Sciatica

My two-ish year odyssey in chiropractic care, orthopedics, surgery, and rehab started with Sciatica.

In late 2023 I recognized the return of the sciatica that I’d first suffered the previous summer. When it first occurred I had no idea what it was, and envisioned blood clots and torn ligaments and tumors. During a telemedicine visit, the doctor identified sciatica with great confidence and referred me to physical therapy. With several sessions during which I learned appropriate exercises, the pain reduced significantly. So much so that I thought the problem was fixed.

This second time, the pain rarely let up enough so that I felt able to do the exercises. I spent several weeks in agony, much of that time laying on the couch–fortunately one week of it was when I was off work between Christmas and New Years.

In early January I made an appointment with a chiropractor. Soon I was receiving spinal decompression therapy. I call it “the rack.” I was attached by a belt to a machine that stretched my spine at the suspect location. It helped. But I was still in pain. My chiropractor watched me walk and said he could not fix my back until I fixed my knees and my gait. An MRI revealed four herniated disks in my lumbar spine, and a nerve test pointed to the root cause of the pain (L5). My Chiropractor focused the treatment there.

I got stretched a couple times a week, and as the weeks went by the  pain, and then the “tinglies” in my calf abated. The L5 disk was placing less pressure on the sciatic nerve. 

At the same time, my already dodgy right knee became unreliable. One morning, standing in the kitchen making coffee, it just gave out. I managed not to fall by clutching the door jamb and leaning against the fridge. I was shaken by the weakness. I bought a folding cane. 

The inactivity forced by the pain, and then the knowledge of how delicate my lower back and knee are, prohibited me from feeling able to go to the gym. I couldn’t imagine caning my way to the locker room. I could imagine being asked for a doctor’s note allowing me to be there. 

Finally, on tax day, I made myself go. In fact, both knee and back had been doing better for some time. I took the cane, but walked from the door to the locker room not using it. I stowed my stuff in a locker and walked unsupported to the shower and then the pool. The most frightening part was walking on wet floors in zorries—but that was already unnerving before all this started.

Luckily there were two open swim lanes so I didn’t have to share. There’s really no problem with sharing, but I always feel like I’m in the way of the fit, fast athletes. I have a right to be there, but it still takes away a little of the enjoyment. I’m sure the few swimmers who are slower than me look at me the same way.

I had been regularly swimming a mile before all this happened. This time I set a goal of swimming twenty laps–less than half my old minimum. My left leg was okay. My right thigh was not. This is likely unrelated to the sciatica or my arthritic knee, but rather a result of sitting at my desk for long hours and not stretching. I pushed through it and swam 22 laps, or 550 yards. My last swim, months before, was 45 laps and 1,125 yards.

Somehow, this successful swim is what spurred me to make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. As my chiropractor said, I had to fix my knees.