I wish I could run, but my sciatic pain is killing me!

2:41 pm

I hate to be so incessantly whiney, but here goes:

I’ve been having major sciatica flare-up lately (I’m 38, but have been told I’ve got the back of someone in their 50s on my bad days!), which means, no running and no stretching, even. For those who are wondering, don’t spend 15 years glued to a desk chair for 10 hours a day. Sometimes, drinking would help this pain, but that was usually just a VERY lame excuse (it never really did) to drink!

Most of the time, I stretch at least once in the morning (my personal yoga, or, “me-ga”) and then I do yoga. Good weeks, I’ll do yoga every day. Bad weeks, not at all. I also run and hit the gym on the regular.

This week, however, not only am I having intense cravings, but I’m also PMSing — I feel more distracted/paranoid and depressed/irritable than normal. AND, for some reason, PMS seems to totally exacerbate any back problems I have, including muscle pain and sciatica pain. Lately, my sciatica has moved all the way inside my leg and down my hamstring. What does it feel like? Well, it always feels the same in my lower back, like someone slid a knife through the muscle right above my left butt and is twisting it continually. It throbs and burns. That’s always there. My left buttock feels sore and burns, and lately, my inner leg feels like I pulled a muscle. When I bend down, the pain starts around the outside of my left butt, shoots down around front, curves around where my leg meets my body, and then shoots straight down along my hamstring. Simultaneously, shooting pain goes UP from the front of my left thigh to the outside of my leg, and then triggers shooting pain down the center to left side of my left calf.

All in all, it sucks. I deal, mainly because I don’t know what to do about it. Yoga is out for this kind of pain (it makes it worse), and I don’t want to run because that just tightens my back and makes pain like this in my leg — it feels like an injury, not muscle cramps — worse.

Any ideas? I’m seeing an acupuncturist for a consult tomorrow, but…it’s $$$ and typically, this entire plethora of symptoms eases after I get my period. BUT, like I said in another post, my lower back vertebrae feel gross and clunky these days during some easy floor exercises and that seems very bad to me. If it’s like this now, in a fairly muscular, athletic person, what will it be like 25 years from now? And, is there any relief from this constant pain?

Input and advice much welcome!

Tags: alcoholic, alcoholism, binge drinking, coping mechanism, coping skills, drinking, PMS, running, sciatic pain, sciatica, sobriety, wine, women, yoga