Sciatica

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As suspected Diclofenac & Tramadol for the pain!

The last time I had tramadol it turned me into a zombie!!!!!!!
 
Did you tell him/her that, Alders? Will you be safe driving if you're zonked out?

Mum and I had Salonpas plasters on sore shoulders - like so many good things, they were easily obtainable over the counter in the Middle East - and they were most effective. I remember bunging a couple onto my back when it was squinching and they really helped. I like Tiger Balm, too, but hadn't realised they did a liniment - will look out for that one.

Blimey, this really is Cronks' Corner, isn't it!
 
All this talk of nerve and muscular pains and creaks has made me come over all psychosomatic!

I've been hobbling round with a painful, stiff left leg since Sunday - no reason I can think of but reading this thread!
 
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Salonpas is great Kri - but over here I've only found it available on the net (Ebay). It is readily available on there though, inexpensive and generally shipped quickly. I've Kate Miller to thank for introducing me to the stuff - she gave me a packet of hers to try after recommending it highly. Personally I've found the extra strength liquid even better as well. Again, tiger balm linament I've only sourced myself on Ebay but it too is readily available and inexpensive.

As for tramadol - could barely survive without it! Take it in conjunction with co-codamol and you'll really be zoned out. It works though.
 
That's very interesting, Shadz. Cheers, might give that a go when there's another bad go. The back is so annoying - it's fine for perhaps even a couple of months, then all I have to do is to have to duck under a rail at one of the courses and twanngggg! I can feel it squinch and that's me scrunched for days or weeks. Nothing as ghastly as the problems you've had, of course, which have been quite horrendous - especially the delays in attending to them. I hope that, overall, you think the treatments have been worth having and are feeling some benefit now.
 
Yes told doc what it did to me but he said it was the best stuff for this sort of pain,
I don't drive & we don't have any shows to do until the Doglost one on 21st aug so its not such a problem,

Last night was the first half decent nights sleep I've had for nearly a fortnight so even if I only take them at night its going to help!
 
Better to apply Voltarol topically rather than take diclofenac if at all possible as with all drugs [quite powerful stuff, diclofenac, I believe]. Had a series of exercises that the physio gave me [should carry on doing them all the time if I had any sense, but we all tend to stop once the problem resolves itself]. The one that does stick in my mind is the yoga 'cobra' position. I can't do the rest, anyway, because my knees have shot it, and they involve kneeling to start of with. If we all did yoga and stuff like that, like they do in the East, we probably wouldn't get any of these problems; or if we were rich enough to have physios and chiro's all the time, not just when we get injured. I'm a great believer in glucosamine as well. Gosh; don't I sound like a hypochondriac?
 
Also not sitting in one position for more than 20 minutes, or going on long car journeys withough stopping every so often. There's a cushion thing you can get to put on your car seat. It doesn't look like much, but it really helps to align your back whilst sitting down. Please try the pillow thing though, as well, because it means that your back is in alignment while you are resting. [it's all coming back to me, you see].
 
I've got a wedge shaped cushion with a notch cut out of the thick part so your spine is free of the pressure caused by sitting, I use this on my pc chair,

Is this similar to the car one moehat?
 
It's a wedge shape that goes on the seat behind your back with an elastic band that goes round the back of the chair to stop it slipping.; you don't actually sit on it. It doesn't look much; I know physios tend to sell them, and probably Boots. They cost @ £12.
 
I've used Cortaflex's 400mg high-strength human version of glucosamine/chondroitin for a few years now and the uptake by the system is fantastic - within three days a really niggly knee has no pain in it at all and is much more flexible. It's not a cheap alternative to many store versions, but I do recommend it after trying others. I ran out of it recently, and bought Boots JointAce super-strength, but that rather annoyingly comes in three separate blister packs, meaning three pills to swallow instead of Cortaflex's one. So I'm now going to order the Cortaflex again - they deliver next day, too. If you want to try it, phone 01403 255511.
 
