It's not sciatica!

erpurr · March 2010

I have been religiously stretching to avoid a recurrence of sciatica that happened earlier on. About a week ago, it seemed like the stretches were no longer working and I was having a lot of pain again. I called my sister, a PT, to see if heat or ice was better and she suggested that it may not even be sciatica at all, but rather sacroiliac joint pain (caused by loosening of the ligaments combined with the extra weight and pressure). She suggested that I wrap an ace bandage around my hips (not too tight) at the level of the pain and see if it helped. (They also make bands specifically for this.) All I have to say is WOW! I feel so much better!

So, to get to my point...

If you're having a lot of pain that you think might be sciatica in 3rd tri, but none of the traditional stretches/treatments for sciatica are helping, ask your doctor, the fix may be as simple as an ace wrap or SI band. Hope this helps some of you as much as it helped me!

Mrs.B6302007 · March 2010

Interesting...my right hip doesn't seem to respond to any of my stretches so I was beginning to think that it's not sciatica. Is the band an Rx or can it be picked up OTC?

acaudill042106 · March 2010

Im glad you posted this...i'm going to have to try this. My whole right side hurts...butt cheek...hip...and down my thigh. Ive been trying different positions all morning trying to relieve some of it. Standing like a flamingo w/ pressure on that leg helps some.

erpurr · March 2010

Mrs.B6302007:
Interesting...my right hip doesn't seem to respond to any of my stretches so I was beginning to think that it's not sciatica. Is the band an Rx or can it be picked up OTC?

The bands are RX but until I talk to my doc on Monday, I'm just using a 3" wide ace wrap and that's helping a lot.

julie-n-ryan · March 2010

This sounds fantastic! My SI joint has been hurting SO bad. I have actually found some online that don't require a Rx (medical equipment doesn't generally need a Rx unless you are wanting insurance to pay for it). https://www.activeortho.com/si_belt_for_sacroiliac_pain.html https://www.nexuseu.com/shop/shop.php?action=full&id=23 I just googled 'SI joint support belt pregnancy'. These were the first two that came up. There were also some pregnancy specific exercises/stretches for the SI joint, but I haven't looked at them yet. Side note: if you are having any radiation of pain or tingling into your leg, it probably is sciatic nerve related. The SI joint pain should be pretty localized.

julie-n-ryan · March 2010

Sorry, there were actually spaces between paragraphs. I guess that's what happens when you bump from the iPhone.

whitsim · March 2010

Good tip. I had been having pretty terrible localized pain in my way-lower back, too, but since it wasn't shooting up and down; the doctor said that it wasn't sciatica. He said that it was an issue of my spine wanting to be vertical and follow my normal good posture versus my stomach, etc. that wants to grow horizontal. He suggested special supportive garments, or something. So many people are so quick to judge any little back pain as sciatica, so it's good when they actually learn what the problem truly is AND find a remedy that works for them.

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It's not sciatica!

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