Re: Severe Sciatica Pain ideas, B, fibro, YMCA free or close to free

[Guest guest]

Hi Becki,

I'm so sorry to hear what you're going through. I can relate to some

of what you wrote. I'm 33, well, almost 34, and have had sciatica -

I get this worse sharp pain in my low back (I always have

excruciating pain in my low back but it gets worse/feels different)

right before the sciatica starts - it goes from no sciatica pain to

10/10 sciatica pain in one or both legs that makes it extremely

difficult for me to stand or walk (for me it comes on when I stand or

walk too much in a day) - I have to lay down as soon as possible for

quite a while and avoid standing or walking much for the rest of the

day - It's not exactly the same as yours - I can move my leg(s), but

it hurts so bad I don't want to. I feel incapacitated by the pain.

I had it both before and after I had a lumbar fusion L1-L2, L3-L4, L5-

S1. I have bad disks in between my shoulder blades and 4 in my neck

C2-C6, (the bad disks are from 2 bad car accidents) fibro, and more

health problems. I'm not a doctor so take my email and information

with a grain of salt - maybe others here know more than I do...

Were you on the steriods before or after this happened? I had weird

reactions to both pill steriods and steroid injections. I was given

3 steroid injections in 3 different parts of my body - neck,

shoulder, knee all within 2 months and after that have had trouble

reacting to sugar - diagnosed as impaired glucose tolerance ( a kind

of pre-diabetes / more prone to get diabetes in the future) I don't

want to worry you or anything, but is it possible your leg problem

and nausea and circulation problem could be related to something like

diabetes? You can get numbness/tingling with diabetes, too.

Diabetics have to be very careful with taking steriods because

steroids effect blood sugars. Steroids also effect female

hormones/estrogen.

I'm only writing these ideas, because I've had some similar types of

symptoms and have spend a bunch of time reading trying to figure out

what I might have and what types of doctors to go to...

My grandma has gout - causes foot pain and I've been having new foot

pain that makes me wonder if I have gout, or diabetes, or Raynaud's

disease/cold pale hands and feet (common with fibromyalgia/chronic

fatigue syndrome), or circulation problems, or heart disease/clogged

artery type problems (for me I've had high cholesterol, high

triglycerides, borderline high blood pressure, and a bunch of other

risk factors and symptoms that could be heart disease related - chest

pain, shortness of breath). Blood clot in leg?

Another thought, with stenosis, sometimes they can do surgery - some

people have cervical spinal stenosis that causes the same symptoms as

fibromyalgia, but if they have surgery, their symptoms get much

better or go away. A very large percent of the people that had the

surgery by the doctor below were pleased with the outcome and felt

improvement. Several years ago they had a program on TV in the U.S.

on 20/20 - ABCNEWS about cervical spinal stenosis and/or chiari

malformation can cause similar symptoms to fibromyalgia/chronic

fatigue. I believe it was Dr. Rosner who was one of the very

successful surgeons at treating it. I remember searching for him and

finding a site for him on the web.

I was reading in the book, " From Fatigued to Fantastic " by

Teitelbaum, something about with fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue the

hypothalamus is not functioning properly - the HPA axis -

hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands are often not

functioning " normally " in fibro/CFS patients and might cause the cold

hands/feet problem along with other symptoms. Well, I hope I haven't

gone too far off-track and I hope I haven't worried you. I just have

been wondering about some of these same things myself and reading up

on them, so hope this might help. When I get worried about some

health problem, I tend to read and want more information as a way of

coping so I'm offering this in case it might help you, too.

One last question - do you get enough B vitamins, like a B-50

complex? or a B-100 complex? Or are B vitamins in something else

you take like FibroCare magnesium with malic acid? The B vitamins

can help with nerve pain and nausea, weakness, fatigue,

mood/depression, and a ton of other functions in the body. I've been

taking a B complex vitamin for around 9+ years (was diagnosed with

fibro 9.5 years ago but they briefly thought it might be carpel

tunnel and B vitamins help with that, too). I notice a big

difference if I run out of my B vitamins. Often people with

fibro/CFS are low in the B vitamins and find they help.

