Surprising News From Ortho Doc – BionicOldGuy

I saw my new orthopedic doctor for the first time today (my previous one had retired). I got surprising news: I have sciatica from my back (not the hip, such as piriformis muscle). An mri of my back shows bulging lumber disk and spinal stenosis, right where the sciatic nerve comes out on the left side. The condition is moderate so under normal conditions the nerve is not compressed. But anything the inflames the disk can compress the disk and cause sciatica. This explains why I got my first symptoms of sciatica after exercising too strenuously about a month ago. Then it calmed down after a couple of weeks, and I flared it up again with more exercise. It also explains why the PT exercises I’ve been doing, which are both for the piriformis muscle and the SI joint, didn’t work as well as they did in the past because they are not directly targeting the lumbar spine. For now he’s going to start me on a course of prednisone, which he thinks will do the trick because the sciatica has already calmed down a lot. I’m allowed to exercise, including riding my bike and PT exercises, as long as there is no sign of sciatica. I will start to add more intensity and back off as needed. I will also look into PT exercises specifically for the lumbar area there is a good reference here). I’d like to build up the muscles in this area so it’s less fragile in the future.