerves or back pain. It's been a week and it hasn't stopped maybe worsen a little.

Im very very anxious and stressed I don't know what is happening, I can't fall into this again please someone explain me what is this!!!??

18 months ago I was a powerlifter. I'd been training for a few months and in prep for my first comp. Deadlift was my lift. I pushed it too far in training, 240kg for a double, accumulated fatigue from a brutal program, and my SI joint and QL gave out. The pain didn't go away.

Week one I thought it was just recovery. Week four I started to worry. Month three I was googling things I shouldn't have been googling. I did everything right. Physio. Rest. Mobility work. Ice. Heat. Every protocol I could find. But nothing helped

What broke me wasn't just the pain. It was that nobody could tell me why it wasn't getting better. I had the scans. I had the diagnosis. I had the treatment plan. I still had the pain. So I went down a rabbit hole. I started reading the actual research. Not fitness articles. Not physio blogs. Published studies on why chronic pain persists long after tissue has healed. Why two people with identical scans can have completely different outcomes. Why the nervous system keeps producing pain signals even when the original injury is gone.

What I found changed everything. The pain science literature is decades ahead of standard treatment. Most people in chronic pain are being managed with protocols designed for acute injury. It's not the physio's fault. It's a system problem. When I applied what I learned the nervous system retraining, the graded exposure, the specific language around pain, my pain started moving for the first time in months. I'm back to squatting over 200kg and deadlifting 240kg.

But I never forgot what those months felt like. The helplessness. The feeling that your body had become your enemy. The way it quietly takes everything from you.

I started coaching people because I kept meeting others who were still there. Stuck in that place I got out of. If you've been in pain for months or years, tried the standard route, and still aren't getting better, I want to talk to you. Not to sell you anything tonight. Just to understand your situation.

Drop a comment or DM me. I read everything.

This happened over three years ago now but I will never forget the experience and I live in fear of ever experiencing it again. I highly suspect my injury was related to the sciatic nerve but I’ve never been able to get answers, so I thought I’d share my story here and maybe get some opinions on it.

In October of 2022 I was at work on a step stool, for some reason I decided to jump down off it instead of carefully stepping off and I landed quite hard on my right leg, I felt immediate pain. The rest of the day I had radiating pain that ran all the way from my ankle up to my side. Over the next few weeks the pain wasn’t super intense, I just noticed I couldn’t bend down without it hurting and I started to struggle with walking for long periods of time.

Come December and it was starting to get worse, I couldn’t sit down, walk, turn over in bed or even put on my shoes without severe pain. There was many times I’d be awake all night crying in agony because it was just impossible to sleep. I could only lie in one position with a pillow between my legs and a tennis ball under my side because it helped a bit. The pain was from my ankle up to just under my buttock, it kind of felt like my whole leg was a super tense elastic band and it was agonising to put any pressure on.

I went to my doctor because I just couldn’t take it anymore, all they did was prescribe me prednisone to take for a few months and then to come back if it didn’t help. Within days it was clear to me it wasn’t helping, but they wouldn’t do anything for me until I had been on it longer. So the pain continued on and on, I felt like a shell of myself, couldn’t walk, couldn’t sleep, it was one of the darkest periods of my life. All I lived and breathed was pain. I was taking so many pain killers for it I ended up burning my stomach lining badly and so to add insult to injury I was having constant stomach aches too.

The thing that hurts the most was that I got married in February and I couldn’t enjoy it because I was in so much pain. We had to cut the photography session short because I couldn’t even stand for longer than ten minutes. It was hellish.

One of my last resorts was going for a therapeutic massage to see if maybe it could help. It was like a deep tissue massage on my leg and it was AGONY, so much so that I could barely get off the table at the end and then once I did I passed out from the pain. The masseuse noted she felt a lot of tension in my leg and she suspected piriformis syndrome but I have no idea if that’s actually what it was.

One morning in march after another sleepless night, I decided to try some exercises, one being the nerve floss where I sat on my bed and stuck my leg out completely straight while rotating my foot and neck. It gave me a bit of relief but not much. Anyway, I went to go put my shoes on and when I bent down I can only describe it as feeling as if something snapped back into place, in the moment it was red hot pain and for several minutes I was literally paralysed, I couldn’t walk or move so I just laid on the floor in silent agony. Once it had started to pass I crawled onto the couch, and I noticed that there was no pain. My leg felt like intense pins and needles, but I wasn’t in pain!

Whatever happened that moment when I bent down seemed to have fixed whatever the problem was, and I cannot even begin to describe the tears of joy and relief I cried. That night was the best sleep I ever had. I can thankfully say that it has never come back, but I’m now extremely paranoid whenever I begin to feel even the slightest pain or cramp in my leg, I’m very cautious about doing any extreme exercises or running in fears it may come back, so I think it will always stick with me. It was only five months of pain but I will never forget it, I cannot imagine having to live like that for years on end which I know is the reality for many people, it’s heartbreaking.

So that’s my story, I wonder if maybe it was my sciatic nerve being pinched or a possible herniated disk, I’ll probably never know, but I still wonder sometimes what it was because I never want to risk it returning. I’d be interested in what other people think and if you have had a similar experience.

I did my damage when I was 33 and it took months before I could sit again. That onhealed. and now another one when I'm 46. Obviously this one's going to take longer to heal than the last one.

But the little pop I felt while sitting at 33, even though I eventually went back to normal 0 pain, was never 100% healed. There would occasionally through the years be very minor flare ups. When I get much older I imagine these old injuries will be very painful. Same with this newer damage.

I mean sure- we can do excercises and things to last longer, but since the fluid sack never fully heals it seems eventually it all catches up with you.

Are we doomed to this pain when we become elderly? Is there nothing that can really be done?