Suffering Sciatic Nerve Injury Really is a Pain

Finding a wizard-like solution — but there’s a catch

I woke up and I couldn’t get up.

I couldn’t move.

I had intense pain in my loower back and it was shooting down my right leg — throbbing in my calf and even experiencing pain on the bottom of my foot.

I considered screaming at the top of my lungs but didn’t want the neighbors to call the cops.

After finally awkwardly rolling — quite literally out of bed — I gimped and hobbled like an 87-year-old man, making contorted and wincing faces like I’d taken a giant bite out of a lemon until I finally reached my resourceful first-aid kit, my laptop.

I quickly googled “back pain shooting down my leg.”

Here was the top hit from Google:

Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg. Typically, sciatica affects only one side of your body.

Yep, it described my symptom to a tee.

Watching the detectives

And, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the culprits.

It was a couple of dumbbells.

And yes, one of those dumbbells was yours truly.

“Macho, macho” Mike thought I can curl 20 more pounds, no problem.

Oh, it was a problem.

A big and heavy problem.

Especially when my lifting form went out the window, this dumbbell kept curling overweight dumbbells dumbly — putting lots of strain on my poor lower back.

Ninety-nine percent certain that’s how I suffered this painful injury.

How long will this be going on?

Now that I knew the what and the how, the next question was can it heal and how long does it take?

The online answers varied, but most said it could take anywhere from six to eight weeks.

Ugh!

The next afternoon, I saw a chiropractor, who confirmed it was sciatic nerve damage. He applied heat, then iced it, adjusted me, suggested taking Tylenol, and recommended Nike’s training website for good stretches.

I went home and did a few simple stretches from the Nike site. I also did an hour yoga program that emphasized lots of stretching.

It seemed to help as I was feeling better.

Marathon Mike

Then, a few days later, Macho Mike turned into Mad Mike — or Marathon Mike — and hopped on the treadmill.

They go dum, dum, deedle dee, dum dum Dum, dum, deedle dee, dum dum Dum, dum, deedle dee, dum dum — “The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)” by Otis Redding

And — shocker — I felt more pain later that evening.

The Tylenol and/or ibuprofen were useless.

Sympathy from the family

After the fifth day of hobbling around the house like some creature from The Lord of the Rings, I started getting sympathy and more concerned looks from my family.

“Maybe you should see a doctor,” my wife suggested.

Bryce, my 23-year-old son, scoured the internet for solutions and showed me several videos. The first one emphasized the importance of sitting up straight and supporting your lumbar spine.

So, I shouldn’t be leaning back on the couch stupidly as I usually do when I read or write on Medium?

The second video showed a technique to try when lying in bed.

The trainer suggested you put the sore leg up — don’t sleep on it — and have a pillow rest between your legs.

Beds are burning

Not going to happen. I tried it, but the problem is I can only sleep facing outward, which means sleeping on my right leg, the one suffering sciatic pain.

So I decided to hit the cyber highway and start researching.

All the websites stressed the importance of icing, heating, taking aspirin, and stretching.

I tried the Nike website my chiropractor had suggested, but it just had pre- and post-workout stretches. There just weren’t enough stretches.

Then I stumbled across the website healthline.com and an article entitled “10 stretches for Sciatic Pain Relief.”

And it was as if Harry Potter waved his magic wand.

You can do magic

I wouldn’t say I felt better at the snap of my fingers — or saying abracadabra — but within an hour I felt much better. There was still pain similar to a sprained ankle, but it didn’t shoot don’t my entire leg anymore.

I felt like I discovered a bag of magic beans. Or was I a part-time member of Gryffindor?

The only problem was it was temporary.

Kind of like Cinderella and her chariot turning back into a pumpkin at midnight.

My spell wore off at 4 a.m.

I’d wake up and the pain would return and rear its sinister sciatic strain at lots of locations along my leg, most intensely by my calf and foot.

Even though I iced and heated it nightly, my morning ritual became grabbing some Tylenol and then icing or heating it again.

Sometimes I would fall back to sleep. Many mornings I would not.

It’s Day Fourteen.

Yesterday, I tried lifting light weights for the first time. All while sitting and making sure to put no pressure on my lower back.

Today, I woke up and, thankfully, the pain is less severe.

The key appears to be doing those magical spells, er, stretches daily.

The goofy shuffle

I still have mild pain in my calf and have the slightest, goofy-like walk — it’s like I’m slamming my foot down, but then leaning towards the left.

I feel like a Circus freak and hope people don’t notice my strange strut.

It all returns to one of my original questions: how long will it take to heal?

And a new question: when can I return to running on the treadmill without being a dumbbell?

Thanks for reading my story.

Here’s Pamela Oglesby’s story on her experience with sciatic pain:

And Gerald Sturgill is suffering through his own pain:

Like Mike? You can read stories and earn money by joining Medium for $5 a month. If you use my link I receive a small commission.