siatic nerve pain

I havein my hips and lower back and have had for a few years now. It is radiating down my legs but it sort of feels like muscle pain, there are times that I can not even sit down because the pain in my thighs is so bad (the back of my thighs). Could this be siatic (sciatic) nerve pain? My doctor thinks all I need is pain medication and does not seem to want to look for a cause.

[toolmaker]

Physical Therapy may be the best place to start looking for help.

[lori613]

I have had sciatica for years now off and on and boy oh boy when it's on it hurts!  I sympathize with you as mine is only on the one side.  First of all, I know this sounds kind of dumb but look at your shoes.  Are they worn down more on one side than the other?  Also you should be wearing a shoe with a small heel, absolutely not flat-flat.  It should be supporting your foot.  As far as the doctor, an MRI can be ordered to make sure it's not something else.  Now back to the shoes, I also don't wear the same shoe back to back.  Again, I know it sounds dumb but sometimes just being practical works. Pay attention to what you are doing and what shoes you are wearing the day before and the day of the episode.  I had a pair of shoes that I loved, but whenever I wore them it set my sciatica screaming!!  Toolmaker is right, physical therapy can help.  There are stretches you can do everyday (maybe 10-15 min), very simple ones, that if I don't do, I'm in trouble.  You can research stretches for sciatica on the web.  When you do them you'll feel it.  I think of the sciatica as a big rubberband that doesn't want to stretch.  But as long as I remember to stretch, I'm virtually painfree.  Good luck!

[MaryinMO]

That's sounds similar to how it started with me, except my back was the least of my pain...only "tired" feeling. My right leg at first felt like a pulled muscle then worsened over time to a leg cramp that wouldn't go away with sharp pain shooting down the leg, numbness and tingling in my foot then graduated to my calf and my hip, tailbone and right buttock was so painful that I couldn't sit down. I had an MRI done, showed a protruding disc, mod to severe degenerating disc disease. I went to physical therapy(that helped alot) and got epidural steroid injections in my back. Feel much better, have one more injection to get and am hopefully going back to work on light duty soon. The specialist told me to keep on doing my exercises from PT.  I do take pain pills and am down to 1 a day. I would be leary of a doctor who's only answer to you is pain pills. Sounds like you need to find out what's causing your pain so you can treat it. Good luck.

[sfontaine]

You should see an orthopedic doctor and have an MRI of your lower back. It could be a protruding disk pressing on the nerve. Do you have any pain in the calf? An orthopedist can tell you if it is a disk problem in your back and they can fix many many things with surgery now that people used to have to just live with, so it is totally worth pursuing this.

[optimistdad]

I have also experienced the horrific pain that radiates from the buttocks down the back of both legs to the point where it actually "burns."  I suggest you have an MRI on your back.  It is painless and will give your neurologist the information he needs to make an informed diagnosis.  If you have a ruptured disc, for example, there are treatment options today that did not exist in 1991 when I had disc surgery to remove a ruptured L-5, S-1.  For example, staying off your feet and resting until the nerve quiets down, and then getting appropriate physical therapy to strengthen your stomach muscles to support the back better.  I would not rush into surgery without trying less invasive treatments.  There is even a treatment today, where the surgeon uses radio waves to heat the ruptured disc, reform it and send you home to heal.  Good Luck.