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My son has got tendonitis in his hand. Would it help with that, do you think? He's renovating his house at the moment and can't really rest his hand. Dr just told him to take ibuprofen. I've given him some voltarol gel as well and also some glucosamine tablets, but I'm happy to pay more for something that could help him. [Just thought; I get a discount at Boots..is Joint Ace as good apart from having to take three tablets?]
 
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Moehat, the Jointace is fine, actually. This is it: Jointace Max Triple Pack (made by Vitabiotics). 28 each of Super-strength Omega-3, Glucosamine & Chondroitin, and collagen capsules, as well as a vast array of minerals and vitamins, plus ginger root! I can't remember what it cost, I seem to think around £17, but I think it could well help your son's condition. It's got everything necessary to mend and support joints and synovial fluid. Worth a try.
 
Another course of action to consider - when I went to get the problems in my feet checked out last month, the specialist recommended I try the shoes produced under the MBT label. There's a lot of guff about the technology of the shoe being based on how the Masai walk but, as I was still experiencing quite a bit of pain even after the treatment, I thought I'd give them a try...

The trainers arrived this week and they are amazing! They work on the same principle my now 21 year old office chair (which I got our company to buy bought for an extortionate amount of dosh when we were only just starting up!) I think - almost infinitessimally small movements when standing (as opposed to sitting in the chair). As the pain I've had is mainly in my toes, the fact that these rock you back on to to your heel when you stride out is just great. The only downside is that they don't make welly boots.....:cool: But at least I've my special inserts for those.

So I now walk round the house in trainers...... Hmmm.....
 
We have a shop nearby selling those for around £150 a pair, which is why I don't have one! But there are also quite a few similar types of shoewear like that now, including FitFlops, which are (you guessed!) flip-flops with the same rocker technology underfoot. Our manageress at the flats wears these all year round (using Japanese toe socks for the toe posts in winter) and buys them much, much cheaper in the USA when she visits there. Absolutely swears by them!

I think I'm going to carboot my Imelda Marcos collection of once- and never-worn shoes soon and perhaps the proceeds will go towards buying ONE pair of the bushwalking trainers. Everything goes out if you walk badly because of the 'wrong' shoes - hips, back, pelvis, knees, so it would be unglamorous, but much better for me.
 
Well, I bloody didn't pay £150 for a pair of trainers! Think mine were about £70, which is about right for a decent pair of trainers!
 
I've had it, pretty severe too,[came on me about 3 yrs ago] and in April was in hospital as a day patient and had FACET injections in the spine it did help...... but since then something separate to this, I had a hip replacement opp; late May, STILL IN SEVERE PAIN TOO AND STILL TAKING PAIN KILLERS, but getting about slowly, and your not allowed to drive for 6 weeks either................so good luck Helen......
 
Merlin that sounds awful! hopefully it will get better gradually, It seems if the sciatica does not wear off in two or three weeks it appears people get stuck with it for a long time, thankfully I'm not in as much pain now as I was a week ago so I am keeping my fingers crossed, I'm only taking the tramadol at night & syndol in the day, it could be the diclofenac has kicked in now as today is the fith day
Here's hoping!
 
krizon said:
That's very interesting, Shadz. Cheers, might give that a go when there's another bad go. The back is so annoying - it's fine for perhaps even a couple of months, then all I have to do is to have to duck under a rail at one of the courses and twanngggg! I can feel it squinch and that's me scrunched for days or weeks. Nothing as ghastly as the problems you've had, of course, which have been quite horrendous - especially the delays in attending to them. I hope that, overall, you think the treatments have been worth having and are feeling some benefit now.
Click to expand...

