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Sciat-What!?
2 months ago
"If you are going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
My real life job has me standing on my feet 90% of the time. I walk around, I observe, and outside of the high arches of my feet, it’s a fairly easy job. And easy job until May 14, 2025.
Let me explain I got out of bed for work that morning,and I had a pain in my leg that was just out of the blue. Now I am in very good health. I exercise and I watch what I eat so I could not imagine it being some kind of blockage in a vein or artery.
But it did not go away. It bothered me all day long, it bothered me in the evening, and worst of all after visiting my 90-year-old mother in an assisted living facility, I could not make it out to my car. Yes, you read that correctly. I had sat for a protracted period of time and the muscles that allow you to stand completely upright, on the left side of my body locked up.
OK now I’m screwed. But I was able to work my way eventually to the car and I got home safely and left a note via the text messaging system to my doctor.
One week later—
Now the front of my left calf is numb all the way down to the inside of the left part of the ankle. The pain is still along the leg and I am miserable.
Conclusion: I have sciatica! Yay, some new goddamn disease I don’t want. No it wasn’t a disease per se but it is related to age, it is usually a normal situation for many people (who have either been injured in some athletic event, or like me are turning 65 years of age).
So how to treat it? Well, the first thing they put me on with steroids in a tablet form, which worked great, but they have you taper it off,of the course, over five days and by day three it (the pain) was back.
Next step, some weird looking named drug that helps make the nerve happy, so to speak, and that works usually, but then sometimes it doesn’t.
So now onto a series of x-rays and physical therapy.
Physical therapy has actually alleviated quite a bit of the discomfort, yay! The x-rays show that the very last spinal vertebrae which they call L5 sitting on top of the very first vertebrae of your tailbone section, which they call S1, have signs of osteoarthritis (good thing I am actually a human primate and not a real Grizzly or I’d have a fractured tail…haha). Anyway it’s that area where the nerve is getting pinched and causing the sciatica. Joy (as much sarcasm as you like here as you like)!!
So… Yeah. Not only am I going to turn 65 in September (send copious imaginary gifts) but I am officially going to be a senior citizen so guess what helps pay for this… Medicare yippee?
So now it’s one pill every eight hours for the nerve, stretching exercises in the morning and in the evening (and midday if I need it), no more long mountain hikes with family until it’s more or less gone (boo) and the next time I go to a con if you see me sitting on a chair, a bench, or lying flat doing something weird that looks like a form of traction on my hip, that’s me! Yes, I will still go to cons, but I’m gonna be picking and choosing my motion throughout my attendance.
So if any young furs straight or not think age is a great thing, well, yes it is. It’s just that sometimes, as Indiana Jones said to Marion, “it’s not the age, it’s the mileage.”
So enjoy the ride towards getting older, just make sure that you have your maintenance bills ready.
Let me explain I got out of bed for work that morning,and I had a pain in my leg that was just out of the blue. Now I am in very good health. I exercise and I watch what I eat so I could not imagine it being some kind of blockage in a vein or artery.
But it did not go away. It bothered me all day long, it bothered me in the evening, and worst of all after visiting my 90-year-old mother in an assisted living facility, I could not make it out to my car. Yes, you read that correctly. I had sat for a protracted period of time and the muscles that allow you to stand completely upright, on the left side of my body locked up.
OK now I’m screwed. But I was able to work my way eventually to the car and I got home safely and left a note via the text messaging system to my doctor.
One week later—
Now the front of my left calf is numb all the way down to the inside of the left part of the ankle. The pain is still along the leg and I am miserable.
Conclusion: I have sciatica! Yay, some new goddamn disease I don’t want. No it wasn’t a disease per se but it is related to age, it is usually a normal situation for many people (who have either been injured in some athletic event, or like me are turning 65 years of age).
So how to treat it? Well, the first thing they put me on with steroids in a tablet form, which worked great, but they have you taper it off,of the course, over five days and by day three it (the pain) was back.
Next step, some weird looking named drug that helps make the nerve happy, so to speak, and that works usually, but then sometimes it doesn’t.
So now onto a series of x-rays and physical therapy.
Physical therapy has actually alleviated quite a bit of the discomfort, yay! The x-rays show that the very last spinal vertebrae which they call L5 sitting on top of the very first vertebrae of your tailbone section, which they call S1, have signs of osteoarthritis (good thing I am actually a human primate and not a real Grizzly or I’d have a fractured tail…haha). Anyway it’s that area where the nerve is getting pinched and causing the sciatica. Joy (as much sarcasm as you like here as you like)!!
So… Yeah. Not only am I going to turn 65 in September (send copious imaginary gifts) but I am officially going to be a senior citizen so guess what helps pay for this… Medicare yippee?
So now it’s one pill every eight hours for the nerve, stretching exercises in the morning and in the evening (and midday if I need it), no more long mountain hikes with family until it’s more or less gone (boo) and the next time I go to a con if you see me sitting on a chair, a bench, or lying flat doing something weird that looks like a form of traction on my hip, that’s me! Yes, I will still go to cons, but I’m gonna be picking and choosing my motion throughout my attendance.
So if any young furs straight or not think age is a great thing, well, yes it is. It’s just that sometimes, as Indiana Jones said to Marion, “it’s not the age, it’s the mileage.”
So enjoy the ride towards getting older, just make sure that you have your maintenance bills ready.
Medicaid, which I believe is a version of Medicare in California, … I’ll pass. I have my own reason.
As for the rest, I don’t get involved in that discussion. But I must say, as a result of the Medicare I had no co-pay for this.
Fast forward to today after PT and years of body weight exercises, I now do serious weight training three times a week. I still have trouble getting off the floor occasionally, but I'm able to work through it. I still can't climb a ladder, but I'll get there. There were other symptoms that I won't go into that made life miserable.
The reason was asymmetric diabetic myopathy. My body was eating my muscle mass.
Luckily, after more than a year of testing, a neurologist suggested some specific supplements that have really helped.
Love the quote "it's the mileage"
Being over 65 I haven't had any problems with medicare, or my supplemental policy.
So, keep up the stretching and exercise, you're not alone. *hugs*
And for you younger furs, start exercising in a small way and make it a daily thing, a part of your life, because you will thank yourself when the years start catching up with you.