I am struggling with sciatica related to my SI joint right now. It's not nearly as excruciating as most of the other posts but it has rendered me unable to work at all. Am not able to sit for more than an hour before the pain is too much. Lying down is only slightly better. It's been quite some time since I have been able to get a good night's sleep without having to wake up with the pain buliding up slowly.
More than the pain, it's the fact that I'm prevented from being able to work on my computer that frustrates me so much. After a point the boredom becomes worse than the pain.
While am not seeking medical advice from someone on the internet, I'd love to know what you did to get "healthy again".
I've been suffering from Sciatica for the past 10 years or so due to bulging disks - If you haven't come across Stuart McGill's work already, he is the best when it comes to back health. I would recommend his book "Back Mechanic"[1]. It mostly targets disk related issues, not sure how much crossover it has with SI related sciatica, but I'd bet you could benefit from core-focused exercise.
The only thing I actively did that coincided with getting better was that I started lifting weights. I had a shoulder injury at the time too, and just... tried to take a holistic and engaged approach to building my health.
I don’t like to encourage people with back problems to do what I did because it just as easily could have gone south. All I knew was that when I did deadlifts or squats I would get this fleeting relief from the pain and I’d gain mobility back for hours.
I also reduced my running. I ran a lot at the time. I had sciatic pain before the running too, but it seems running never helped it. Perhaps only made it worse.
I also tried to do more yoga. Yoga was hard because it was never rewarding, always excruciating. However I had a sense in the moment that I wasn’t harming myself and that the pain was the gain variety. It was just intuition.
I really believe movement is healing, or trying to strengthen yourself. Something I wish I’d done at the time was stop drinking. I don’t think alcohol helps any. It’s appealing though because anything to take the edge off is hard to resist... I actually drank quite a bit through that pain. Maybe not by some standards, but by mine, far too much. When you have an inflammation problem though I think alcohol is the last thing you need to add to your diet.
Anyway, if you can handle it, maybe some light compound weight lifting is worth investigating. Or yoga. Look into sitting bends and twists - they’re very easy to learn and ease into, and very unlikely to harm you. Throw on a podcast and commit to a few weeks of trying maybe.
It’s such a hard problem to navigate and find solutions for. In any case, I wish you luck. I really wish I had good advice for you.
More than the pain, it's the fact that I'm prevented from being able to work on my computer that frustrates me so much. After a point the boredom becomes worse than the pain.
While am not seeking medical advice from someone on the internet, I'd love to know what you did to get "healthy again".