I am sorry to hear what you are going through and I really hope you

can find something to help you. I was always extremely independent,

too, but have been trying to cope with needing help from others. I

had a period of time after my back surgery when I needed a lot of

help from others and had to stay with my mom for a while. My mom

sometimes says things like your mom. My dad, too. Reading your note

helps me realize our parents just love us and want to help us and

mean the best for us, but sometimes being on the receiving end of

what they say it hurts and is hard to hear and cope with. Anyway, I

have maintained as much independence as I can and I still live alone

with my 2 cats.

--YMCA

I'm working on gradually building up my tolerance to do things (to

help me have even more independence and quality of life) and have

joined the local YMCA - did you all know they have financial aid (no

joiners fee with financial aid) and also if you specifically sign up

for it at the Y - some health insurances will reimburse you some

money if you go to the Y, 8 times per month? I think it is going to

make my Y membership free or darn close. I just walk on a track at

the Y. Everything else hurts me too much and I'm too sensitive to

the chemicals in the pool. I was in an inpatient chronic pain

program where once a day 5 days/wk I walked on a track - started with

7 min. of very slow walking per day and gradually worked up. Now,

I'm trying to go 2-5 times a week to the Y. On better days, I try to

walk 20-30 min. Sometimes I walk with a friend I met at the pain

program - we meet at the Y and talk while we walk so the time goes

faster then. A woman at the Y overheard me telling my friend that I

have fibromyalgia and she walked with us some and told us about a

fibromyalgia support group less than 5 min. from my house. I went to

the group and met some really nice women (they were all women at that

particular group). One invited the whole fibro group including me to

her house for a holiday morning coffee type thing and she also

invited her whole Y water exercise class. It was fun. One thing

I've been working on ever since I was in the chronic pain program is

I'm working on socializing more, because I've been very isolated

living alone and being so independent and being alone with my pain.

Now, I'm working on calling and seeing people more.

On worse days or days when I know I will have to walk more on errands

or do more physical activity around home, I might only walk 10 min.,

but I try to verbally give myself a pat on the back for just going

there. I am making progress, simply by making it a priority to get

some exercise, even if it is a bad day or I can't do much or I slowly

wobble around the track. No one treats me weird for it, and I get

motivated seeing other people of all ages and abilities at the Y

exercising. It helps me feel like exercising. It is still a

balancing act, trying to exercise enough, but not so much I hurt too

bad to get my errands and household things done. But it is getting

better. If you had told me 3 months ago that I'd be exercising now,

I'd have thought you were off your rocker because I usually hurt

soooo bad from exercising, but I'm just taking it slowly and

gradually, and gently getting into it. Being gentle with myself and

giving myself positive feedback.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week! Sending positive thoughts and

gentle hugs your way!

Mara

" -- In chronic_pain , " Becki " <klasyjo@p...> wrote:

> Hi everyone.

> Yesterday I had my most severe sciatica experience. I became very

> nauseated and unable to walk. I ended up in the ER for over 4

hours.

> lost complete use of my right leg (I could feel the dr touching my

foot/leg but could not get it to do what he wanted). By the time I

had made it to ER, my right foot was grayish/purple and extremely

cold......

> Thanks. Becki "

[Guest guest]

lakelover125 wrote:

I had weird reactions to both pill steriods and steroid injections. I was given

3 steroid injections

Hello Mara,

Sorry to butt in, but I'm wondering what type reaction you had and what your

symptoms where. I got a steriod shot yesterday after having a reaction to

Leviquin. Now I found out that your not suppose to take steriods after this

reaction. So I'm wanting to cover all my bases as far as the reactions go just

in case.

I have sciatica too when I stand or walk to long. UHG, what a pain it is.

Take care and thanks for any advice/help you can give.

Caitlin

[Guest guest]

Hi Caitlin,

Sorry to hear about what you are going through. I think most people

don't have reactions to steroids like I do (I'm extremely sensitive

to most meds and chemicals and scents), but here's what I wrote down

around the time I was having the side effects. Hope you are feeling

better soon.

