Is Surgery for Sciatica the Answer to Your Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief?
It is a question that anyone with sciatic nerve pain has asked themselves at some point. Is surgery the only way I can finally get rid of this horrible sciatica back pain?
When it comes to sciatica and lower back pain, there really is no easy answer. The ultimate choice is, of course, yours alone. But there are some areas of sciatic nerve pain relief that you should be looking at before you do anything drastic. The last thing you want to do is make your sciatica back pain worse.
How can you Know if you are Ready for Surgery?
People don't come to the surgery conclusion lightly. It is usually after months of desperately searching for relief from that awful sciatic nerve and low back pain. Usually, people considering surgery are frustrated, tired, and would do almost anything for relief. They are starting to feel like they will never have that sciatic nerve pain relief without surgery.
Still though, surgery is a risky business in itself, it is after all, surgery. Before you decide to go ahead with it, you need to be sure that it will give you real nerve pain relief.
Do not be sure that surgery is your answer because your doctor has promised you that it will work. Be sure that you need surgery because you know that you have done everything else to find sciatica pain relief on your own.
What Should You be Asking Yourself?
1 - Why do You Have Sciatica? - you can actually have sciatica for many reasons. But usually, you have sciatic nerve pain for one of two reasons. Pinched Sciatica and Sciatica Piriformis Syndrome.
When dealing with a pinched sciatic nerve, usually there is a bad disc involved. While there are treatments that will give you sciatic nerve pain relief, (such as spinal decompression and seated massage), usually a bad disc is the most common reason people have surgery for sciatica. That is not saying that it is 'your time', or that you even need it. But it is more common for people in your situation.
If your sciatic nerve pain and low back pain is because of piriformis syndrome, there are many other treatment options available to you. You can usually skip the surgery route and take care of your sciatica back pain in other ways.
2 - Have You Tried All the Non Invasive Procedures Available to You? - surgery for sciatica is considered 'minimally invasive'. To most people, 'minimally invasive' means that is is no big deal. But the reality of this 'minimally invasive' procedure is that your pain is likely to return at some point. And once you have had surgery for sciatica, your odds of needing another surgery down the road are pretty great.
Be sure that you have tried all of the supplements, food changes, chiropractic and massage therapies, everything ut there that is non invasive before you consider anything else. If you try something non invasive and it does not work, no big deal. You look for something else and move on.
But what if you try something 'minimally invasive' and it does not work?
That stays with your body much longer and you will have to wait before you try another treatment. Even spinal injections, which are also considered minimally invasive, have chemicals in them that can take weeks to leave your body. In other words, if the injections don't work, not only can you be in pain for weeks, but you will also have to wait until the chemicals are totally out of your system before you can really know if another treatment will work for you.
3 - Do you Really Know What Surgery is Like? - if you have thought about these questions, and you think that you really need surgery for sciatica in order to get any real sciatica nerve pain relief, then you should know what to expect.
There are many types of sciatica surgeries out there. They range from minimally invasive to very invasive. When it comes to this type of back surgery, there can be a lot of ground to cover.
So we will stick with the minimally invasive stuff that involves sciatica due to disc problems, after all, this is the most common reason for surgery.
What to expect after surgery:
* You will be given pain killers to control your post surgery pain. However, your actual sciatic nerve pain relief will probably be felt as soon as you wake.
* The first week you will be tired, but this will most likely be due to your post surgery medication.
* This is usually considered an in and out procedure. But the actual recover time can be 3-4 weeks.
* It is a good idea to take digestive enzymes after surgery. They will help with healing and inflammation.
* You will most likely be encouraged to start doing some light activity after the first couple of days.
Surgery for sciatica is not an easy choice. It is very hard to live with sciatica pain. Finding sciatic nerve pain relief can seem just as hard.
Dear Doctor
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