I’m cautiously optimistic that my sciatica is a thing of the past. It’s been about 7 weeks of deep tissue massage, chiropractic adjustments, electronic stimulation (the first few weeks) and area specific exercises. In those 7 weeks, we turned the condition around.

I don’t have a hint of pain, numbness or leg tingling. I’m able to move freely and pain-free. It’s a great feeling.

Preventing a Re-occurrence

It is my goal to continue to perform the exercises necessary to maintain the muscles that had become lax and contributed to my sciatic condition. You see, the condition didn’t “just happen” one day. Although the sciatic pain seemed to have occurred overnight and gave no prior warning, that wasn’t the case.

Like a jagged rock caught in a waterfall, my sciatic condition occurred over time. The jagged rock that finds itself embedded in a waterfall will eventually become smooth. The constant flow of water wears away the rough spots to leave a smooth rounded stone.

Mistake Colossal

According to Jim Rhon, “A few small errors repeated every day will lead to mistake colossal.” Well, sitting at the computer day after day combined with lack of physical activity contributed to my sciatic condition.

Certain muscles tightened to compensate for the weakening of other muscles. It continued for an extended period of time until I finally felt the pain and numbness.

I can’t say how long it took to get to the breaking point, but I’d say it was a few years in the making. Some years I was more active than others, but never enough to fully reverse the damage done.

Road to Recovery

The first two weeks were painful and I doubted that things would ever get better. By the end of week 3, I had a glimmer of hope. Now that it’s 7 weeks into the therapy, I’m down to one visit a week (soon to be released) and I feel great.

It was a long road, but considering it took years for the condition to develop, a few weeks of therapy is but a blink of an eye in comparison. One thing this experience has done is it has heightened my awareness of my posture, my activity level or lack thereof. I’ve discontinued the bad habits that caused my painful condition.

What Sciatica Taught Me

I feel very fortunate about the outcome of my sciatic condition. If you wake up one day with sciatic pain and cannot figure out how or why it occurred, there’s a good chance you did much to contribute to the condition.

I was fortunate enough to find a qualified chiropractor that believed in the total body approach instead of spinal manipulation only. My advice to you is to search long and hard to find the right health professional to resolve your sciatic issue. I wasted many months with a chiropractor that meant well, but didn’t employ the whole body wellness philosophy that I needed to get better.

Resolving a sciatica condition is a team effort but you’ve got to find the right coach.