Thank you Doctor for getting back to me. I have gone to the ER and was diagnost with Sciatica. I then went to my Internal Medicine doctor the next day who also said it appears to sound like a herniated disc. I have been in tremendous pain. I have been given flexor, muscle relaxor, vicodin, percaset (at the ER) and I still have tremendous pain. My Internal Medicine doctor told me it can take 2 months or so to heal. I have lost strength in standing on my left leg too. The sensation/numbness below my knee is severely painful too. My Internal Doctor referred me to a Rehab Physicoligist. And said normally, an MRI is not immediately needed. The spasm above the Knee have stopped. However, my can feel the pain in my lower back more so now too. If I been forward sitting or standing it seems to eleviate pain minimally. But not much at all. Thank you Doctor again for your help on this.
I recently heard about 'hot yoga' and was quite impressed by the conditions of the work-out. When I was an anesthesia resident we did liver transplants with the OR heated to 98 degrees F-- the cases took 6-10 hours (it was new back then!) and I came to dread being in heated rooms-- maybe that is why I live in Wisconsin now!
I am a bit stumped; your symptoms sound sort of like a back injury, but more like a quadricep injury. If you had a disc herniation, for example, the sitting position you describe would typically make the pain much worse, not better, as it would place tension on the sciatic nerve similarly to the tension placed during a 'straight leg raising' test. The diagnosis would be fairly easy in person from an exam; a disc problem would cause a loss of reflex at the knee and a twitching but relaxed thigh muscle; a quad injury would result in a muscle that is tight and in spasm. In either case, though, the injury sounds significant enough that a week or two is not going to cut it for recovery time. Disc injury causing compression of a nerve typically recovers over months (3-9 months), and a serious strain of a large muscle like the quadriceps heals over 2-3 months. In both cases, exercise should be non-strenuous for that period of time, and anything that worsens the pain significantly should be avoided.
Feel free to write back with more info to help separate the diagnoses if you wish. Is there any loss of sensation or strength? What was the activity that caused the injury, and was there a 'pop', or did the pain appear the next day without your realizing the injury had occurred?