Joe A Shaw PA-C - 2/12/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello. I am male 25yrs old. I am suffering from sciatica. I have been taking pain relief pills for the past two months and now I am trying to refrain from lifting and driving. Can you kindly suggest any excercises which can improve my condition and lessen the pain? perhaps suggest some video tutorials or sites? Thanks!!

ANSWER: Paul,
I think this is about the best site I've seen and they are free and presented by a PT. You probably have been told, but you need to not wear a wallet on either hip. Also as this article talks about you may need to determine the etiology of your sciatica. Also the biggest mistake I see is that pts usually stop the exercises and stretching once their pain gets better...but really you need to do them on a regular basis at least 3 x week.

http://www.spine-health.com/topics/conserv/Sciatica-Exercises/Sciatica-Exercises



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your advice.

Also what I forgot to tell you is that when I lean on my back and lift my leg I up in the air I cannot straighten my left leg as if something is preventing it from doing so. The right leg is fine. What could I possibly do? and what might be preventing it?

Thanks again

Answer
"when I lean on my back"...do you mean lay?..If the nerve is inflamed then when you straighten out that leg you will feel a pain down that leg..much more than a stretch feeling. This is what we do when we perform straight leg raises. The pt is sitting on edge of exam table and we raise each leg up..if inflamed the person almost comes off the table...thats a positive sign..but not very specific..meaning that it could be an inflamed sciatica or a ruptured disc.

Well, you will need to do whatever exercises you can do w/o too much pain, so you may need to skip that one?. I'm assuming you have been worked-up (xrays,MRI etc...) and diagnosed w sciatica and not a ruptured disc?