Pain

OMG - That Effing Hurts!

From the OAFSSRFTOTN:

Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression or irritation of one of five spinal nerve roots that give rise to each sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the left or right or both sciatic nerves. Symptoms include lower back pain, buttock pain, and pain, numbness or weakness in various parts of the leg and foot. Other symptoms include pins and needles or tingling and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg. Typically, the symptoms are only felt on one side of the body.

Although sciatica is a relatively common form of low back and leg pain, the true meaning of the term is often misunderstood. Sciatica is a set of symptoms rather than a diagnosis for what is irritating the root of the nerve, causing the pain. The treatment for sciatica or sciatic symptoms often differs, depending upon the underlying cause and pain levels. Causes include compression of the sciatic nerve roots caused by a herniated (torn) or protruding disc in the lower back.

Yes, mes amis, I am suffering through a bout of "sciatica". It is no fun, no fun whatsoever.

I've been to the doctor, about a week back (cue pun, now) and was told that there didn't seem to be any disc slippage or herniation of said discs. I had probably just "moved wrong".

Well, that's possible. A couple of days prior to the pain arriving, I was carrying something which was not heavy, but was awkward to handle. In shifting this burden from one arm to the other, something may have been tweaked. Couldn't rightly recall, I was at work and I was somewhat "busy".

I've had back issues in the past (back issues? like old Sports Illustrateds, old Reader's Digests?) and normally they would go away after a bit. Not this time. And that sucks, sucks big time it does.

The meds the doc gave me (anti-inflammation type stuff) were something I'd taken in the past. And they fixed me right up, no sweatie-da. This time all they did was make me unable to sleep. Over a week's time I was averaging about two hours of sleep a day. But not in a single night, more like:

Sunday Night = no sleep
Monday Night = four hours
Tuesday Night = no sleep

Your Humble Scribe was starting to go all frayed and distracted. Go figure. So after consultation with the doc, I stopped taking the anti-inflammation stuff and just pop a muscle relaxant before bedtime. Ah, sweet blessed sleep.

But no relief on the sciatica.

Oh, and for those of you playing medico in your heads right now, another piece of information. I quit smoking on the 4th of November, 2012. I'm still smoke-free after four months. The only problem is, weight-wise I gained the equivalent of a two year old kid. And not a skinny two year old kid, a hefty one.

So yes dear reader, that weight gain is definitely a factor.

So it's more stretching, dieting (arrgghh) and probably another trip to the doc.

I would say that it sucks getting old but all reports seem to indicate that it beats the alternative. At least I remain on the sun-ward side of the grass.

I'd whine more about the pain, but blogger-in-arms Kris in New England (you can read her stuff here) knows pain. Compared to what she's been through, my pain can be classified with a simple -

Meh*

*Indifference; to be used when one simply does not care.

Yes, I put that on the Acronym page.