Sharing the sciatic experience

Hubby and I like to share experiences: traveling, ethnic meals, audiobooks, and hobbies.
We didn’t exactly share sciatic nerve pain (SNP), we just both have had episodes.
I began with nagging pain after years of typing at work. I tried stretching and shaking off that chronic, annoying leg pain. At a fast food joint, a traveling chiropractor observed my dance and said, “I don’t practice here, but you have a compressed vertebrae and need to see a chiropractor.”
Tried it. Was not impressed.
I discovered the walking app on my phone. I decided to walk 10,000 steps every day for a month. Sometimes I walked circles through my house at 11 p.m. to reach the goal. Sometimes I walked circles around the empty receiving area at work. The pain disappeared.
My walking breaks caught the attention of a supervisor who approached me with a questioning look.
I simply said, “My back aches. My leg hurts. Walking helps.”
Hubby had no clue about SNP until it hit. He found relief at the chiropractor. At its worst, he went to the medical clinic. He received a prescription for the pain. He took one dose, said it did not work and insisted he go to the Emergency Room.
I drove him there. He leaned heavily on a cane walking in and painfully crawled onto the exam table. They asked, “Have you tried any pain medication?”
“Yes, but nothing touches my pain,” he grimaced. The doctor left and returned with a hypodermic. Hubby moaned. He hates shots. The doctor plunged it into him anyway as he sat there bending over in pain. “Nothing touches my … oh!” I saw every muscle in his body immediately relax.
He practically skipped out. I carried the cane to our van.
SNP didn’t bother me again until three or four years ago after hip surgery. It hit fiercely with excruciating pain down the leg below the new hip. X-rays blamed it on injured vertebrae not the surgery.
I tried to tough it out by walking and resting. Nothing worked. I cried “uncle” the day I took baby steps down the hall to the kitchen clinging to the wall. I collapsed at the counter ready to eat. I just needed a fork from the drawer four steps away. I looked at my food. I looked at the drawer. I decided I would rather eat with my fingers than walk four steps. The doctor prescribed 30 days of steroids.
They worked!
And I worked. I was so ramped up in the middle of the night I sewed. I cleaned. I sorted. I cooked. I did not sleep. I ate and ruined the perfect diet I had followed for two years.
So we shared the common experience of excruciating SNP.
He found herbal drops that he took for years and proclaimed they were a cure.
A couple months ago, I entered another SNP episode. I walked, I took over the counter painkillers. I added his herbal drops to my regimen. The only thing that eased the pain was sitting on the old fashioned hard bench that came with my grandmother’s sewing machine. Walking helped a lot. Sewing for at least 15 minutes erased the pain every time. The down side came when I stood up and my stiff arthritic joints protested the first few steps. I received a couple prescriptions to “take as needed” that also helped.
I mentioned “the cure” to other seamstresses. They shook their heads. Similar benches hurt their backs. Well, whatever suits.
The right chair, posture and time and I am good to go anywhere except to a cushy lounge chair or welcoming bed. Laying down requires three or four pillows to prop my back and legs. After two hours of sleep I am awake, ready to walk circles and sew in the middle of the night.
It’s not all bad. I have completed several sewing projects, registered 7,000 to 10,000 steps every day and again shared a common experience with my husband.