Sorry Kri, should've replied to this before! It's a year on now since I had my hip resurfaced - I had to beg for that as they said I was too young to have it done and wouldn't even remotely consider a full replacement at my age, thank God, not least since a full replacement hinders physical ability a lot, and since they need replacing within 10-15 yrs and 'they'll' only do two replacements in a lifetime means that early full replacements (from my age say, 31 at the time) would indicate life in a wheelchair from as early as in your fifties - and although it has helped greatly in that I am able to walk again, I'm still in constant pain which doesn't marry with the reports of how it should work from the doctors or the one person I know who has had one himself. Incidentally, he says he was walking unaided within 10 days, has had no problems at all since (he had his done c.12-13 yrs ago), has resumed his running and is considering having the other hip done as he's been getting a few twinges in it. Actually, one of the reasons they gave me for not wanting to resurface was that I would be due for full replacement in my 40s which they still consider to be far too young, so they will only carry it out then in the most extreme cases. I still hurt every day and struggle to do things physically; I can manage riding for an hour or so as long as it is straightforward, any being thrown about wrenches the joint dreadfully and when riding my cousin's warmblood showjumper last week I was in pain in 2 minutes as his paces have so much impulsion! I can walk for about 10 minutes before it hurts and driving hurts too after about 20 minutes. Sleeping is difficult as well, I wake every couple of hours as I have to change position as I get very uncomfortable quickly. I struggle very much to lie on my 'bad' side as it still hurts. My physio has tried her best and thinks that maybe my consultant should investigate further - and has given me a letter to give to him outlining her thoughts.

I suspect that I will end up having to put up with the constant pain, it feels arthritic like the pain I endured before, yet they cut out the diseased, arthritic bone when they resurfaced the joint. To be fair it's not pain on the same level that I experienced before but it's enough to be almost permanently uncomfortable, at best. I don't know if it's a case of having a low pain threshold, being a slow and/or poor healer (I bruise if someone so much as breathes on me), the arthritis having spread or just being a wuss with pain but I don't envisage a life without pain any more!
 
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Christ, Shadz, I'm so very sorry to read that. I'd really assumed (so that shows how dumb assumptions are) that you'd by now be in a joyfully mobile and painfree condition. That's a horrible prospect for you. You are way, way too young for that. Everything is compromised by pain, and the prospect of it until you're 'old enough' to have more torture inflicted on you - that's utterly depressing. I'm not going to whinge about a few creaks here and there ever again!
 
Thanks, Kri. You get used to it after a while, frustrating though it is. Still, I'm in far less pain than I was, the operation has helped no end, it just hasn't [so far] been the miraculous cure I was led to believe it may have been!
 
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As a bleating ninny who handles pain very badly, I think I'd have offed myself, so I think you're being damn stoic and philosophical about it, Shadz. I can only hope that it graduaaaallllyyyy improves for you.
 
Oh Jesus H, I'm terrible at handling pain, Kri!! At least it's far less pain than I've had to deal with in recent years, but I would like to be able to kick the painkillers at some point, even though I'm taking them only sporadically now, but more than is ideal nonetheless. After so many years you do end up treating the pain and discomfort as a way of life though. I think that were I to have a few days pain free I'd wonder what the hell was going on!
 
I sympathise completely, Shadow. As a kid I had trochanteric bursitis (hip and upper thigh region) which lasted about 2 years and left me with a very strained posture when walking (no physio then).

It is funny, but pain can take up so much of one's energy. For the last 20 years I have been looking at the world through the fug of an almost constant headache, which varied in degrees from a permanent niggle to raging pain.

It made thinking straight very difficult sometimes and my facial expression, apparently, reflected constant pain. There was also a constant lack of energy, or if any, only in short bursts.

About 2 months ago, something happened that twisted my upper back and neck - PAIN PAIN PAIN for 2 days, but since then, no headache. Not a niggle. I began to feel better in myself and couldn't think why, until a couple of weeks in I realised that my head was no longer hurting. I hardly know myself!!

I admire the way that you keep yourself going through such a demanding lifestyle and hope that your surgeon can do something about the surface of your hip bones, Shadow.
 
Good heavens, Redhead - what on earth put the head pain right? Obviously it was a fairly serious twang which put right what had been wrong for decades. How wonderful for you, at last! My mother fell down some open wood stairs many years ago, 'coming to' at 3.00 a.m. at the bottom of them, bruised from head to toe. Her doctor did nothing about the very heavy bruising all down her back, other than say she was all right, and lucky not to have broken her back or neck.

She suffered extreme neck pain and stiffness, though, for over a year, until one day in the office her boss came in suddenly and she started, looking round in surprise. She said there was a huge CRACK! from her neck - so much that her boss now looked amazed - and that was it - stiffness and pain all gone!
 
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