Pill steroids -

Methylpred pack (Methylprednisone/Methylprednisolone) – in beginning,

felt really weird because it reduced my pain so much it didn't feel

like my body was attached to my head – I couldn't feel my pain to the

edges of my body like usual so it felt like my body wasn't attached

and I kept bumping into things because I didn't feel the pain all the

way to the edges of my body so I couldn't feel /didn't know where the

edges of my body were/ended, I think it was a couple days into the

medication - heart palpitations, felt like having heart attack,

thought I was going to die, hot flashes, afraid to talk to people

because I didn't feel in control of what I was saying and thought I

would say things I shouldn't say, a day or two after stopped

medication completely – felt like estrogen was dropping and had

really bad problems with mood swings, sudden crying, increased pain,

sleeping even worse than usual, hot flashes, strong cravings for

chocolate, really crabby and irritable, plus other side effects.

Steroid injection (Despite my questions to this doctor and telling

him about my reactions to the above pills, he never told me that Depo-

Medrol is the same medication, just the injectible form of the above

pills. If he had told me the truth, I never would've had this

injection.)-

Depo-Medrol injection in neck (Methylprednisone/Methylprednisolone) –

many of the same symptoms as with the Methylpred pack, but also had

from the time of injection for quite a while after – really bad

constant headache, shooting pain, numbness, pins and needles, and

tingling from neck into shoulders, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, the

day of the injection felt really weird like couldn't think straight

or talk, felt spacey and detached, tripped on front step when got

home from injection and never trip on front step, felt really tired

but was having a hard time breathing so felt afraid to go to sleep

right away, had vision problems and saw spots, had hot flashes/night

sweats, had hand tremors the next day, arms and hands fall asleep

much more often than usual

This part I am just writing now - After the steroid (I think it was

cortisone) injections in my shoulder and knee, usually when I eat

sugar, about 1-2 hours later I am more likely to fall asleep even

sitting up (I've never been one to fall asleep sitting up - it was

happening around 1-3 p.m. depending on when I ate lunch) and feel

weird. Sugar makes my heart race and I feel a strong sugar " high "

and then I crash really bad and fall asleep or feel like I will fall

asleep if I don't eat something else. It feels like my mind is not

functioning well. It is not as bad if I eat something sugary with

something else like protein or something like lemon juice or

pickles/vinegar - if I start reacting weird to sugar - the sugar high

part - I might eat some pickles or drink water with lemon juice or

something to try to counteract the sugar. I also have numbness and

tingling in my extremities a lot and my arms/hands/legs/feet fall

asleep a lot. I feel dizzy/lightheaded a lot.

I looked up the steroids and their side effects on the web when I was

having symptoms and all my side effects were legitimate but

mostly " rare " side effects of the steroids. On the web - for example

www.google.com - you can just type in the name of whatever

medication, pill, or injection you've been given and " side effects "

and look for legitimate sites like webmd.com or www.mayoclinic.com or

legitimate sites with prescription information.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Mara

> Hello Mara,

> I'm wondering what type reaction you had and what your symptoms

where.

> Caitlin

[Guest guest]

> ...Were you on the steriods before or after this happened?... I

don't want to worry you or anything, but is it possible your leg

problem and nausea and circulation problem could be related to

something like diabetes?... Another thought, with stenosis, sometimes

they can do surgery... hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands

are often not functioning " normally " in fibro/CFS patients and might

cause the cold hands/feet problem along with other symptoms... One

last question - do you get enough B....

Hi Mara:

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and suggestions. I took steriods

once this past summer, dont remember what it was but it did no good.

This one is helping some - not with the pain but with the movement of

my leg.

I've been tested for diabetes and that's negative.

My dr and I have agreed to keep surgery as a last resort but I'm

afraid we may be getting closer to that then what either of us want

to admit but we'll see when I go back on the 3rd.

As far as the autoimmune diseases: I do have hashimoto's (underactive

thyroid) and had it removed just over 4 years ago - it was catching

my vocal cord nerves in the gland causing me not to have a voice. I

get checked regularly because of that and because my mom has

's Disease of the adrenal glands (they don't work for her)

which all my tests come back negative.

I do have a deficeincy in B1, B6 and Magnesium so I take those

daily. I'm going to have my B9 and B12 rechecked on the 3rd - those

have helped alot with energy and with the pain in my shoulder.

It's just another " hard candy christmas " (as Dolly says in her xmas

song) for me is all. I'm doing better today - got laundry done and

actually drove for the first time since Saturday (that was hard but

managed) so I'll go back to work tomorrow w/my cane and do what I can

to get through the day. I haven't given up - just got really scared.

Thanks again, I appreciate your suggestions and thoughts.

Becki