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Comment by strstr | Hacker News Reader

"A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one".

There are so many forms of illness where this is true. I've never experienced anything nearly as persistent and painful as frozen shoulder.

The worst thing I've experienced was probably Sciatica as a teen. It was particularly frustrating since the pain was intermittent and invisible to others. Through fairly substantial lifestyle changes, I haven't had issues in more than a decade.

I hope everyone in this thread (and the author) is able to become well enough to return to their lives.

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I had severe sciatica from ages 25-30 and it was like another lifetime. I don’t know where it came from or where it went, but that was a remarkably worse period of my life.

Reflecting on it I wish I wasn’t dragged down so much. But in all honesty I think I’d handle it even worse now. It was agonizing at times. I remember laying on the floor squirming in pain, no idea what to do. Hours of it. Thinking about it makes me a little anxious. I should be more grateful that I’m healthy again.

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.

1. https://www.backfitpro.com/books/back-mechanic-the-mcgill-me...

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.

This might be late but thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response.

You’re very welcome - I really hope you find some relief and recovery. Stay curious and I’m sure you’ll find something that helps.

Someone I know is dealing with sciatica now and it's not going well, do you have any insights on what helped you?

I had disabling sciatica for a year and I thought a break from work would do me good; perhaps 3 months of exercise, no slouching over a computer, no deadlines, etc. would improve the situation. Nothing worked. In desperation, I consulted many, many specialists, even chiropractors, but nope, no change.

Alas, I had banked on _something_ changing in 3 months, so I had planned a walking holiday in Western Ireland (Dingle) before rejoining work. I wasn't prepared to cancel the tickets, so I went anyway. I took along a plywood board to help me sit angled on the seat to avoid having to sit at right angles!

Started the walk on The Dingle Way in a dubious frame of mind. I knew I was doing it only because I was too cheap to cancel tickets. Then magic happened. The place is so exquisitely beautiful that I walked 25 kms on the first day, even sharing a backpack with my wife. That evening, everything was hurting, but not in the usual places I had been conditioned to expect. The sciatica was GONE! I couldn't believe it, but it didn't recur the next morning. It has been 20 years now.

It is possible mine was a simple case that just required a structural realignment. But I had tried walking before, and many other strategies to improve posture etc. In hindsight, the only difference is that my brain in Ireland was fully engaged in the beauty of the place and people, and disengaged from the pain. Perhaps exercising my back without being focused on a cure is what worked. Who knows? Perhaps this anecdote is of some value to your friend.

Thank you, Ireland!

My situation was unusual, so I'm not sure my solutions would generalize. Sciatica in teens is very unusual. The cause, likely, was a series of fairly involved surgeries I had had as a young child combined with overuse. None of the orthopedists I saw were particularly sure about the cause, nor were the physical therapists.

The long term solution was to avoid triggers and increase core strength. The short term solution was NSAIDs and correcting sleep posture (getting an 8-9 hour reprieve from loading the muscles that spasm remains very helpful).

Long-distance running was a trigger for me (particularly running slowly, oddly enough), so I haven't run in basically a decade. I used to run 5 days a week. It was pretty clearly part of my identity.

Years later, I picked up rock climbing (2-3 days a week) and my problems incidentally went away. Whenever I stop climbing for a while, I get periodic minor flare-ups. Fortunately, the short term fixes can nip this in the bud, particularly if I start exercising again.

I don't know the details of their situation, but I would encourage them to seek out a physical therapist. And to change therapists if it doesn't work. It took me a while to find someone that could actually help. I have no idea why the first therapists did not suggest improving sleep posture.

Not the OP, but I also had sciatica as a teen. In my case, it was caused by a chair whose seat was not level; it tilted slightly to the side. It went on for a year or two, I think. Eventually I realized what the cause was, got rid of the chair, and the pain gradually got better until it went away completely.

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